Israel and the Western Powers, 1952-1960 - by Zach Levey (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In this study, Zach Levey provides a comprehensive analysis of the development of Israel's foreign policy during the critical years of the 1950s, focusing particularly on relations between the Jewish state and the three Western powers involved in the Middle East arms race -- the United States, Great Britain, and France. Drawing extensively on recently declassified archival materials, Levey challenges traditional accounts of the nature and success of Israel's policy goals. By 1950 Israel's primary foreign policy objective was the creation of a bilateral strategic relationship with the United States. The country's leaders failed to achieve that goal, though, even after the Suez-Sinai campaigns of 1956. According to Levey, it was this failure that motivated Israel to cultivate ties with the West's other leading powers, France and Britain. But cooperation with these countries was not the outgrowth of a gradually developing strategic understanding with either one, he argues. Instead, Israel viewed its French and British connections only as temporary substitutes for the desired eventual arrangement with the United States.

Originally published in 1997.

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Review Quotes

"A solid work of scholarship, expertly researched and balanced."--International History Review

"A very readable and well-constructed study. Levey has made good use of newly released official documentation (and such new sources as Ben-Gurion's diaries) to make an important new contribution to the history of the formulation of Israeli foreign policy in the 1950s."--British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies

"In this well-written and concise volume, Israeli scholar Zach Levey not only recounts Israel's quest for a firm patron-client relationship in the 1950s, but also describes what Israeli leaders sought to gain from such a relationship and what they thought they had to contribute to it."--Diplomacy & Statecraft

"This is history as narrative, told with the skill of a trained story-teller. The product is literature. This is good news for both the specialist and for the general reader."--Jerusalem Post