– Ymer Minxhozi, Chapter from “Israel: Mercenary of Imperialism” –
In the autumn of 1957, at a time when Syria was threatened by an aggression in which Israel was to participate, the international press revealed the details of a strategic plan by the Israeli General Staff. This plan sheds light on Israel’s current policies and the June aggression against the United Arab Republic, Jordan and Syria.
The Israeli General Staff’s plan provided a detailed analysis of the political and economic situation of the country and its neighbours, while also assessing the military potential and readiness for war of both sides. The operational plans of the general staff of any state reflect, in a concentrated form, the goals of the ruling class of that state. Therefore, to better understand Israel’s current position and the stance of its supporters, it is worthwhile to mention some details of this plan.
The plan stated: “The main objective of the state of Israel consists of gathering all Jews, scattered across various countries of the world, which requires a permanent emigration to Israel within a generation.” (Two years later, on January 31, 1959, in a speech in Rehovot, former Minister of Defence Shimon Peres stated that the mass immigration of Jews would allow Israel to call up an army of one million people, at which point “no Arab state would be able to withstand it.”) Along with the task of doubling the population, the plan also emphasized the necessity of expanding Israel’s territory at the expense of neighbouring countries. Recognizing that this territorial expansion could only be achieved through war, the authors of the plan also outlined military operations aimed at a redivision of the Arab world: “The main goal is to seize Arab territories, establish our control there, and allocate the material resources to the Jewish population and national minorities living in Israel’s territory.” The plan envisioned the annexation of territories stretching to the Suez Canal, along the Litani River and as far as the Persian Gulf. Moreover, according to the authors of the plan, this was only the “minimum program.”
Regarding the territories that should become part of the state of Israel (along with their corresponding justifications), the strategists in the General Staff in Tel Aviv write the following: “Southern Zone: The Gaza region. The occupation of this region guarantees the security of our vital centres, creates the possibility of controlling the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula, and ensures access to the port of Eilat. The Sinai Peninsula: The occupation of the Sinai Peninsula will prevent an Egyptian attack, as Egypt itself will face the risk of an assault from our side. Eastern Zone: The West Bank (the triangle), Mount Hiron, including the desert region. The occupation of these territories enables Israel to strengthen its borders with Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Northern Zone: Galilee-Hermon-Litani. An attack in this region allows for the capture of these sectors: Hermon, Laja, Yarmouk and Northern Galilee, up to the Litani River.”
Furthermore, the Israeli General Staff’s strategic plan envisioned the creation of several new states, which, by being in constant conflict with one another, would weaken to the point of becoming satellites of Israel. The plan stated: “To destroy Arab unity and intensify sectarian disputes among them, measures should be taken at the beginning of the war to create several new states on Arab territory: a Druze state (the desert and Mount Tadmor); a Shiite state (in the Eretz and Asher regions of Lebanon); a Maronite state (the mountain ranges of Lebanon up to the current northern border of Lebanon); an Alawite state (Latakia to the Turkish border); a Kurdish state (northern Iraq); and a state or autonomous district for the Copts. Arab territory (including the desert) will be divided among these aforementioned states.”
According to this plan, the following territories would remain Arab: Damascus, Southern Iraq, Egypt, and the central and southern parts of Saudi Arabia. “It is desirable for these territories to be separated from one another by a broad, non-Arab corridor.” The plan also accounted for the possibility of Israel’s defeat if it acted alone in implementing this strategy. Therefore, it outlined a special role for the United States, Britain and other imperialist countries, which would immediately come to Israel’s aid. The plan emphasized: “The United States of America is interested in a confrontation between Israel and the Arab countries, and therefore, they will support Israel if it starts a war with the Arab nations. The U.S. interest in the strategic points of the Middle East is explained by its aim to strengthen its position in this oil-rich region.”
Additionally, it stated: “During the war, the main source of dollar reserves will come from the United States.”
Further, the Israeli General Staff’s plan also outlined methods for orchestrating propaganda and creating a smokescreen to conceal the true reasons behind the launch of a military attack against Arab countries. At the time, the Israeli government attempted to deny the existence of this plan. However, shortly after, several foreign press outlets published the full text. Following this, Tel Aviv opted for silence. In truth, even before the publication of this plan, David Ben-Gurion’s government had already revealed its intentions. As early as 1950, Ben-Gurion openly declared: “We must fight enthusiastically, both on the path of conquests and on the front of diplomacy, to thus create the Israeli empire (emphasis mine — YM), which would encompass all the lands between the Nile and the Euphrates.” This call was repeated by Moshe Dayan in a radio address in 1952: “The burden of preparing for war falls once again on the Israeli army. It must accomplish the ultimate goal: the establishment of the Israeli empire.”
Such declarations continued in subsequent years. The Israeli magazine Haboker, in its April 1964 issue, published a statement by Ben-Gurion in which he said: “The territory of Israel would have been much larger if Moshe Dayan had been the head of the General Staff in 1948.”
This compliment from the former Prime Minister toward the general, who had been trained in British officer schools, sparked heated debates at the time. Senior officers who commanded the Israeli army during the first war against the Arabs sought instead to shift the blame onto Ben-Gurion himself. One of them, the current Minister of Labour, Allon, wrote: “When the Minister of Defence (at that time, the Minister of Defence was Ben-Gurion) ordered a ceasefire, our armies were on the verge of achieving brilliant victories on all fronts — from the Litani in the north to the Sinai in the south. If the war had continued for just a few more days, we would have crushed the Arab armies and liberated all of our national territory” (!?).
From these two statements, it becomes clear that even the borders of 1964 were far from satisfactory for the Israeli Zionist leaders. According to them, Israel’s “national border” and its “historical lands” extend far beyond Palestine. Zionist leaders have a completely different understanding of the map of Palestine, one that is entirely at odds with what is recognized and accepted in all geography textbooks. These ambitions of Zionist leaders have deep roots. In Theodor Herzl’s Memoirs, it is explicitly stated that the goal of the Jews is the “revival of the Palestine of David and Solomon.” In the second volume of his Memoirs, while discussing negotiations with the Turks over the creation of a “Jewish homeland,” Herzl wrote: “The Turkish government asked us to pay 40 million francs. In exchange, they offered to grant us a concession to build a railway from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, and to allow us to establish colonies in Palestine on a territory of 70,000 square kilometres.”
The founder of Zionism, Herzl, even back then, envisioned Palestine as covering 70,000 square kilometres, although in all the geographic maps of the time — when Palestine was under the British Mandate — it never exceeded 26,000 square kilometres. Nevertheless, Herzl, to clarify his ambitions further, wrote elsewhere in his Memoirs: “The territory of Israel must stretch from the Nile to the Euphrates, although initially, for purposes of consolidation, a transitional period will be necessary… As soon as the Jewish population comprises two-thirds of the total population, it will be possible to establish Jewish political domination.”
In 1917, a Zionist organization supported by the British published a magazine entitled Palestine. This magazine focussed primarily on “explaining” the borders of the “future Jewish homeland.” In an article entitled “The Borders of Palestine,” published on February 15, 1917, the magazine wrote: “The borders we refer to are the borders of tomorrow’s Palestine. The lands we need include the inheritance of the 12 Israelite tribes mentioned in the Bible. In addition to these, we also need other territories to ensure the unity and security of our homeland. Here are our borders: to the west — the Mediterranean Sea; to the north and east — a line stretching from the north to Sidon, and in the south to Damascus, descending to Tiberias and the Dead Sea…” The current Israeli government, throughout its existence, has taken these aspirations of the founders of the Zionist organization into account and has regarded the borders of the state of Israel as temporary — as a transitional phase that must be overcome. The students remain loyal to their teacher. The only difference between the statements and Memoirs published half a century ago and the strategic plan of the Israeli General Staff, as cited above, is that the latter is more concretely defined and is now being implemented. With the third large-scale aggression against Arab countries in June 1967, the state of Israel nearly tripled its territory compared to what it held as of June 4, 1967 (see Map No. 3). Under Israeli military occupation the Sinai Peninsula, the entire West Bank of the Jordan River, Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and part of Syria fell.
This new expansion into Arab territories further intoxicated Zionist leaders, both in Tel Aviv and beyond Israel. The noise and chauvinist slogans reached a new level. “The invincibility” of Israel, “the genius” of Dayan, “the realization of the dream” — these themes filled the pages of the Zionist press and the screens of cinemas endlessly. Tel Aviv radio told its listeners: “For decades to come, military academies will glorify Israel’s air operations as the finest example of military art, comparable only to the decisive successes of the German Luftwaffe during the 1939 attack on Poland.”
We, too, could not find a more fitting comparison for the Israeli criminals than the Hitlerite bands.
In the statements of Eshkol, Dayan and other Jewish leaders, there is a remarkably rapid escalation toward their ultimate objective — retaining the occupied territories and even expanding them further in the future.
A few hours before the Israeli army launched its new attack on Arab countries, on the evening of June 4, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol gave a speech on national television. Observers noted that the Prime Minister appeared very tired and nervous. Struggling to control himself, he stated: “Israel does not want to seize even one inch of Arab land. Its main goal is to live in peace with its Arab neighbours.”
In reality, the decision to start the war against the United Arab Republic, Jordan and Syria had been made, as was later revealed, 36 hours before Eshkol gave this speech. Only a few weeks later, Tel Aviv began escalating its territorial claims on Arab countries. From declarations such as “we do not want even one inch of Arab land,” they shifted to: “We will keep Jerusalem at any cost.” Later, the Israeli government leaders began speaking about the “borders” of 1967, until Eshkol eventually declared: “There is no more natural border than the Suez Canal.” Moshe Dayan, who sets the tone for Tel Aviv’s policies, speaking before the congress of the RAFI party, known for its chauvinism, listed the ancient Jewish cities mentioned in the Bible and said: “We need the land where our ancestors were born.” He “warned” the Arabs with brutal clarity: if they attempt to reclaim their lost lands, the Israeli army will head for Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad and Amman.
Amid these chauvinist outbursts, the theory of “Lebensraum” (living space), borrowed from Hitler, is once again re-emerging. Emotional appeals are being made to Jews in the “diaspora” (Jews living in other countries) to come to Israel and populate the occupied territories so the world will be faced with a fait accompli. In Tel Aviv and Washington, plans are being drafted once again for a “federation of Middle Eastern states,” with Israel as its nucleus. Some points from the Israeli General Staff’s 1957 strategic plan are resurfacing. For instance, General Allon, the Minister of Labour, lamented that during the attack on Syria, the objective of capturing the Jebel Druze region and establishing an “autonomous government” there was not achieved. On November 23, 1967, in an article in the magazine Ot (the organ of the “Mapai” party), General Allon wrote: “We made a mistake by not attacking Syria earlier, but only on the fifth day of the war… Because of these hesitations, Israel lost its only opportunity to capture Jebel Druze and establish an autonomous government there that would have been ready to cooperate with us.”
The military victory has so intoxicated the Zionist chauvinists that they have lost all sense of reality.
Ymer Minxhozi was an Albanian journalist, editor of Radio-Tirana and the New Albania magazine.