"A superb job of scholarship. . . . Laskier is a careful historian who weighs his evidence judiciously, compares conflicting sources, and admits what he doesn't know. Historians of the Middle East and of Jewish affairs will welcome the book."--I. William Zartman, Johns Hopkins University
In the first major work to analyze the role of North African countries in the Arab-Israeli conflict, Michael Laskier offers new insights about the common interests and encounters of Israel and the French Maghreb, from the late 1940s on.
He exposes the relatively unknown yet significant efforts by Israel to reduce its isolation in the Arab world by forging intelligence, economic, and political ties with Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. Part of its "periphery doctrine," these maneuvers often involved Israel in internal Maghrebi politics and were an attempt to align--secretly, if necessary--with the Arab states with which they were not in direct confrontation. At the same time, however, young men throughout the Maghreb fought alongside countries in the Middle East against Israel, motivated by a desire to support Palestine and to press Israel, as well as the Arab world, to end Palestinian suffering.
Exploring the complex web of inter-Arab politics, Laskier examines the pioneering role played by Tunisian and Moroccan leaders in promoting peace. He describes the emergence of Tunisian president Habib Bourguiba as the first Arab leader to publicly challenge Arab stubbornness over the recognition of Israel; he also examines the important role of Morocco in brokering the contacts that helped lead to Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat's visit to Jerusalem and to the formulation of the Camp David Accords. In contrast, he discusses Algeria's manifest militancy toward Zionism and its questioning of Israel's political legitimacy.
The book is based on an impressive investigation of sources, including many Arabic, French, and Hebrew documents and personal interviews. Some of the primary Israeli sources contained intriguing data on the role of the Mossad, Israel's central intelligence and secret service agency; several of the Moroccan and Algerian documents had been buried in archival dossiers. While focusing on Maghrebi politics, the book offers an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the broader issues of the Middle East conflict. Michael M. Laskier teaches in the Department of Middle Eastern History at Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

Israel and the Maghreb: From Statehood to Oslo

History

Laskier, Michael M.

Middle East

University Press of Florida

The 50 years that this study spans were central in the shaping of the Middle East as it is known today: during this period, the Jews of Egypt were exposed to diverse challenges stemming from European style anti-Semitism in the 1930s, the perils of World War II, Zionism as it was promoted locally and by emissaries from the Yishuv, (the Jewish Community of Palestine) and activities after 1948 related to emigration to the newly created Jewish state. What were the domestic policies of the pre-Nasser regime regarding the Jews? What policies were implemented under Nasser? What role did Egyptian Jewish community leaders play at times of crisis? To what extent did Zionism attract adherents to its ranks? What role legal - semi-legal, and illegal - did the Yishuv and post 1948 Israel play in influencing Jewish attitudes in Egypt, in prodding them to emigrate? This book provides in exhaustive detail the political and social events during this crucial period in the history of the Middle East and the history of a people.

The Jews of Egypt, 1920-1970: In the Midst of Zionism, Anti-Semitism, and the Middle East Conflict

New York University Press

Before widescale emigration in the early 1960s, North Africa's Jewish communities were among the largest in the world. Without Jewish emigrants from North Africa, Israel's dynamic growth would simply not have occured. North African Jews, also called Maghribi, strengthed the new Israeli state through their settlements, often becoming the victims of Arab-Israeli conflicts and terrorist attacks. Their contribution and struggles are, in many ways, akin to the challenges emigrants from the former Soviet Union are currently encountering in Israel. Today, these North African Jewish communities are a vital force in Israeli society and politics as well as in France and Quebec. In the first major political history of North African Jewry, Michael Laskier paints a compelling picture of three Third World Jewish communities, tracing their exposure to modernization and their relations with the Muslims and the European settlers. Perhaps the most extraordinary feature of this volume is its astonishing array of primary sources. Laskier draws on a wide range of archives in Israel, Europe, and the United States and on personal interviews with former community leaders, Maghribi Zionists, and Jewish outsiders who lived and worked among North Africa's Jews to recreate the experiences and development of these communities.Among the subjects covered: --Jewish conditions before and during colonial penetration by the French and Spanish; --anti-Semitism in North Africa, as promoted both by European settlers and Maghribi nationalists; --the precarious position of Jews amidst the struggle between colonized Muslims and European colonialists; --the impact of pogroms in the 1930s and 1940s and the Vichy/Nazi menace; --internal Jewish communal struggles due to the conflict between the proponents of integration, and of emigration to other lands, and, later, the communal self-liquidiation process;—the role of clandestine organizations, such as the Mossad, in organizing for self-defense and illegal immigration;—and, more generally, the history of the North African `aliyaand Zionist activity from the beginning of the twentieth century onward. A unique and unprecedented study, Michael Laskier's work will stand as the definitive account of North African Jewry for some time.

North African Jewry in the Twentieth Century: The Jews of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria

Africa

NYU Press

"The Jews of Egypt, 1920-1970 constitutes a major contribution to what we know about a now vanishing community that was highly respected and prominent in the economic and cultural life of Egypt. . . . [Laskier] has drawn our attention to one of the most tragic consequences of the Arab-Israeli conflict." —Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr.The Pennsylvania State University "The Jews of Egypt, 1920-1970 . . . provides perhaps the first comprehensive account of the fate of the Egyptian Jewish community under the new revolutionary regime . . . . Informed by an impressive range of Israeli archival as well as published Egyptian materials, the work is a valuable contribution to modern Egyptian and Jewish history." —James Jankowski, University of Colorado at Boulder Jews have lived in Egypt almost continuously for two millennia. In the period beginning with the aftermath of Wold War I until the death of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in September 1970, the social and political status of Egyptian Jewry changed considerably, and Jewish communal life virtually came to an end. During the fifty years that this study spans, the Jews of Egypt were exposed to diverse challenges stemming from European-style anti-Semitism in the 1930s, the perils of World War II, Zionism as it was promoted locally and by emissaries for the Yishuv, and activities after 1948 related to emigration to the newly created Jewish state. Michael M. Laskier details the events that were central in shaping the Middle East as it is today.

The Jews of Egypt, 1920-1970: In the Midst of Zionism, Anti-Semitism, and the Middle East Conflict (New Perspectives on Jewish Studies, 8)

Before widescale emigration in the early 1960s, North Africa's Jewish communities were among the largest in the world. Without Jewish emigrants from North Africa, Israel's dynamic growth would simply not have occured. North African Jews, also called Maghribi, strengthed the new Israeli state through their settlements, often becoming the victims of Arab-Israeli conflicts and terrorist attacks. Their contribution and struggles are, in many ways, akin to the challenges emigrants from the former Soviet Union are currently encountering in Israel. Today, these North African Jewish communities are a vital force in Israeli society and politics as well as in France and Quebec. In the first major political history of North African Jewry, Michael Laskier paints a compelling picture of three Third World Jewish communities, tracing their exposure to modernization and their relations with the Muslims and the European settlers. Perhaps the most extraordinary feature of this volume is its astonishing array of primary sources. Laskier draws on a wide range of archives in Israel, Europe, and the United States and on personal interviews with former community leaders, Maghribi Zionists, and Jewish outsiders who lived and worked among North Africa's Jews to recreate the experiences and development of these communities.Among the subjects covered: --Jewish conditions before and during colonial penetration by the French and Spanish; --anti-Semitism in North Africa, as promoted both by European settlers and Maghribi nationalists; --the precarious position of Jews amidst the struggle between colonized Muslims and European colonialists; --the impact of pogroms in the 1930s and 1940s and the Vichy/Nazi menace; --internal Jewish communal struggles due to the conflict between the proponents of integration, and of emigration to other lands, and, later, the communal self-liquidiation process;—the role of clandestine organizations, such as the Mossad, in organizing for self-defense and illegal immigration;—and, more generally, the history of the North African `aliyaand Zionist activity from the beginning of the twentieth century onward.
A unique and unprecedented study, Michael Laskier's work will stand as the definitive account of North African Jewry for some time.

The Alliance Israelite Universelle and the Jewish Communities of Morocco, 1862-1962 (Modern Jewish Lit Culture)

The Alliance Israélite Universelle―an international organization representing a community of over 240,000 Jews―was founded in France in 1860. Its goal was to achieve the intellectual regeneration and social and political elevation of the Jewish people. This book examines the impact of the AIU on Moroccan Jewry. It answers such questions as: How did the AIU establish itself in Morocco’s communities? How did it go on to become a power not to be underestimated by either the Moroccan government or the Europeans? And more importantly, how did the AIU improve the conditions of the Jews in Morocco, creating an important French-speaking urban elite? Also discussed are such topics as Zionism and Jewish-Muslim relations in Morocco.

State University of New York Press

The Alliance Israélite Universelle--an international organization representing a community of over 240,000 Jews--was founded in France in 1860. Its goal was to achieve the intellectual regeneration and social and political elevation of the Jewish people. This book examines the impact of the AIU on Moroccan Jewry. It answers such questions as: How did the AIU establish itself in Morocco's communities? How did it go on to become a power not to be underestimated by either the Moroccan government or the Europeans? And more importantly, how did the AIU improve the conditions of the Jews in Morocco, creating an important French-speaking urban elite? Also discussed are such topics as Zionism and Jewish-Muslim relations in Morocco.

In this path-breaking study about Israel's position vis-Ã -vis the Mediterranean Arab states of the Middle East and Maghreb, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, as well as France, Italy, and Spain, wide regional neighboring relationships are analyzed and defined by dominant factors such as "fluctuating relations,"  "confrontation and realpolitik," "radicalism versus moderation," and the "complexities of political, military, intelligence, economic, and cultural connections." A central motif is the challenge of "uneasy coexistence." The work is based on extensive archival and other primary source documentation, including newspapers and Internet sites in English, Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, Greek, French, Italian, and Spanish. Some of the most vital source material is found in the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, the U.S. Department of State-Office of the Historian, the Central Intelligence Agency data released recently through the Freedom of Information Act, the American presidential libraries, especially of Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan, the Israel State Archives, and the Central Zionist Archives. Selected documents invaluable for understanding the major problems affecting the Mediterranean region are published in an appendix. Much of the source material is hitherto untapped or has received scant attention from researchers. Israel and the Mediterranean will emerge as the standard work on Israel's coexistence in the Mediterranean basin during her first fifty years of nationhood, an indispensable source for scholars of Israeli history, political scientists specializing in regional conflicts and conflict resolution, inter-Arab affairs, and Israel alignment with its non-Arab and European Mediterranean neighbors.

Israel and the Mediterranean: Five Decades of Uneasy Coexistence

Sussex Academic Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Laskier, Michael M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Laskier, Michael M.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Laskier, Michael M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Israel and the Maghreb: From Statehood to Oslo

The Jews of Egypt, 1920-1970: In the Midst of Zionism, Anti-Semitism, and the Middle East Conflict

North African Jewry in the Twentieth Century: The Jews of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria

The Jews of Egypt, 1920-1970: In the Midst of Zionism, Anti-Semitism, and the Middle East Conflict (New Perspectives on Jewish Studies, 8)

North African Jewry in the Twentieth Century: The Jews of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria

The Alliance Israelite Universelle and the Jewish Communities of Morocco, 1862-1962 (Modern Jewish Lit Culture)

The Alliance Israelite Universelle and the Jewish Communities of Morocco, 1862-1962 (Modern Jewish Lit Culture)

Israel and the Mediterranean: Five Decades of Uneasy Coexistence