Israel: the First Hundred Years, Volume 4: Israel in the International Arena

348 Pages·2004·2.74 MB·English

by  Efraim Karsh

ISRAEL: THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS
CASS SERIES: ISRAELI HISTORY, POLITICS AND
SOCIETY
Series Editor: Efraim Karsh, King’s College London
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.
Selected titles:
Peace in the Middle East: The Challenge for Israel
Edited by Efraim Karsh.
Between War and Peace: Dilemmas of Israeli Security
Edited by Efraim Karsh.
U.S.-Israeli Relations at the Crossroads
Edited by Gabriel Sheffer.
A Twenty-Year Retrospective of Egyptian-Israeli Relations: Peace in Spite of
Everything
By Ephraim Dowek.
Global Politics: Essays in Honour of David Vital
Edited by Abraham Ben-Zvi and Aharon Klieman.
Israeli Diplomacy and the Quest for Peace
By Mordechai Gazit.
Israeli-Romanian Relations at the End of the Ceaucescu Era
By Yosef Govrin.
John F.Kennedy and the Politics of Arms Sales to Israel
By Abraham Ben-Zvi.
Decision on Palestine Deferred: America, Britain and Wartime Diplomacy,
1939–1945
By Monty Noam Penkower.
Israel, the Hashemites and the Palestinians: The Fateful Triangle
Edited by Efraim Karsh and P.R.Kumaraswamy.
Rethinking the Middle East
By Efraim Karsh
Israel: The First Hundred Years (Mini Series), edited by Efraim Karsh.
1. Israel’s Transition from Community to State, edited by Efraim Karsh.
iii
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.
Israel: The First Hundred
Years
VOLUME IV
Israel in the International Arena
Editor
Efraim Karsh
FRANK CASS
LONDON • PORTLAND, OR
First published in 2004 in Great Britain by
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Copyright © 2004 Frank Cass & Co. Ltd
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Israel: the first hundred years
Vol. 4: Israel in the international arena.—(Cass series.
Israeli history, politics and society)
1. Israel—Foreign relations 2. Israel—Foreign economic
relations 3. Israel—History
I. Karsh, Efraim II. Israeli affairs
327.5'694
ISBN 0-203-50409-7 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-58254-3 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0 7146 4960 0 (cloth)
ISBN 0 7146 8021-4 (paper)
ISSN 1368-4795
A catalog record of this book is available from the Library of Congress
This group of studies first appeared as a special issue of Israel Affairs (ISSN 1353-7121),
Vol.10, Nos.1&2 (Autumn/Winter 2004), published by Frank Cass
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or
introduced into a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers of this book.
Contents
Towards Distant Frontiers: The Course of Israeli Diplomacy 1
Sasson Sofer
ISRAEL AND THE GREAT POWERS
David Ben-Gurion’s Zionist Foreign Policy, 1938–48: The Democratic 11
Factor
Allon Gal
Influence and Arms: John F.Kennedy, Lyndon B.Johnson and the 26
Politics of Arms Sales to Israel, 1962–66
Abraham Ben-Zvi
Indirect Pressure: Moscow and the End of the British Mandate in 56
Palestine
Arieh J.Kochavi
Blocking Peace: Britain and the Israeli-Jordanian Conflict 1949–51 73
Jonathan Sless
The Effects of Changes in the International Environment on the future 1 00
of the Middle East
Benny Miller
ISRAEL AND THE WEST
The PLO Factor in Euro-Israeli Relations, 1964–1992 1 17
Rory Miller
Some Trade Effects of the EMU Process on Israel 1 50
Tal Sadeh
The Road to the Israeli-Spanish Rapprochement 1 72
Jacob Abadi
The ‘Good-Natured Bastard’: Canada and the Middle East Refugee 1 97
Question
David H.Goldberg and Tilly R.Shames
ASIAN RELATIONSHIPS
vii
The Republic of China and Israel, 1911–2003 2 16
Jonathan Goldstein
Israel-India Relations: Seeking Balance and Realism 2 49
P.R.Kumaraswamy
Japan and Israel: An Evaluation of Relationship-Building in the 2 68
Context of Japan’s Middle East Policy
Raquel Shaoul
ISRAEL AND THE JEWISH WORLD
Towards a Conceptual Framework of World Jewish Politics: State, 2 94
Nation, and Diaspora in a Jewish Foreign Policy
Shmuel Sandler
Post-Zionism in the Oslo Era and the Implications for the Diaspora 3 05
Danny Ben-Moshe
Abstracts 3 30
Index 3 36
Towards Distant Frontiers: The Course of
Israeli Diplomacy
SASSON SOFER
There has always been a sense of exclusiveness about Israel’s place in the world.
As a small nation, a democracy and the only Jewish state, Israel is, indeed, a
unique international actor. Israel is also one of the few states not formally
affiliated with any regional bloc; equally, it does not belong to any pact or
alliance. As Abba Eban has noted, the ‘state of Israel has more unresolved
matters of interrogation hanging over it than most other political units in the
modern world.’1
Israel has difficulty maintaining a single international identity wholly
consistent either with its own national values or with international norms at
large. A constant preoccupation with the Arab-Israeli conflict has resulted in a
conspicuous discrepancy between the aspiration to meet universal norms and the
necessity to resort to realpolitik.
It is customary to blame Israeli diplomacy for many lapses and deficiencies:
its lack of foresight and long-range planning, a susceptibility to impulse and
crisis exigencies, and a paucity of originality and inventiveness. One could sense
Yitzhak Rabin’s contempt for professional diplomats as he prepared himself for
the post of Israel’s ambassador to Washington: ‘What does the government
expect Israel’s ambassador to the United States to achieve?’, he asked the
officials at the Foreign Ministry. ‘Objectives? No one had any idea.’2
Nevertheless, the foundation of Israel’s foreign policy was laid in the years
before independence. Under the patronage of the Labour movement, a cautious,
pragmatic and fairly conservative diplomacy emerged. Israeli diplomacy has
scored some remarkable achievements. Most notable are the special relationship
with the United States, the surprisingly early and solid association with the
European Community, the peripheral strategy involving Turkey, Iran and
Ethiopia, the peace settlement with Egypt and Jordan, and, lastly, Israel’s aid and
co-operation programme in the Third World.
Sasson Sofer is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem.
2 ISRAEL IN THE INTERNATIONAL ARENA
THE DOMESTIC SOURCES OF FOREIGN POLICY
The political traditions of both the Labour Party and the Revisionist Right left
their mark on Israeli diplomacy. Each presented a different approach to
achieving Israel’s objectives in the international arena. From the 1940s until
1977 the Right was in opposition and the Left’s dominance, more than anything
else, determined the restrained tone of Israel’s diplomacy. The tendency to
merge the two traditions in Israel’s actions as a sovereign state obscures the fact
that Right and Left are divided with regard to the concept of history, military
affairs, the definition of borders, regional policy and diplomatic style. Indeed,
until recently the conflict between these two diametrically opposed historical
narratives occupied a central place in contemporary Israel.
While the Left evolved from a socialist tradition, the Right based itself on
various nationalist traditions, drawing eclectically on all of them. Socialist and
nationalist dualism enriched the Left, but nationalist monism weakened the
Right, thinning its conceptual wealth and undermining its contribution to either
social construction or foreign affairs. Whereas the Left perceived diplomacy and
the international arena as an unfortunate concatenation of events, the Right
regarded foreign policy as a prescription for national greatness; constant
manoeuvrings were supposed to force the great powers to pay attention and take
Israel’s aims into consideration. The Left sought to advance along a wide front
while establishing a broad convention at home; instead of clashing head-on, it
preferred an indirect course. The Right relied on almost pure realism and
preferred a more public form of diplomacy, building an ‘iron wall’ or desiring
unilateral supremacy in the region.3 What still remains of the clash between Right
and Left is the mutual tendency to push aside the formal aspects of diplomacy in
favour of the mutual inclination for self-reliance and autarky.
In the shadow of the rhetoric of the national will and the ultimate objective,
the Right regarded Israeli policy as having considerable room for manoeuvre,
without paying undue attention to external constraints or the limits of power. The
Left engaged in consensual deliberations and the wisdom of its actions, while not
always intended or inspired, arose from responsibility and caution, being aware
of the limitation of international possibilities. The Left, in the face of the huge
obstacles thrown up by history, could bear failure better than the Right and thus
function in that narrow space between failure and victory. Historic maximalism
made the Right more dependent on victory, and defeat was paralyzing for it. Not
a few of its leaders believed that the great wheel of history would settle at the
spot they had ordained. Israel’s political tradition combined both the fevered
thinking of the Right and the convoluted imagination of the Left.
Israel’s foreign-policy conceptions are significantly influenced by social and
political factors. The political order placed a heavy burden on the conduct of
foreign policy. Almost constant factional conflict hampered the development of
systematic planning and decision-making. The leftist Mapai was the only party to
provide its leadership with solid political support. While the closed pattern of