TRENDS IN COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA SUPPLEMENT ON THE MIDDLE EAST:

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85T00875R000300030043-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 7, 1999
• Sequence Number: 43
• Publication Date: October 15, 1970
• Content Type: REPORT

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Confidential
IIIIIIU~~~~~~~IIIIIIII
FOREIGN
BROADCAST
INFORMATION
SERVICE
~~~~~~IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlII~~~~~~
RAN
~~
in COf12Yf2unlJt ~YOpa~~ndr~
SUPPLEMENT
ON THE MIDDLE EAST:
MOSCOW COMMENTARY DISPARAGES IC~EA OF WEST SANK STATE
NEW TIMES ASSESSES JORDAN, CEN~iURES PALESTINI,'~N "EXTREMISTS"
NEYv TIMES ACKNOWLEDGES EXISTENCE OF COMMUNIST GUERRILLA GROUP
Confidential
15 October 1970
(VOL. XXI, No. ul)
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CONI'!L')LNTIAL
This propaganda analysts report is based e~.:-
clusively on material carried in communist
broadcast and press media. It is published
by FBIB without coordination with other U.B.
Quvernment components.
WARNING
This document contains information affecting
the national defense! of the United Btates,
within the meaning of Title 18, sections 793
and 794, of the US Code, as amended. Its
transmission or revelation of its contents to
or receipt by an unauthorized person is pro-
hibited by law.
~CNOUP ~
E~tlud~d Irom auleinalle
do.nproding and
dulo~,ifeaUen
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CONF':1:DENTIAL I+'BIS TRENDS SIIPPLEMI;N'Z'
15 OCTOBER 1970
1
THE PIDDLE EAST
MOSCOUJ COMMENTARY DISP/,RAGES IDEA OF UJEST BANI< STATE
Moscow has recently broadcast one of its rare commentaries
touching on the idea of a Palestinian state. This commentary,
by Yeliseyev in the domestic service on 11 October, follows
the usual pattern of past references in treating the idea
as an Israeli concept and therefore inherently suspect. In
the first known acknowledgment of the notion iti Soviet media,
following the June 1967 war, a PRAVDA article by Primakov
in December of that year cited a remark by an Israeli
cabinet minister as registering Tel Aviv's "intention to
cz~eate a puppet 'Arab' buffer state on the occupied
territories."
The Yeliseyev commentary now takes note of "reports from
Tel Aviv" that the Israeli Government has been considering
alternative "measures" for consolidating the Arab territories,
? especially the idea of creating "some kind of state" on ?the
West Bank of the Jordan River. Supporters of this plan,
Yeliseyev says, believe that the granting of self-government
to the West Bank would automatically preclude the ret,~arn of
the region to Jordan. The plan's proponents also believe
it "should end the idea of a partisan movement of the
Palestinian Arabs" because they would have a self-governed
territory, he adds. The commentary concludes, without
elaboration, that Israeli "expansionism" and annexationist
aspirations are "clearly perceptible" behind .the plan, which
is simply another variation of "numerous projects for
territorial acquisiticn" nurtuz?ed by Israel.
While Moscow has usually ascribed the idea of a separate
state to Israel and suggested that the motive would be to
create an ostensibly Arab state that would in fact be sub,~ect
to Israeli control, a SOVIET RUSSIA article in Aprii 1969
mentioned without comment?a favorable assessment by
Lebanese politician Junblatt of the possibility of a state
"wit2ain the historical borders of Palestine" encompassing
both +Tews and Arabs. Later Yn the same month, SOVIET
RUSSI~~ quoted Fatah members ofi their aim of destroying the
Israeli state and crating a new Palestinian state; on this
occasion, the paper observed that the Palestinian aims of
liquidating the state of Israel and "creating a 'democratic
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CONFIAENTIAJ., T'BIS TRENDS SUPPLEMENT
15 ocTOB~;R 1g7o
Palestinian state' do not appear practicable." It is
doubtful, the paper added, whether it is now possible to
turn the clock back and. create a united Palestinian people
of Jews and Arabs.
Moscow's only known profession of approval for the idea, of
a Palestinian Arab state came in a broadcast of the
purportedly unofficial Radio Peace and Progress in Yiddish
to Israel in August 1969. The broadcast asserted that
people from all walks of life in Israel now understood
that dnly real peace with the Araba, including solution
of the refugee problem, could bring security for Israel.
It added that "an Arab state in Palestine would be e, real
step toward a political solution of the Middle East
problem" and that the creation of such an Arab State could
bring lasting peace and security to Israel. Supporters
of such an idea, the broadcast said, had pointed out that
as a result of the Juz-e 1967 'war "Palestine had been
restored to its 1947 frontiers and therefore the creation
of an Arab state in "Palestine would not necessarily cause
difficulties now."
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CONFIDENTIAL FBIS TRENDS SUPPLE ANT
15 OCTOBER 1970
NEW TIMES ASSESSES JORDAN. CRNSURES PAIJ:STINIAN "EXTREMISTS"
NLW TIMES writers Volskiy and Usvatov take the recent "internecine
war" in Jordan--the danger of which, they sa,y, was long predicted
by "progressives"--as a peg to present a review of the history
of the country. The article--in issue No. 39, Russian edition
25 September--presents an essentially even-handed account of
the tensi~~ns between the Palestinian xefugees and the Jordan
Government. Observing that half of +,he population of Jordan
came from the former British-mandated territory of Palestine, the
authors note that the numbe7~ of Palestine refugees increased
still more after the June 1967 war and Israel's occupation of
the Wk:st Bank.
While the authors note, as Moq;ow propaganda has done in the
past, that Israel has tried. to hole .Ior~?Qn responsible for the
activities of the fedayeen, they are notably forthright in
pointing to the Palestinians' "complEte freedom of action" in
Jordan and the government's difficulty in exercising control.
They observe that tensions were worsened after the government's
decision to suppc,rt the three-month cease-fire and the
resumption of the Jarring mission--when the "majority" of the
Palestinian orga,nizatioi~s "came out against the Egyptian
in.~.tiative and against apolitical settlement in the Middle
East altogether."
The authors then remark on the "social and political heterogeneity"
and "organizational. disunity" of the Palestinian movement itself.
Through the proxy of the French Communist Party organ L'HUMANITE,
they level Moscow's most outspoken criticism of George Habbash,
head of the Pnp~alar Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Criticizing "certain forces" for trying to impose "extremist
slogans" and corresponding "adventurist tactics" on the
Palestinian movement, they point specifically to the hijacking
of civilian aircr~:ft by the PFLP and the holding of the
passengers as hostages. They quote L'HUMANITE as saying that
"'inadmi:;sible statements" like the one made by Habbash, "who
talks lightheartedly about the possibility of a third world
war," play the same role "as the utterances of ash-Shugayri"
did in June 1967. Former Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO) chairman a;ah-Shu.gayri had beeiz assailed by Moscow in a
Mandarin-language broadcast in January 1968 as an "extremist
among extremis?~" ~:~ho had been warmly received in Peking and
whose attempts to apply Mao's "singular policy and dogmatic
formula" to the Arab East had harmed th.e PLO.
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CONFTDLN'1'T/~ L I'DT~ '1'RF,rJr.~~ r;Ul~'.F L]sN'LPl'.C
15 UCTUL'LR 1970
-4-
7.'he authors cite ar-uther' French pape,c~, LA 1JATIOPI, #'or trit vi~:w
that? o:ctremists #'rcan both. the goverr-m~.;rrt and fedayecrr a;:~mi~.c
have become the real rnasters o:f the situ~~tion. They nc,tc rlui;
only Jordan's ccrupaNr internal situu,tiwi, 'but also its
"important geugraph9.cal position" borCirrir,g. on "such
poli~ically dissimilar" countries as :Cr.aq, Syria,-end Saudi
Arat,~ a, , as well as Israel, and with T.ra,gi. and Sauc~?1 forces
stationed on its territory. And they ubse-:rve that a.cc~~:r.?~lir~~g
to a "leadiryg Paleet:tnina f~.gur~"---t,~~l?. idelitified-?-thc
Palestinian organi~ationa operating in Jordan reflect ?th~e
political cont.ra:~t.~ irr.the,Arab world.
CONFIDEP1T7~,
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CONFIDENT:LAL FBIS TRENDS SUPPLEME'''NT
15 ocmoBER 1970
NEW TIMES ACIWC~JLEDGES EXISTENCE OF CONMUNIST GUERRILIJ~ GRc7UP
The 25 September issue of NEW TIMES contains the first known
Soviet propaganda acknowledgment of the existence of the
communist guerrilla organization Quwwat al-Ansar ("Partisan.
Forces") reportedly sponsored by ?the Jordanian, Tragi,
Syrian, and Lebanese CP's. "At the request of our readers,"
NEW TIMES provides "background notes" on Jordan and the
Palestinian resistance movement, taking brief note under
the latter heading of the origins of the Palestinian
refugee problem and describing .the main Palesti~aian
organizations. It mentions that a coordinating body of the
resistance movement, the Central Committee, was set up last
June. It adds, without further expls~,nation, ths~,t this
committee "was recently joined by the Quwwat al-Ansar
guerrillR organization which was set up at the beginning of
the year."
The Beirut communist daily AN-NIDA had published on 7 Mardi
the text of a statement distributed in Jordan by "the
Jordanian communists" announcing the formation of the
guerrilla organi?~ation. The Lebanese communist weekly
AL-AKHBAR a week later, welcoming the al-Ansar, said its
formation was received with "great satisfaction" by Arab
progressive and nationalist forces and ''especially" by
the Palestine resistance. AL-AKHBAR observed that al-Ansar
was f:tghting with weapons while "continuing to resort to
various means of political struggle"--a position espoused
neither by the militant Syrians and Ira~Xis nor by the
fedayeen. Later in March the Iraqi paper ATH-THAWRAH,
while welcoming the organization "announced by certain
Arab CP's," commented that it might."even become an
obstacle " to fedayeen action and observed Wryly that i+,
would be illogical for the Arab r.ommunist parties to go
into battle "against an entity which they regard as .legal."
NEW TI1~S' brief description obscu~^es how "recently"
al-Ansar was admitted to the Central Committee. While the
group had asked to be included in various fedayeen umbrella
organizations, Arab sources in the spring and early summer
had indicated that this request was rejected, apparently
chiefly on grounds of the pro-Soviet sponsoring parties'
acceptance of the idea of apolitical settlement in the
Middle Eas+?. Thus in a 5 June statement in AN-NIDA,
al-Ansar said its forces welcomed the formation of the
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CONFIDENTIAL FDIS 'T'RENDS SUP:'LEMENT
15 ocmoBER lg7o
-~6-
resis~ance organizationc~' Urrisied Commend; "although they have
not yet ,joined it." Al-Anae,r cotnplaineci. that 9.t saw no
benefit in postponing or delaying participation in the
overall resistance establishments,,"especially 'when the
majority ~f the organizations approve 'of this." Two days
later the?Beirut AL-AKHBAR, in. an article on the dust-'
concluded session ~f the Palestine National Council ir1 Cairo,
also complained that the attitude of "certain resistance?
organizations" toward al-An~sar constituted a "big gap" in
national unity, ,especially in view of the."class, social,
and international significance" of'the participation of
al-Anear--an organization "i'ormed at'the initiative of
four Arab communist parties."
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- CONFIDENTIAL