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France

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Summary

In Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, France first appears among the Powers that opposed the Partition Resolution in spring 1948 and armed Syria, then as a party to the Tripartite Declaration (1950), and from 1955 as Israel’s new orientation: the one Western power with nothing left to lose in the Arab world, whose Algerian war Israel consistently defended at the UN (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.101-102, p.156, p.170-173).

Details

  • In spring 1948 France renewed the American arguments against partition (Weizmann), withheld normal relations with Israel (Ben-Gurion, Davar, 4/8/48) and would not support Israel’s UN membership (Eban); the book concludes that not only Britain but also the USA and France opposed the UN Resolution (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.101).

  • France armed Syria while the US embargo harmed only Israel and Britain armed the Arab armies (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.102).

  • France was one of the three governments of the 26/5/50 Tripartite Declaration (1950), which substituted the Western powers for the UN as guarantors of the status quo (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.74-76).

  • The French orientation (1955): when the American orientation failed, only Britain and France were candidate allies; Britain retained Arab influence to protect, but “France no longer had anything to lose in the Arab world; its war of repression in North Africa mobilized the Arabs against it to such a degree that the possibility existed that the Arab states – and especially Egypt – would actively intervene in the conflict.” France would lose nothing from open ties to Israel and could profit by diverting Arab strength towards a different front by means of Israeli activism: thus was born the French orientation of the government of Israel (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.156).

  • Israel’s UN loyalty to France: in 1952 Israel voted against the Tunisians together with France and South Africa; in 1956 and 1958 it voted with France against the Africans on Algeria (in 1958 one vote would have reversed the result); in November 1959 it voted with the minority against barring French atomic tests in the Sahara, and Dayan congratulated General Challe on the explosion (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.171-172).

  • Le Figaro’s special friendship edition (May 1960), quoted under “consistency and loyalty”: “Israel has always been on the side of France in the important votes in the UN, and especially regarding Algeria”, counting 10 such votes, including against putting Algeria on the agenda in 1955 and against Algerian self-determination in 1957; the authors gloss this as loyalty to French imperialism, not to France, most of whose citizens support the Algerians’ right to self-determination (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.172).

  • At the special UN session at the end of August 1961 Israel was among the states that did not vote for the Afro-Asian motion calling on France to negotiate with Tunisia over evacuation of the Bizerte base (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.171).

  • Chapter 7’s collusion evidence: French Defence Ministry representatives came to Israel on 20 September 1956 proposing French air and naval support for an Israeli attack on Egypt, the two countries’ military staffs began joint work on 1 October, and two French-manned squadrons (thirty-six aircraft) were stationed at Lydda in the last week of October, supplying air cover over Israeli towns and ground forces (Randolph Churchill, as quoted) (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.327-330).

  • French naval participation: on 29 October 1956 Admiral Barjot procured French ships’ shelling of Rafah (350 shells from the Georges Leygues in two hours on the night of 30-31 October) and of al-Arish, and an official French fleet pamphlet records the destroyer Kersaint disabling the Egyptian destroyer Ibrahim al-Awwal off Haifa on 31 October (Maariv, 31/10/58) (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.331-333).

Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, Britain, United States, Algeria, Tripartite Declaration (1950), Lavon Affair

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