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

A new history of the West German-Israeli relationship as these two countries faced terrorism, war, and economic upheaval in a global Cold War environment.

Carole Fink (Author)

9781107428287, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 January 2019

368 pages, 10 b/w illus. 4 maps
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.8 cm, 0.61 kg

'My one complaint about Fink's book is that it should have been longer … but wishing a book longer is of course a compliment - one this work richly deserves.' David Clay Large, The American Historical Review

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-à-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.

List of figures and maps
Preface
Acknowledgments
A note on usage
List of abbreviations
1. Prologue: distant states - West Germany and Israel, 1952–65
2. The shock of recognition: 1965–66
3. Upheaval
4. 1968
5. Changes in leadership: 1969
6. Ostpolitik
7. 1971: a dense political web
8. The year of Munich
9. Annus Terribilis
10. Finale: Exeunt Meir and Brandt
Conclusions
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]