1. Introduction; 2. East Germany and the Six-Day War of June 1967; 3. An anti-Israel left emerges in West Germany: the conjuncture of June 1967; 4. Diplomatic breakthrough to military alliance: East Germany, the Arab states, and the PLO 1969–73; 5. Palestinian terrorism in 1972: Lod airport, the Munich Olympics, and responses; 6. Formalizing the East German alliance with the PLO and the Arab states: 1973; 7. Political warfare at the United Nations during the Yom Kippur War of 1973; 8. 1974: Palestinian terrorist attacks on Kiryat Shmona and Maalot and responses in East Germany, West Germany, Israel, the United States, and the United Nations; 9. The UN 'Zionism is racism' revolution of November 10, 1975; 10. The Entebbe hijacking and 'selection' and the West German 'revolutionary cells'; 11. An alliance deepens: East Germany, the Arab states, and the PLO: 1978–82; 12. Terrorism from Lebanon to Israel's 'operation peace for Galilee': 1977–82; 13. Loyal friends in defeat: 1983–9 and after; 14. Conclusion.
This book examines antagonism to Israel by East and West Germany, from the Six-Day War through the Cold War.
Jeffrey Herf is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of History at the University of Maryland, College Park. His publications on modern German history include Reactionary Modernism: Technology, Culture and Politics in Weimar and the Third Reich (Cambridge, 1984); Divided Memory: The Nazi Past in the Two Germanys (1997), winner of the American Historical Association's George Lewis Beer Prize; The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust (2006), winner of the National Jewish Book Award; Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World (2009), winner of the bi-annual Sybil Halpern Milton Prize of the German Studies Association in 2011 for work on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. He has also published essays and reviews on history and politics in Partisan Review, The New Republic, The Times of Israel, and The American Interest.
'An excellent review of the growing hostility of the German left
towards Israel during the last fifty years.' Walter Laqueur
'A critical book at a critical moment. By examining the Cold War
politics of the German left toward Israel, Jeffrey Herf unlocks the
origins of contemporary global strategies aimed at Israel's
delegitimization, as well as the fusion of anti-Zionism with
antisemitism. A remarkable array of sources, from secret police and
intelligence files to acrimonious UN debates, makes this book
especially authoritative.' Norman J. W. Goda, author of Tales from
Spandau: Nazi Criminals and the Cold War
'Jeffrey Herf's Undeclared Wars with Israel greatly enhances our
understanding of the shadowy proxy wars fought in the Cold War's
closing decades. It commendably sheds new light on the communist
bloc's efforts to covertly undermine Israel and diminish western
influence in the Middle East. Herf systematically documents both
the arms transfers and clandestine support given to an
international terrorist campaign that unrelentingly targeted Israel
but also de-stabilized the region and convulsed the globe.'
Professor Bruce Hoffman, Director, Center for Security Studies,
Georgetown University, Washington DC
'Jeffrey Herf's superb book recounts a deeply troubling episode of
the Cold War. He shows how East Germany's Communist regime waged a
prolonged, violent campaign against Israel, often with sinister
anti-Semitic overtones. Unlike the democratic government in West
Germany, which took many important steps to atone for the Holocaust
and other Nazi crimes, the East German Communists refused to accept
any responsibility for the Holocaust and instead provided arms,
training, and support to those who wanted to kill Jews and wipe
Israel off the map.' Mark Kramer, Director, Cold War Studies, and
Senior Fellow, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies,
Harvard University, Massachusetts
'Voluminously documented, [Herf's] new study is the most
comprehensive inventory yet of how much of what - treaties,
speeches, editorials, state visits, General Assembly votes,
military and technical training, academic exchanges, and even
enumerated bullets - East Germany did to make Arab friends and
influence Arab people. From the late 1960s to the memorable autumn
of 1989, a parade of Arab leaders, military and technical
delegations, scientists, and aspiring revolutionaries visited East
Germany for acclaim, legitimacy, all possible instruments of both
hard and soft power, and even access to the West via East Berlin.
Meanwhile East Germany offered a home away from home to fugitive
West German lefties.' David Schoenbaum, H-Diplo
'This groundbreaking book demands to be read, for its advances a
deeper understanding of the Cold War period and the Leftist war on
Israel. If Germany is serious about grappling with its past, a
German publisher will swiftly translate Herf's comprehensive
study.' Benjamin Weinthal, The Weekly Standard
'Jeffrey Herf shines a searchlight into dark episodes into
Germany's troubled past.' Colin Shindler, The Jerusalem Post
'Herf has mined numerous important archives and German-language
materials … a landmark of scholarship on this understudied and
tragic episode of German-Jewish relations.' Jeffrey Kopstein,
Journal of Cold War Studies
'Jeffrey Herf has produced not only a prodigiously researched
indictment but also a timely reminder. As he writes at the very end
of his book, although they have been defeated, the communists and
radical leftists in Germany 'left behind a toxic ideological brew.
Their distortions about the history of the state of Israel, their
extensive use of terrorism, and their justifications for it have
cast a long and destructive shadow over politics and political
culture in the Middle East, in Germany, and around the world.'
Allan Arkush, Jewish Review of Books
'Herf has written an important study of a difficult and
multidimensional chapter in the history of Germans and Jews,
interweaving political and military history in East Germany, the
rise and self-immolation of the New Left in the West, the
vicissitudes of Arab and Palestinian terrorism, and the efforts of
Jews, in Israel and in Germany, to survive.' Russell A. Berman,
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
'Herf has written a readable and informative study of the GDR's
position toward Israel, which adds a new chapter to the research of
the history of German-Israeli relations. It is based on a large
corpus of primary sources and is methodologically well composed.
Undeclared Wars with Israel will be a useful source for those
studying German and Israeli history, the history of the
Arab-Israeli conflict, the history of international relations, and
the history of the European left.' Philipp Lenhard, H-Judaic
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