ABSTRACT
Soviet commentary on plans for a regional military bloc dwelt at length upon the animosities, conflicting interests, mutual grievances and rivalries of its various prospective partners. The insistence on the Soviet-Arab identity of interests in the struggle against the West and its local agents was a corollary of the Soviet emphasis on the contradiction of interests between the West and the Arabs concerning an anti-Soviet regional alliance. Neither the regional nor the global interests and objectives of the USSR can be ignored in a study of Soviet-Israeli relations. The implications for these relations of the changes that occurred in the Soviet attitude toward the Arab states in the period May 1949-March 1953 should not be evaded. Developments in the Middle Eastern and global arenas gave a practical content as well as direction to this activity within the framework created to implement Soviet foreign policy objectives.
