By the late 1960s, West Germany and Israel were moving in almost opposite diplomatic directions in a political environment dominated by the Cold War. The Federal Republic launched ambitious policies to reconcile with its Iron Curtain neighbors, expand its influence in the Arab world, and promote West European interests vis-a-vis the United States. By contrast, Israel, unable to obtain peace with the Arabs after its 1967 military victory and threatened by Palestinian terrorism, became increasingly dependent upon the United States, estranged from the USSR and Western Europe, and isolated from the Third World. Nonetheless, the two countries remained connected by shared security concerns, personal bonds, and recurrent evocations of the German-Jewish past. Drawing upon newly-available sources covering the first decade of the countries' formal diplomatic ties, Carole Fink reveals the underlying issues that shaped these two countries' fraught relationship and sets their foreign and domestic policies in a global context.

West Germany and Israel: Foreign Relations, Domestic Politics, and the Cold War, 1965–1974

The Year of Munich

Most historians blame Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir for the outbreak of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, having allegedly rejected all peace proposals made by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. In fact, S...

Golda Meir and the 1973 Yom Kippur War

Rabin differed considerably from the average ambassador – a representative receiving and issuing reports. He viewed himself not only as a diplomat, but as capable of shaping policy with respect to both the Arab–Israeli conflict and the relationship with the United States. During his term as ambassador to Washington he displayed sober realism with regard to the political, and to some extent the military, reality – the very realism that was absent from the government that sent him.

Yitzhak Rabin, the Ambassador to Washington, 1968–73: A Diplomat and Policy Maker

Egyptian policy towards Israel has lacked consistency and issues relating to its role as leader of the Arab world have weighed more heavily on its Israel policy than actual hostility towards the Jewish state. Moreover, the existence of a powerful and vocal Islamist constituency, and the pressure of over-population, a weak economy and over-reliance on US support have also played a role. Egypt has not relinquished its desire to lead the Arab world and this has prevented it from developing a meaningful rapprochement with Israel.

Anwar el-Sadat

Papers

Where Egypt Stands