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For decades after it declared independence in 1948, the state of Israel found itself alienated from its neighbors in the Middle East, and repeatedly at war with them. It’s not an exaggeration to say that no other state founded during the twentieth century has faced so much hostility from its neighbors over such an extended period of time. But the diplomatic environment has not been static: former enemies (Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia) have become strategic partners (if not friends), and relatively friendly states in the region (Turkey and Iran) have become bitter enemies. Lebanon, with its fractured politics and society, has been both a riddle and a quagmire for the Israelis. Relations with Iraq and Syria have improved since their respective dictatorships have collapsed, but not by much. The intractable conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has complicated Israel’s relations with its neighbors from the beginning, while the horrific war with Hamas in Gaza has frozen efforts to build on the Abraham Accords of 2020, which seemed to signal a breakthrough in Israel’s efforts to normalize its relations with its neighbors. This summer course on the history of Israel’s foreign policy will survey a century of Israel’s efforts to achieve its elusive goals of peace and security in the Middle East.
Bruce Thompson, Ph.D., is a lecturer in the Departments of History and Literature and the Associate Director of Jewish Studies at U.C.-Santa Cruz, and also teaches at the Institute. He received his Ph.D. in History from Stanford; his areas of scholarly research include European intellectual and cultural history, French history, British Isles history, American Jewish intellectual and cultural history, the history of cinema, and the history of espionage.
