Britain, Israel and Anglo-Jewry 1949-57 (Cass Series--Israeli History, Politics, and Society, 27)

308 Pages·2004·2.03 MB·English

by  Natan Aridan

BRITAIN, ISRAEL AND ANGLO-
JEWRY 1949–1957
CASS SERIES: ISRAELI HISTORY,
POLITICS AND SOCIETY
Series Editor: Efraim Karsh
ISSN: 1368–4795
This series provides a multidisciplinary examination of all aspects of Israeli history,
politics and society, and serves as a means of communication between the various
communities interested in Israel: academics, policy-makers, practitioners, journalists and
the informed public.
1. Peace in the Middle East: The Challenge for Israel, edited by Efraim Karsh.
2. The Shaping of Israeli Identity: Myth, Memory and Trauma, edited by Robert Wistrich
and David Ohana.
3. Between War and Peace: Dilemmas of Israeli Security, edited by Efraim Karsh.
4. U.S. —Israeli Relations at the Crossroads, edited by Gabriel Sheffer.
5. Revisiting the Yom Kippur War, edited by P.R.Kumaraswamy.
6. Israel: The Dynamics of Change and Continuity, edited by David Levi-Faur, Gabriel
Sheffer and David Vogel.
7. In Search of Identity: Jewish Aspects in Israeli Culture, edited by Dan Urian and
efraim Karsh.
8. Israel at the Polls, 1996, edited by Daniel J.Elazar and Shmuel Sandler.
9. From Rabin to Netanyahu: Israel’s Troubled Agenda, edited by Efraim Karsh.
10. Fabricating Israeli History: The ‘New Historians’, second revised edition, by Efraim
Karsh.
11. Divided Against Zion: Anti-Zionist Opposition in Britain to a Jewish State in
Palestine, 1945–1948, by Rory Miller.
12. Peacemaking in a Divided Society: Israel After Rabin, edited by Sasson Sofer.
13. A Twenty-Year Retrospective of Egyptian-Israeli Relations: Peace in Spite of
Everything, by Ephraim Dowek.
14. Global Politics: Essays in Honour of David Vital, edited by Abraham Ben-Zvi and
Aharon Klieman.
15. Parties, Elections and Cleavages: Israel in Comparative and Theoretical Perspective,
edited by Reuven Y.Hazan and Moshe Maor.
16. Israel at the Polls, 1999, edited by Daniel J.Elazar and M.Ben Mollov.
17. Public Policy in Israel, edited by David Nachmias and Gila Menahem.
18. Developments in Israeli Public Administration, edited by Moshe Maor.
19. Israeli Diplomacy and the Quest for Peace, by Mordechai Gazit.
20. Israeli-Romanian Relations at the End of Ceaucescu’s Era, by Yosef Govrin.
21. John F.Kennedy and the Politics of Arms Sales to Israel, by Abraham Ben-Zvi.
22. Green Crescent over Nazareth: The Displacement of Christians by Muslims in the
Holy Land, by Raphael Israeli.
23. Jerusalem Divided: The Armistice Regime, 1947–1967, by Raphael Israeli.
24. Crises in the Contemporary Persian Gulf, edited by Barry Rubin.
25. A Dissenting Democracy: The Case of ‘Peace Now’, An Israeli Peace Movement, by
Magnus Norell.
Israel: The First Hundred Years (Mini Series), edited by Efraim Karsh.
1. Israel’s Transition from Community to State, edited by Efraim Karsh.
2. From War to Peace? edited by Efraim Karsh.
3. Israeli Politics and Society Since 1948, edited by Efraim Karsh.
4. Israel in the International Arena, edited by Efraim Karsh.
BRITAIN, ISRAEL AND ANGLO-
JEWRY 1949–1957
NATAN ARIDAN
Ben-Gurion University
of the Negev

LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2004 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York,
NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“ To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of
thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/.”
© 2004 Natan Aridan
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue for this book has been requested
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-30966-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-714-65629-1 (Print Edition)
Dedicated to my children, Nadav, Yael and Ohad

Contents

List of illustrations ix
Acknowledgements xi
List of abbreviations xii
Introduction xiv

1 Playing the trump card: the protracted recognition of Israel, January 1949– 1

April 1950
2 Cutting and retying the umbilical cord: the sterling balances and the nurturing 29

of bilateral ties, 1949–1954
3 Israel’s place in British strategic planning, 1949–1951 53
4 Israel’s place in British defence policy in the shadow of the Anglo-Egyptian 86

negotiations, 1951–1954
5 ‘Nibbling at the edges’: border tensions and the search for an interim Arab- 115

Israeli settlement
6 Adversaries and reluctant partners: the Sinai-Suez Crisis 1956–1957, a 148

retrospective
7 Defining the relationship: Anglo-Jewry and Israel 187

Conclusion 231
Bibliography 234
Index 261
Illustrations

1.1 Mordechai Eliash boards the plane for Britain to take up his post 12

as Minister to the Court of St James’s, April 1949
1.2 Walter Eytan, Director-General of the MFA 13
1.3 Michael Comay, Director of the British Division, MFA 14
1.4 Eliahu Elath, Israeli Ambassador to the Court of St James’s 21
2.1 First meeting of the Anglo-Israeli financial talks, Tel-Aviv, July 32

1949
2.2 Ian Mikardo, MP, with Nathan Jackson of Va’ad Hapoel and 47

Moshe Rosette, Secretary of the Knesset, December 1952
3.1 Emanuel Shinwell, Minister of Defence 64
3.2 Israeli and British flags at Haifa, during the visit of Admiral Sir 67

John Edelsten, June 1950
3.3 British Minister to Israel, Sir Knox Helm (left) with Reuven 73

Shiloah, Director of the Mossad (right), May 1951
4.1 Lord Mountbatten (Commander of the British Mediterranean 88
Fleet), Israeli Foreign Minister, Moshe Sharett, and Sir Francis
Evans (British Minister to Israel), July 1952
4.2 Ambassador Nicholls presenting his credentials to President 90

Yitzhak Ben Zvi, November 1954
6.1 Moshe Sharett, British Foreign Minister, Selwyn Lloyd and 155
Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion during Lloyd’s 21-hour visit
to Israel, March 1955
7.1 Selig Brodetsky, President of the Board of Deputies of British 192