ABSTRACT
Historically, the Middle East had been far more important to the UK than the Far East. Outside of Europe, nowhere was more crucial to British security in the immediate post-war period. One of the primary post-war issues in the region concerned the future of Palestine. Although the Soviet interest in the region prior to the Second World War had been negligible, this quickly changed in 1945 as the victors vied for post-war influence. The Middle East was a central strategic issue which dictated a need to hold a firm line against any Soviet advance. The Soviet presence was limited; but in the rise of both Arab and Jewish nationalism the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) perceived a Soviet subversive influence. For the JIC, the growing signs of discontent with the British in the Middle East were not simply reactions to increased communist presence in the region, but symptoms of the wider Cold War confrontation playing out on a new front.
