Israel's Phantom Pact

For Israel, a small state surrounded by what it perceives as hostile neighbours, foreign policy has been stamped as the key to its survival. By embarking on what is now called Israel's 'Periphery Pact' in 1958, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion aspired to transform his small nascent state from an object of international politics into a dynamic agent, capable of defining its own individual foreign policy. This pact was to see Israel reaching out to states on the fringes of the region: Turkey and Iran to the north and Ethiopia and Sudan to the south. But although this policy was abandoned shortly after, it has left a lasting imprint upon how this small but ambitious state has dealt with the wider world, influencing politicians from Shimon Peres to Benjamin Netanyahu. Examining Israel's foreign policy from its foundation, Noa Schonmann traces the origins and evolution of the periphery policy and explores how this policy can operate in the context of Israel's relationships with other states in the present day.