Dirty scapegoats: explaining Israel's ties with South Africa during the 1970s and 1980s
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Date
2013
Authors
Alsheh, Yehonatan
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Humanities, University of the Free State
Abstract
The article surveys five possible explanations for the ties between Israel and South Africa between the
1970s and 1980s. (1) The Industrial-Military Complex Explanation, arguing that both the Israeli and
South African defence establishments and arms industries had much to gain from such a relationship,
and enough political influence to ensure that this would indeed happen. (2) The Nuclear Alliance
Explanation, arguing that it was in Israel and South Africa’s national interest to forge a nuclear
consortium that would enable them to attain and further develop significant nuclear capacities,
conceived by both states as the ultimate means for guaranteeing the survival of their chronicallycontested
regimes. (3) The Ideological Affinities / similar Regime-Type Explanation, arguing that, while
Israel was unable or in any case reluctant to publicly admit it, it was not averse to the South African
regime of separate development, mostly because, ever since 1967, it was on a course of constructing
its own version of such a regime. (4) The Pariah States Alliance Explanation, arguing that Israel and
South Africa shared the same international status of pariah states, hence having no other states they
could befriend, and in any case nothing to lose from collaborating with each other. (5) The Politics of
International Pariah-Making Explanation, arguing that the concept of the pariah state – which emerged
in 1977 and disappeared by the end of the 1980s – was not a naïve scholarly attempt to conceptualize a
new type of international actor, but rather an ideological construct, meant to re-justify the United State’s
support for some of its more embarrassing client states, while restructuring the precise way in which
that support was provided.
Description
Keywords
Israel, Palestine, Palestine, Nuclear, Pariah, Foreign relations, Arms trade, Embargo, Apartheid, Occupation, United States of America, United Nations, International Law, South Africa
Citation
Alsheh, Y. (2013). Dirty scapegoats: explaining Israel's ties with South Africa during the 1970s and 1980s. Journal for Contemporary History, 38(1), 22-40.