Gideon Remez

HER SON, THE ATOMIC SCIENTIST: MIRRA BIRENS, YULI KHARITON, AND MAX EITINGON'S SERVICES FOR THE SOVIETS

New evidence sheds fresh light on the decades-long controversy whether Dr Max Eitingon, a pioneer of psychoanalysis in Europe and Palestine, collaborated with Soviet intelligence. This paper focuses on the hitherto overlooked figure and connections of his wife Mirra, and especially the impact of her son Yuli Kharitons career as a top nuclear physicist in the USSRs scientific and defence establishment.

Un-Finnished Business: Archival Evidence Exposes the Diplomatic Aspect of the USSR's Pre-planning for the Six Day War

Recently published Soviet Foreign Ministry documents provide the first archival corroboration for other evidence already presented by the authors, indicating that the USSR pre-planned and precipitated the outbreak of the 1967 Six Day War. In particular, a hitherto unknown cover letter for a protest note sent to Israel on the first day of the war shows that it was intended for delivery via Finland, after diplomatic relations with Israel were severed. As developments in the field obviated this move and the note was transmitted directly to Israel, the authors demonstrate that Moscows purported response to Israels pre-emptive attack was actually prepared in advance, as part of a larger political and military plan in the Cold War context.

The Tyranny of Vested-Interest Sources: Shaping the Record of Soviet Intervention in the Egyptian-Israeli Conflict, 1967–1973

Between the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and especially during the War of Attrition (1969–1970), the Soviet Union undertook an unprecedented direct military intervention outside the Communist bloc by stationing Soviet military formations in Egypt, where they took an active and essential part in hostilities against Israel. Although this was known at the time, the accepted historical record of the Soviet operation was largely shaped by the versions that a few leading actors propagated soon after the events. Since these actors were at or near the top leadership level, they gained the wide attention and were ascribed the authority that ensured their predominance in setting the factual record (what happened) in addition to its interpretation for causality (why it happened)—even though these figures obviously had the strongest vested interest in enshrining their own versions. This article describes how two such figures succeeded in establishing highly misleading and tendentious accounts about the causes and circumstances of key developments, Egyptian journalist and propagandist Mohammed Heikal and American statesman Henry Kissinger.

Israel’s Best Spy—or a Master Double Agent? New light from the Soviet angle on the mystery of Ashraf Marwan

ABSTRACT Research into the Soviet military intervention in the Egyptian-Israeli conflict of 1967–1973 has produced new evidence about the activity of Ashraf Marwan, an Egyptian official and son-in-law of President Gamal Abdel Nasser. His input related to the Soviet aspect tends to support the claim, in the continuing controversy in Israel about Marwan, that he served Egyptian interests—and, while they coincided—Soviet interests, rather than becoming a genuine Israeli informant. His disinformation helped to establish erroneous notions about the Soviet role and thus to cause Israeli unpreparedness for the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Veterans’ Memoirs as a Source for the USSR’s Intervention in the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Fluctuations in Their Appearance and Character With Political Change in Post-Soviet Russia

ABSTRACT Shortly before and after the USSR’s demise, a new literature emerged: memoirs by veterans of the Soviet Union’s massive military intervention in the Arab-Israeli conflict in the 1960s and ’70s. Resurgent Russian pride, coupled with condemnation of its corruption by Soviet crimes, permitted startling disclosures. Tools we developed to evaluate these sources found them remarkably reliable and necessitated a reassessment of existing historiography. The Putin administration marked a reversal. Russian nationalism now stressed continuity with the USSR’s great-power status. ‘Falsification of history against Russian interests’ was criminalized. Some veterans resorted to purported ‘fiction’, which if challenged could be disclaimed. But under even stricter scrutiny, these narratives generally proved to reflect the authors’ actual experience, providing significant pointers for further research.

Response to Amnon Sella

framework. The way people perceive social reality structures the way they act in their worlds, and their actions, in turn, reshape the society they live in. That dialectical relationship of human agency and structural forces is what ideally needs to be taken into account in this, as in any other analysis of social processes. Khazzoom’s study is one of the best and more nuanced studies of the macro large-scale level of the Israeli setting of ethnic stratification. But by focusing on only one pole of this dialectical relationship, it freezes the process and ends up with irresolvable contradictions that question the viability of the interpretive framework proposed.