This is another in a series of reviews of new books on Middle Eastern affairs. We asked Dr. Gail Weigl, an APN volunteer and a professor of art history, to review Yossi Alpher's new book about Israel's relations with Middle Eastern peripheral states and groups.
Yossi Alpher, Periphery: Israel’s Search for Middle East Allies (Lanham, MD, 2015). 169 pages, with lists of heads of Mossad and persons interviewed, maps and index. $28.31
Periphery: Israel’s Search for Middle East Allies is Israelo-centric. “Periphery” therefore must be understood to refer to the Arab states surrounding Israel and the search for Middle East allies to refer to nation states, religious minorities, and ethnic groups outside the periphery, whose interests, in theory, dovetailed with those of Israel.
The book thus is not a history in the classical sense, but a consummate insider’s comprehensive record and analysis of fluid “periphery doctrines” open to a variety of alternative understandings. First conceived as a grand strategy by David Ben-Gurion in an ad hoc operation that only in retrospect emerged as a strategic initiative, the doctrine originated in the fact that Israel was surrounded by hostile states committed to its destruction, and focused on two primary objectives: marketing Israel to the European powers as a significant player in the Middle East, and strengthening the fledgling nation by facilitating Jewish emigration from the United States, Europe and Arab nations.