Indirect pressure: Moscow and the end of the british mandate in palestine

Soviet efforts to undermine Britain's position in the Middle East after the Second World War encountered an Anglo-American determination to deny Moscow a foothold in the region. As Britain appeared politically most vulnerable in Palestine, the Kremlin set out to influence events there by helping to bring an end to the mandate, without initially committing itself to either the Arabs or the Jews. Ignoring British demands to the contrary, it allowed more than a quarter of a million Jews to flee from Eastern Europe both to Displaced Person camps in Germany and Austria and to Palestine. The escalating Cold War made it difficult for London to counter effectively the indirect pressure Moscow was thus able to bring to bear on British policy-makers.