Israeli Foreign Policy

Sandler contends that the impact of the nation in foreign policy is not synonymous with that of the State. Understanding the effect of the nation is important because of the contemporary reawakening of primordial national aspirations. This study is designed to test these views by examining nation-centered concerns in foreign policy as practiced within Israel. It reviews and analyzes the roots of the territorial dimension in Israeli foreign policy since the establishment of the state up to the present; the impact of Israeli domestic politics; and the rise and fall of ethnonationalism in Israeli foreign policy. As such, the work is of concern to all students of Israeli politics and foreign policy and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Well-known experts analyze current and future trends that have transformed Israeli politics, focusing on the movement of the body politic to the right-of-center and the growing hold of the Likud. They point to key factors that will shape Israeli's role in the Middle East in the 1990s, the role of religious and settler movements, the linkage of domestic politics to Arab-Israeli peace and the future of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and demographic, attitudinal, and other matters affecting governmental leadership and policymaking. They also discuss the impact of Jewish immigration to Israel from the Soviet Union.

With full coverage of recent dramatic events in Israeli politics from the Rabin assassination through the prime ministership of Benyamin Netanyahu to the electoral victory of Ehud Barak, this is the most current introduction to Israeli politics and society available today. It is also an enormously readable and engaging book. It conveys a strong sense of everyday life in Israel, the ethnic composition and institutional structure of Israeli society, the nuances and contradictions of Israeli identity, Israeli political culture, and the issues that dominate Israeli domestic and foreign policy debates. Enlivened with anecdotes and supplied with maps, a glossary, and suggested readings, this book is accessible to anyone interested. It has been especially popular with students, tourists, and travelers.

TO MANY, Jews and Arabs stand in permanent opposition, representing two clashing cultures, mentalities, and temperaments. In this book, Nissim Rejwan maintains that this perception is historically inaccurate. From the standpoint of culture, ethnicity, and religion, he says, Israel is an integral part of the Middle East.

As a nation Israel consists largely of Middle Eastern and North African Jews, native-born Israelis of European origin, and Arabs. Rejwan shows that peaceful and neighborly relations among these groups have always prevailed and that the lot of the Jews has been better in the realm of Islam than in the West.

Using Arabic, Hebrew, and English sources, the book traces the course of Arab-Jewish relations from their beginnings in pre-Islamic times to the present, and it offers a survey of Judeo-Arabic culture and literature. It also describes the ideological and cultural origins of Israel and demonstrates the way these roots shape the country's attitudes toward its surrounding.

Schoenbaum's book is a history of one of the most remarkable liaisons in international experience, a portrait of the special relationship between the last remaining superpower and the tiny Jewish state between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, and a study of how that relationship grew and works. From Truman to Bush, the United States has assured Israel's existence, while providing billions in military and economic support. Over the same period, no U.S. president has ever submitted a formal treaty of alliance to the Senate, or even moved the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In fact, cross-purposes and mutual doubts have always coexisted with shared values, complementary interests, great expectations, and real achievements. Schoenbaum's book traces Israeli-American relations from their roots in both American and Jewish experience to the risks and opportunities of the current peace process. It also examines the relationship in the perspective of two world wars, the Cold War, the Gulf War, European colonialism and Middle Eastern nationalisms, global policy, and domestic politics in both countries. The result is the story of one of history's oddest international couples, hard-pressed to live together, but unable to live apart.

A comprehensive analysis of the development of Israel's foreign policy during the critical years of the 1950s, particularly relations between the Jewish state and three Western powers--the United States, Great Britain, and France. Drawing extensively on recently declassified archival materials, Zach Levey challenges traditional accounts of the nature and success of Israel's policy goals.

This is the first book to deal with the most crucial case of war and peace in the Middle East. Moshe Ma'oz examines the history of relations between Israel and Syria throughout the Middle Eastern conflict. Drawing upon a variety of original sources, the author discusses still little-known episodes in relations between the countries such as Syrian peace offers to Israel in the early 1950s and the mid-1970s; American and Soviet involvement; the role of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and the PLO; Israel's contribution to the aggravation of the conflict with Syria, and the new Syrian diplomatic strategy since 1988 and the peacemaking process after the Madrid conference (from late 1991). The book demonstrates the crucial importance of Syrian-Israeli relations for the strategic posture of both countries, for the fate of the Palestinian problem, and for the prospects of an overall Middle East Settlement.

In this reissue of the abridged paperback edition of his critically acclaimed Collusion Across the Jordan, Professor Shlaim chronicles King Abdullah's relationship with the Zionist movement from his appointment as Emir of Transjordan in 1921 to his assassination in 1951. With a new Introduction, placing the book in the wider context of the on-going debate about 1948, this masterly and authoritative study is essential reading for all those interested in the politics of the Middle East.