Margaret Thatcher and the Middle East

Margaret Thatcher and the Middle East examines Thatcher's policy on the Middle East, with a spotlight on her approach towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It questions claims that she sought to counter the Foreign Office Middle East policy, and maintains that the prime minister was actually in close agreement with the Whitehall bureaucracy on the Arab-Israeli conflict. In particular, the volume argues that Thatcher's concerns over Soviet ambitions in the Middle East encouraged her to oppose the policies of Israel's Likud governments, and to work actively for an urgent resolution of the conflict. Furthermore, while Thatcher was strongly pro-American, this was not translated into automatic support for Israel. Indeed, the Thatcher government was very much at odds with the Reagan administration over the Middle East, as a result of Washington's neglect of the forces of moderation in the region.

Introduction; 1. Thatcher and the 'Finchley factor'; 2. The new Soviet threat; 3. Thatcher endorses the Venice Declaration; 4. Operation Babylon; 5. The crisis in Anglo-American relations; 6. Israel's invasion of Lebanon; 7. Thatcher's diplomatic initiative; 8. Thatcher's landmark visit to Israel; 9. The Reagan administration spurns the London Agreement; 10. The collapse of the 'Jordanian option'; 11. A new approach towards the PLO; 12. The end of a friendship; Conclusion.

Azriel Bermant is a historian, and a research fellow in the arms control and regional security program at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) at Tel Aviv University. Dr Bermant was awarded his Ph.D. from University College London. His work has been published in numerous publications, including Foreign Affairs, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and Haaretz. He is the author of The Russian and Iranian Missile Threats: Implications for NATO Missile Defense (2014).