Abstract
Uri Bialer’s latest book, Israeli Foreign Policy: A People Shall Not Dwell Alone, is a comprehensive account of the country’s engagements with the outside world. Bialer takes a macro view by emphasizing the steps taken by Israel to build the state, secure its regional position, strengthen political ties with different countries, raise its economic profile, and most importantly, to maintain its security that remains the fundamental pillar of its foreign policy (p. 5). Broadly, the book is focused on the struggle Israel underwent to end its political isolation and ensure survival in a hostile region.
Bialer is well placed to author such a comprehensive account of Israeli foreign policy. His association (while he was a student) with the first prime minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion, enriched his understanding of issues of national importance, including strategic and foreign policy. Bialer was the founder and senior researcher in the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s Department of Research and Policy Planning, established following the 1973 October War and this gave him first-hand experience of the foreign policy-making. His more than two decades of experience as a reserve officer in the Strategic Planning Division of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in his words, “opened my eyes to the realities of Israel’s foreign and defense policy and greatly enriched my insights into the history of this policy” (p. 1). His association with the International Relations Department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem equipped him with the academic rigor reflected throughout the book.
Besides a brief introduction (pp.1–6), Bialer has divided the book into four parts: “The Historical Legacy”, “The Goals and the Test of Reality”, “Strategic Relations” and “Peace” representing different phases in Israeli foreign policy. He aims to offer the readers a “familiarity with its [Israel’s] historical and contextual heritage, which includes Jewish diplomacy in nineteenth-century Europe and even earlier, the Mandate-era diplomacy of the Zionist movement and the Yishuv, and prestate geostrategic and political realities” (p. 9).
Like other works, Bialer mentions the hardships faced by the Jews in Europe before the State of Israel came into being, yet he highlights an important aspect about “solidarity” as a nation that the Jews maintained despite “nearly two millennia of dispersion” (p. 10). The author notes that the much-talked-about “Jewish lobby” emerged from a “harsh existential reality characterized by inferiority, weakness, and extreme vulnerability” (p. 11). The quest for political recognition, which was one of the core objectives of the Jews, has been adequately discussed. Bialer argues that Israel still endeavors to gain more acceptance and recognition. Bialer discusses the security challenges faced by the Jews in mandate Palestine during the 1920s and 1930s and how this led to initiatives by the Jewish leaders to open dialogue with the British, intending to establish a Jewish state. He further notes the role of organizations, such as the Political Department of the Jewish Agency, in the Yishuv diplomatic efforts with the British government.
A detailed emphasis on historical developments helps the reader understand the Jewish Agency’s successes and failures during the Mandate era, in providing important lessons for the future. One can trace the roots of Israel’s defense and intelligence policy to the Mandate era and how Yishuv gained its “valuable foreign policy experience primarily through interaction with Britain and Europe generally” during this period (p. 49). In the first part of the book, Bialer has covered almost all the important events and crucial policies adopted by the Jewish leaders to promote their national interests. The narrative of the prevailing regional and global geopolitics gives insights into the difficulties faced by the newly-established state in gaining acceptance of and recognition from the neighboring Arab countries.
An interesting aspect of the book is the reflection on the linkages between immigration and security. Aliyah or immigration remains an important foreign policy objective in Israel and the author asserts that “Closely linked to the concept of immigration as a central component of security was the view of settlement as its complement” (p. 66). Bialer identifies certain difficulties in securing the borders due to the increasing number of immigrants and the need to garner support from the world of Jewry, especially in the US. Simultaneously, the long-standing subtle differences between Israel and international organizations, such as the United Nations (which continue to exist until today), have found due treatment in the book.
Bialer analyses the difficult trajectory for Israel in gaining diplomatic and political recognition, including the missed opportunities to establish relations with China, which is currently one of its strongest partners in Asia. What makes Bialer’s account distinct is a substantive discussion on economic diplomacy covering lesser-known policy initiatives like energy-related cooperation with Iran until 1979. In recent years, economic diplomacy has become an important constituent of Israel’s foreign policy, and the salience of energy-related cooperation between Israel and some of its partners, both in the region and elsewhere, is gaining momentum.
Discussing strategic relations, Bialer has devoted a great deal of attention toward Israel’s pivotal relations with France tracing the roots of the Jewish diplomacy with it even before 1948. He has highlighted the successes and failures of Israel’s foreign policy in Africa. While discussing Israel’s relations with the US, Bialer describes it as a patron–client relationship in which the latter wields considerable influence and leverage over Israel. The author discusses the 1960s as the inflection point when Israel and the US strengthened their ties—diplomatically, politically, militarily-strategically and economically. He highlights the agreements and disagreements between the two allies. As numerous works have dissected the Israel–US relations, at times, the discussion appears mundane and repetitive.
In the final part of the book, Bialer brings out the “cold peace” between Israel and Egypt since they signed the peace accord in 1979. It is, indeed, rare and interesting that an author highlights the limited scope of relations between these two countries as they “never turned into the type of normalized, peaceful relations that would facilitate full interaction between the two peoples and their social, economic, and political institutions” (p. 292). Instead, it is a relationship that has mostly revolved around the leaders of both countries. Bialer offers a detailed explanation as to why Israel and Egypt could not mutually benefit from the normalization. Pertinent obstructing factors he has discussed include Egypt’s internal politics, ideological hurdles and regional geopolitical dynamics.
The discussion on the 1993 Oslo Accords is fascinating as Bialer notes this as an achievement and underlines its failures. While pointing out the difficulties to achieve sustainable peace with Palestinians, the author discusses Israel’s shortcomings and failings, including lack of negotiating experience, differences between the prime minister and his team and so on (p. 331). Finally, underlining the significance of normalization with the neighboring countries, Bialer notes the Jewish state will likely face problems in promoting its foreign policy as long as it is continued to be rejected by the regional countries, and this, for Bialer, “demonstrates the intractability of the problem” (p. 332).
Israeli Foreign Policy: A People Shall Not Dwell Alone could be considered one of the most nuanced pieces of literature on the subject. The richness, both in terms of its contents and arguments, clearly reflects the indefatigable enthusiasm and passion of the author to dive deeper into a much researched and discussed subject. The book, however, could have been more insightful had the author included his impressions and assessments regarding the emerging nature of Israel’s foreign policy vis-à-vis some of the Arab countries. Undoubtedly, along with the corpus of writings on the subject, including his earlier works, this book is definitely a significant addition to the literature on Israeli foreign policy.