Between Moral Diplomacy and Realpolitik - Israel’s diplomatic approach towards the Federal Republic of Germany and the Spanish State between 1948 and 1955
Summary
After the end of the Second World War, the young State of Israel had to decide how to approach the states of the former Axis Alliance in diplomatic affairs. While its approach towards Italy, Austria, and Japan was comparably lenient, Israel decided to completely reject any formal ties with the two German states and the State of Spain. This thesis analyses the similarities in the diplomatic approaches Israel chose for West Germany and Spain even though they were involved in the war and the Holocaust at varying levels and degrees. Herein, the research focuses on the cases of the Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Spain, leaving out the German Democratic Republic. It encompasses the period between 1948, when Israel declared its independence, and 1955, when the occupation of West Germany ended, and Spain was admitted to the United Nations. Through the analysis of a collection of primary sources created in Israel’s Foreign Ministry, the Prime Minister’s Office, and the consultation of relevant secondary sources, this thesis presents two diplomatic approaches; one based on moral considerations, and another based on pragmatic reasoning that Israel employed vis à-vis the two case studies. The findings are further applied to Yehudit Auerbach’s theory of Turning Point Decisions (TPD) and Adam B. Lerner’s theory of collective memory. In the case of West Germany, moral diplomacy has been successfully employed to engage in direct negotiations over reparations payments for the crimes committed by the Nazis during the Holocaust and eventually led to the ratification of the Luxembourg Agreement in 1953. Once the Israeli government recognised that moral diplomacy had reached its limits, it changed its West German foreign policy to an approach based on Realpolitik that aimed at deepening the established ties. In the Spanish case, moral diplomacy became a tool to uphold the memory of the Holocaust in the international sphere as Israel rejected any diplomatic relations with the Iberian state on the grounds of the regime’s collaboration with the Nazis and the fact that, at the time, this regime was still in power. When the Jewish state realised that this approach did not lead to any benefits in the international arena anymore, it decided, through pragmatic considerations, to adapt its Spain policy in line with the approach of its Western allies.