Israel's Clandestine Diplomacies - eds. Clive Jones & Tore T. Peterson

For over sixty years the state of Israel has proved adept at practising clandestine diplomacy and, as one might expect, about which little is known. These hitherto undisclosed episodes in Israel's diplomatic history are revealed for the first time by the contributors to this volume, who explore how relations based upon patronage and personal friendships, as well as ties born from kinship and realpolitik, informed the creation of the state, and later defined Israel's relations with a host of actors, both state and non-state. Have Israel's clandestine diplomacies been regarded as purely functional and subordinate to a realist quest for security amid the perceived hostility of a predominantly Muslim-Arab world? Or, are they manifestations of a wider acceptance political, social and cultural -- of a Jewish sovereign state as an intrinsic part of the Middle East? Has this form of diplomacy been more effective in securing Israeli objectives than reliance upon more formal diplomatic ties constrained by international legal obligations? How does this often complex, and at times contradictory, matrix of secret relationships continue to influence perceptions of Israel's foreign policy? Fascinating answers to these and other questions are to be found in this first-of-its-kind exploration of a hitherto unknown world.