1947, the Soviet Union joined this alliance, mainly because it preferred a Jewish state to a colonial British military base which might have easily become a missile base against the U.S.S.R. Under these political conditions, the United Nations resolved to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Arab state of Palestine never materialized, falling victim to the ambitions and intrigues of the neighboring Arab states. The Jewish State of Israel was brought into being by force of arms, against intense opposition.
The setting up of the state did not change the character of the vicious Arab-Jewish circle. The ever-present and increasing threat of the surrounding Arab armies, which never hid their intention of destroying the Jewish state in "occupied Palestine," made it imperative for the government of Israel to ally itself with as great a power as possible. With certain brief interruptions, the U.S.-Israeli alliance quickly became a dominant factor in the Middle East. For a short time, this alliance was overshadowed by the military cooperation between Israel and France. Faced with a war of liberation in Algeria, which they naively thought to be inspired and led by the Egyptians, the French decided to open a second front with the help of the Israelis. The Israeli Government was only too happy to use the French to gain its own ends, and to acquire from them the arms needed for a preventive war against Egypt. Thus, the joint Israeli-French-British enterprise against Egypt was born in 1956. Israel gained a brilliant victory, retained some of its fruits, but confirmed deepening suspicions among the Arabs concerning Israel's expansionist and colonial character.
After the liberation of Algeria, the marriage of convenience between France and Israel became useless from the French point of view and gradually cooled until it was dramatically terminated by General de Gaulle in December 1967. America again became Israel's great ally, a fact which emerged clearly during the 1967 war, even