‘An ill keeper of promise’? Britain, Israel and the shadow of Palestine

Description

This article provides a broad historical overview of the course of Britain’s relationship with Israel since 1948. It argues that, although the relationship has been shaped by perceptions of British and Israeli interests in relation to wider international developments and structures, Britain’s historic responsibility for the governance of the Palestine Mandate after the First World War created a troubled legacy with which both British and Israeli diplomats have, in different ways, struggled to come to terms. The result has been a tradition of mistrust between British and Israeli governments which even the development of deeper and stronger bilateral links in the 1990s did not entirely remove. The disillusionment and conflict that marked the collapse of the Palestine Mandate continued to cast a shadow on Anglo-Israeli relations long after the Union Flag was lowered in Palestine in May 1948.