Israel in the 50s and 60s

Israel in the 50s and 60s

Radical discontinuity

• 1948 as a defining moment

• Sovereignty as internal control

• Sovereignty as external definition

State and economy

• State owned the railway system, postal service, telephone and television systems

• State owned as much as 50% of companies in oil, petrochemical, and defense products

• More heavily engaged in agriculture than in industry

• “European” country where taxes=40% of GDP

Development

• Rapid population growth in the cities

• Increased water consumption from 230 million meters3 to 1900 million meters3

Jerusalem c. 1900

Jerusalem today

Conflict over water

• Sources of Jordan : Israel, Lebanon and Jordan

• Lake Tiberias only overyear storage site– If it is within Israel’s sovereignty

1964

• Clash at Dan headwaters

• Diversion of water from the Hasbani to the Banias river

Water and sovereignty

• Conflict over the use of the Jordan directly and indirectly between 1964-1967– Could Syria build a diversion canal on the

Yarmouk?– Could Israel prevent the canal and dam?– The battle for air supremacy

On the Egyptian front

• After 1956 UN Forces were stationed on Egyptian territory

• Israel had “innocent passage” through Aqaba

• Inter-Arab conflict induced Nasser to remove UN troops, re-instate the blockade and prepare for war with Israel

Israeli strategic concerns

• Better to strike first

• Preference to weaken Egypt

• Recognition that the US had become the dominant power in the world

National Unity

• In May 1967 Revisionists join the government

• Capture of East Jerusalem and collapse of the Arab armies = euphoria

Back to the beginning?

• Israel now controlled all of the Mandate but with the large Palestinian population

• Would be plausible to “re-play” the 30s?

• A far more diverse Jewish society had replaced the Zionist movement

• Integration of Israel into a global economy required economic change

The emergence of “Likud”

• Begin as electoral leader

• The Mizrahim search for power

• The Labor Old Guard exhausts itself