Israel and Europe: An Appraisal in History

Sachar succeeds at a very difficult task, lucidly tracing the history of Israel's relations with Europe in one book. One of the deans of Jewish and Israeli history in the U.S., Sachar (The Course of Modern Jewish History) charts events from the founding of the Jewish state in 1948 through Norway's involvement in the 1993 Oslo peace accords signed by Israel and the PLO. With an appreciation for complexity and an ability to marshal many details with remarkable efficiency, he focuses on the fluctuations in Israel's relations with France, Germany, Britain, the U.S.S.R. and the Vatican. Sachar deftly interweaves his extensive knowledge of how national and cultural forces affected Europe's relations with Israel--e.g., how German guilt for the Holocaust led to a strong initial relationship with the Jewish state--with more personal factors, such as how French President Fran ois Mitterrand's own experiences led him to bring France closer to Israel in the 1980s. Sachar is an unabashed advocate of tight links between Israel and Europe, but he doesn't neglect unflattering facts such as Israeli spy operations or Israel's bombing of a Lebanese plane in the late 1960s. Those looking for a strong theoretical framework might be disappointed, but this volume is an essential primer for scholars, students and anyone interested in 20th-century history and diplomacy. (Feb.)