Presents a portrait of the Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City, the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. Looks at the story of the congregation over the course of twelve generations.

In this study, Zach Levey provides a comprehensive analysis of the development of Israel's foreign policy during the critical years of the 1950s, focusing particularly on relations between the Jewish state and the three Western powers involved in the Middle East arms race--the United States, Great Britain, and France. Drawing extensively on recently declassified archival materials, Levey challenges traditional accounts of the nature and success of Israel's policy goals. By 1950 Israel's primary foreign policy objective was the creation of a bilateral strategic relationship with the United States. The country's leaders failed to achieve that goal, though, even after the Suez-Sinai campaigns of 1956. According to Levey, it was this failure that motivated Israel to cultivate ties with the West's other leading powers, France and Britain. But cooperation with these countries was not the outgrowth of a gradually developing strategic understanding with either one, he argues. Instead, Israel viewed its French and British connections only as temporary substitutes for the desired eventual arrangement with the United States. Originally published in 1997. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

This book represents the first scholarly examination of the origins of the 1956 Sinai campaign between Egypt and Israel. Utilising a wide range of primary sources, the study analyses the reasons for the breakdown of the Armistice Agreement between Egypt and Israel and the failure of efforts to mediate a peace accord.

-- Library Journal

These four volumes provide a careful and balanced behind-the-scenes account of the intricate diplomatic activity of the period between 1913 and 1956. Exploiting a range of available archive sources as well as extensive secondary sources, they provide an authoritative analysis of the positions and strategies which the principal parties and the would-be mediators adopted in the elusive search for a stable peace. The text of each volume comprises both analytical-historical chapters and a selection of primary documents from archival sources, providing an essential reference source for the student of the Arab-Israeli conflict and its long history.

Schoenbaum's book is a history of one of the most remarkable liaisons in international experience, a portrait of the special relationship between the last remaining superpower and the tiny Jewish state between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, and a study of how that relationship grew and works. From Truman to Bush, the United States has assured Israel's existence, while providing billions in military and economic support. Over the same period, no U.S. president has ever submitted a formal treaty of alliance to the Senate, or even moved the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In fact, cross-purposes and mutual doubts have always coexisted with shared values, complementary interests, great expectations, and real achievements. Schoenbaum's book traces Israeli-American relations from their roots in both American and Jewish experience to the risks and opportunities of the current peace process. It also examines the relationship in the perspective of two world wars, the Cold War, the Gulf War, European colonialism and Middle Eastern nationalisms, global policy, and domestic politics in both countries. The result is the story of one of history's oddest international couples, hard-pressed to live together, but unable to live apart.