Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Constraints and Adjustments in Portugal's Policy toward Israel

2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 40; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0026320042000265684

1743-7881

Jacob Abadi,

Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes ‘The Mossad Machine: Confounding Military Intelligence 1946–7’ in Walid Khalidi (ed.), From Haven to Conquest: Readings in Zionism and the Palestine Problem until 1948 (Beirut: The Institute of Palestine Studies, 1971), p.618. Barnet J. Richard, The Alliance: America, Europe, Japan – Makers of the Postwar World, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983), p.351. Howard M. Sacher, Israel and Europe: An Appraisal in History, (New York: Knopf, 1999), p.221. Deeply ingrained in the Jewish mind was the case of the Jewish physician Garcia de Orta who lived in the 16th century in Portuguese Goa and who was an expert in tropical medicine and a pioneer of pharmacology. De Orta was the first to provide a scientific explanation of the cholera disease and his treatise Conversations on Medicinal Plants and Medications in India was published in Goa in 1563. After being buried as a Christian the Inquisition exhumed his grave and burned his bones. Amnon Ginzai, ‘Marranos on Portuguese Coins’, Ha'umma, [Hebrew], (Winter 1992–3), p.159. H.H. Ben-Sasson (ed.), A History of the Jewish People (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), pp.570, 638, 721, 734, 737. Dalia Ofer, Escaping the Holocaust: Illegal Immigration to Israel, 1939–1944, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp.156–7; Abram L. Sacher, The Redemption of the Unwanted: From the Liberation of the Death Camps to the Founding of Israel (New York: St. Martin's/Marek, 1983), pp.92–3, 96. Lapid to Foreign Ministry, Israel State Archives (hereafter, ISA), 2596/20, 10 May 1954; Jerusalem Post, 28 June 1987. ‘Singer named to Portugal Nazi panel’, Jerusalem Post, 1 June 1997. Peretz Merhav, The Israeli Left: History, Problems, Documents (New York: Barnes & Co, 1980), p.148. Becker to Mozambique Liberation Front, The Israel Labour and Pioneer Archives, Lavon Institute, IV208–1537, 12 Sept.1962. Shimon Peres, Battling for Peace: A Memoir (New York: Random House, 1995), p.180; Jerusalem Post, 10 Jan.1979. Memorandum by Avraham Darom, ISA FO /2413/24, 3 April 1950; Memorandum by Avraham Darom, ISA FO /2413/24b, 18 Jan. 1953. Eilat to Eytan, ISA 2596/20, 4 June 1954. Ellipses are in the text. Eytan to Eilat, ISA 2596/20, 28 May 1954; Tsur to Foreign Ministry, ISA 2541/17/a, 2 July 1951. Gali to Foreign Ministry, ISA 2541/18/a, 9 March 1953; Tsur to Foreign Ministry, ISA 2541/17/a, 19 May 1954. Sasson to Foreign Ministry, ISA 2541/17/a, 15 Feb.1953; Comay to Foreign Ministry, ISA 2541/17/a, 17 Dec.1952; Darom to Avner, ISA 2541/17/a, 10. Sept.1951; Avner to Fisher, ISA 2541/17/a, 22 July 1951; Darom to Israel's Ambassador to Brussels. ISA 2541/18/9, 29 Nov. 1953. Fischer to Foreign Ministry, ISA 2541/18/9, 16 Dec. 1953. Barromi to Israel's Ambassador in Rome, ISA 2541/17/a, 29 Oct. 1954. Director of the Western European Section in the Israeli Foreign Ministry to Israel's Foreign Minister, ISA 2541/17/a, 22 Dec. 1954. Ariel to Foreign Ministry, ISA 2541/18/a, 2 Nov. 1954. Ariel to foreign Ministry, ISA 2541/18/9, 25 Jan. 1954; Ariel to Foreign Ministry, ISA 2541/18/a, 25 Feb. 1954. Ariel to Foreign Ministry, ISA 2541/18/a, 16 Nov. 1954; Najar to Israel's Ambassador in Brussels, ISA 2541/18/a, 10 Dec. 1954. Eytan to Comay, ISA 2541/17/b, 22 Feb. 1955. Ariel to foreign Ministry, ISA 2541/18/a, 21 Dec. 1954. Tsur to Foreign Ministry, ISA 2541/18/a, 14 March 1954. Parentheses are mine. Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv, The Imperfect Spies: The History of the Israeli Intelligence (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1989), p.172. ‘General Lopez Outlines Foreign Policy’, Public Record Office, London, (hereafter, PRO), FO/371, 96133, WP1022/1, 16 July 1951. Ronald to Evans, PRO FO/371, 111062, VR1023/1, 14 June 1954; Robert Lacey, The Kingdom: Arabia & the House of Saud (New York: Avon, 1981), p.376. Report on a meeting between Mr Dean and the Portuguese ambassador who expressed concern for the oil supplies. Minutes by P. Dean, PRO FO/371, JE1094/36, 2 Nov. 1956. Moshe Dayan, Story of My Life [Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Edanim, 1976), p.425. Statements of Fourteen Maritime States Concerning Freedom of Navigation in the Strait of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba, 1, 4, and 8 March 1957. The Arab–Israeli Conflict: Documents, John Norton Moore (ed.), (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974), pp.67–4. Anthony Eden, The Suez Crisis of 1956, (Boston: Beacon, 1968), p.81. ‘Report by Professor Dr Moses B. Amzalar, President Anglo Jewish Association’, PRO FO/371, 144845, RP1571/1, 25 March 1959. There in no indication in the documents available in the Israel State archive that such authorization was ever given. Kantor to Sharett, ISA 2541/17/9, 2 Sept. 1948. According to one story, an Egyptian scientist claimed that the Portuguese Jewish physician Rodrigo Lopez was Queen Elizabeth's personal physician and a Spanish spy at the same time. According to the story, he was caught attempting to poison the Queen and summarily executed. Raphael Israeli, Peace in the Eyes of the Beholder (Berlin: Mouton, 1985), p.58; Yehoshafat Harkabi, Arab Attitude to Israel (Jerusalem: Israel Universities Press, 1972), p.253. Miron to Foreign Ministry, ISA, 130.09/2324/6, 15 Jan. 1960. Miron to Foreign Ministry, ISA, 130.23/3338/31, 9 March 1960. Miron to Darom, ISA, 130.20/3338/31, 16 June 1960. Ross to Foreign Office. PRO FO/371, 155438, JP1018/8, 12 April 1961. Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, The Israeli Connection: Who Israel Arms and Why (New York: Pantheon, 1987), p.64. Indeed, the left wing parties in Israel such as the Communists and Mapam were particularly sensitive about this issue and questioned Deputy Defence Minister Shimon Peres in the Knesset about the veracity of these allegations. ‘Israel Refuses to Sell Arms to Portugal: A BBC telegram. PRO FO/371, 157798, ER1195/5, 9 Nov. 1961; Smith to Foreign Office. PRO FO/371, 164357, ER1195/1, 27 Jan. 1962. The Times (London), 1 Dec. 1961. Foreign Office Minutes on the Sale of Arms by Israel. PRO FO/371, 164357, ER1195/1, 2 Feb. 1962. Middle East Record 1967, Vol.3 (Jerusalem: The Israeli Universities Press, 1971), p.71. Jerusalem Post, 26 May 1963; ‘Statement by Shlomo Hillel in Special Committee on Apartheid’, ISA 3992/2, 9 Dec. 1966. Ross to Foreign Office, PRO FO/371, 169443, 18 July 1963. Burroughs to Brown, PRO FO/371, 180079, CP1021/1, 6 Jan. 1965; Evans to Foreign Office, PRO FO/371, 173138, 24 April 1963. Samuel Merlin, The Search for Peace in the Middle East: The Story of President Bourguiba's Campaign for a Negotiated Peace between Israel and the Arab States (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1968), p.268. United Kingdom Mission in the United Nations to Foreign Office. PRO FO/371, 190294, VM1051/4, 25 Feb. 1966. Graham to Chamier, PRO FO/371, 185406, BK103136/1, 1 Aug. 1966; Fowler to Mallaby, PRO FO/371, 185406, BK103136/1, 10. Aug. 1966. The Portuguese were displeased with the USA because of its insistence that its policy toward colonialism was ‘not negotiable’. Thomson to Jaimeson, PRO FO/371, 169462, CP1224/1, 23 Jan. 1963. In an interview with the New York Times on 16 March 1966, Salazar warned that the western powers should no longer expect ‘automatic cooperation from Portugal, even for the defence of ‘what they call free world’. He said that NATO was totally ‘inadequate’ to the present needs and was a source of disastrous results. He concluded by saying that Portugal would cooperate only with those who fully cooperate with it. New York Times, 25 March 1966; The Times (London), 29 March 1966. ‘Israel barred from Portuguese soccer match’, Jerusalem Post, 22 Feb. 1973. Kemal Kirisci, The PLO and World Politics: A Study of the Mobilization of Support for the Palestinian Cause (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986), pp.73–5; ‘Address to the Conference of the Non-aligned Countries in Algiers. Radio Cairo, 6 Sept. 1967. The Public Diary of President Sadat: The Road to War (Oct.1970–Oct.1973) Part I, Raphael Israeli (ed.) (Leiden, The Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1978), p.421. ‘Address to the Central Committee of ASU. MENA, Cairo, March 27, 1976’, The Public Diary of President Sadat: The Road to Pragmatism (June 1975–October 1976), Part III, Raphael Israeli (ed.), (Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1979), pp.1239, 1256, 1328. ‘US raps Nato for hedging’, Jerusalem Post, 3 Oct. 1973; ‘The Day of the Ostriches’, Jerusalem Post, 8 Nov. 1973. ‘US ends month-long airlift here of arms’, Jerusalem Post, 15 Nov. 1979; Portugal: na imprensa estrangeira-um ano depois (Lisboa: Publicacoes Dom Quixote, 1975), pp.79–80. In an interview with Roy Licklider, a Portuguese official referred to Nixon's note to the Prime Minister as ‘the toughest letter from one head of state to another that I have ever seen’. Roy Licklider, Political Power and the Arab Oil Weapon: The Emergence of Five Industrial Nations (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), pp.211–12; Kenneth Maxwell, The Making of Portuguese Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p.55. It was apparently for that reason that the Portuguese decided to send an ambassador to Israel when the negotiations with the USA about the uses of the Azores began. Kenneth Maxwell, The Making of Portuguese Democracy (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp.214–5. Beit-Hallahmi, p.159. J.B. Kelly, Arabia, the Gulf and the West (New York: Basic Books, 1980), p.400; Walter Henry Nelson and Terence C.F. Prittie, The Economic War against the Jews (New York: Random House, 1977), p.142. Revolution into Democracy: Portugal after the Coup: A Report by Senator George McGovern to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, August 1976. (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1976), p.13. Jerusalem Post, 20 Nov. 1973; Benjamin Netanyahu, A Place Among the Nations: Israel and the World (London: Bantam, 1988), p.259. Patrick Seale, Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire (London: Hutchinson, 1992), pp.170, 272. ‘US officials warn’, Jerusalem Post, 6 Oct. 1974. ‘Portugal ready to establish ties with Arabs – then Israel’, Jerusalem Post, 16 Oct. 1974. ‘Portugal sliding to the left’, Jerusalem Post, 22 Nov. 1974. Christopher Reed, ‘Lisbon against use of base for US airlift’, Jerusalem Post, 4 Dec. 1974. ‘Lisbon says it won't allow use of the Azores against Arab states’, Jerusalem Post, 4 April 1975. Ibid. ‘Portugal to honor NATO commitments’, Jerusalem Post, 9 April 1975. ‘Portuguese socialist leader cancels trip’, Jerusalem Post, 5 May 1975. Gideon Raphael, Destination Peace, Three Decades of Israeli Foreign Policy: A Personal Memoir (New York: Stein & Day, 1981), pp.358–9. John L. Hammond, Building Popular Power: Workers and Neighborhood Movements in the Portuguese Revolution (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1988), pp.57,101; Phil Mailer, Portugal: The Impossible Revolution? (New York: Free Life Editions, 1977), p.201. ‘Portugal, Iraq condemn (Israeli) racism’, Jerusalem Post, 1 Jan. 1976. ‘Portuguese socialists visit here’, Jerusalem Post, 7 June 1976. ‘Portugal's bid for ties greeted in Jerusalem’, Jerusalem Post, 4 Aug. 1976; ‘Soares thanks Rabin, hopes for more friendly relations’, Jerusalem Post, 10 Aug. 1976. ‘Israel–Portugal ties discussed’, Jerusalem Post, 27 Aug. 1976; ‘Avineri had unscheduled chat with Soares’, Jerusalem Post, 4 Aug. 1976. ‘Portugal may deny Azores for Israel aid’, Jerusalem Post, 30 Aug. 1976; When asked whether Portugal would prevent the USA from using its bases in the Azores, Secretary of State, Casper Weinberger said that he heard nothing to that effect. He said that in his talks with the Portuguese they agreed that disturbances in the Middle East were likely to have adverse effect on NATO's vital interests in other theatres. ‘Transcript of a Press Conference by Secretary of Defence (Weinberger), Lisbon, 14 May 1981 (extracts), American Foreign Policy Current Documents 1981, (Washington: Department of State, 1984), Doc.192, p.527. ‘Lisbon Denies report of Arab offer’, Jerusalem Post, 25 Aug. 1974. ‘Allon to confer with Lisbon FM’, Jerusalem Post, 1 Sept. 1976; ‘Portuguese contacts’, Jerusalem Post, 7 Oct. 1976. ‘Portugal minister says visit is ‘a first step’, Jerusalem Post, 19 Oct. 1976; ‘Ties with Portugal expected’, Jerusalem Post, 24 Feb. 1977; ‘Israel and Portugal to exchange ambassadors’, Jerusalem Post, 17 April 1977. ‘Israel, Portugal make diplomatic ties official’, Jerusalem Post, 13 May 1977. ‘Israel–Lisbon agricultural pact signed’, Jerusalem Post, 3 June 1967; ‘North Yemen cuts ties with Portugal over Israeli issue’, Jerusalem Post, 2 June 1977. ‘Libya stalls Portuguese ties’, Jerusalem Post, 13 June 1977; ‘Lisbon reneges on legation’, Jerusalem Post, 5 Aug. 1977. ‘Lisbon sees PLO as “counter-balance”’, Jerusalem Post, 14 Oct. 1977. ‘Arab ambassadors to boycott visit of Eanes to Spain’, Jerusalem Post, 25 May 1977; ‘Resolution adopted by Euro-Arab symposium affirming that recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people and the establishment of an independent sovereign state constitute the key to the Middle East crisis.’ International Documents on Palestine 1977, (Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1979), pp.248–9. Jerusalem Post, Nov. 1979. Kameel B. Nasr, Arab and Israeli Terrorism: the Causes and Effects of Political Violence, 1936–1993 (London: McFarland, 1997), pp.11–9. Portugal depended on Arab oil for 75 per cent of its supplies. César Oliveira, Portugal, dos quarto cantos do Mundo á Europa: de descolonização (1974–1976), (Lisboa: Edições Cosmos, 1996), p.50. Hoag Levins, Arab Reach: The Secret War Against Israel (London: Sidgewick & Jackson, 1983), p.199; ‘Portugal to Sell Iraq Unenriched Uranium’, Washington Post, 17 July 1981. Israel continuously complained about Portugal's lenient policy toward the Palestinians. Portuguese tolerance toward their activities was obvious in February 1986, when a member of the Palestinian Abu Nidal faction who was responsible for the assassination of Arafat's advisor Issam Sartawi was released by the Portuguese. Jerusalem Post, 2 Feb. 1986. Portugal's Director General of Engery Sidonio Pais said earlier that year that the Iraqis had purchased 120 tons of uranium from Portugal in 1980. According to the state news agency Anop, when Iraqi Foreign Minister Saadoun Hammadi visited Lisbon in March 1981, he asked the Portuguese to increase the sales. Jerusalem Post, 10 June 1981. ‘Transcript of a White House Press Briefing, 15 Dec. 1982’, American Foreign Policy Current Documents 1982 (Washington: Department of State, 1985), Doc.227, p.595. Jerusalem Post, 2 Oct. 1985. The group was involved in an attempt to assassinate the Israeli ambassador on Portuguese soil and it was there that Abu Nidal's gunman assassinated Issam Sartawi on 10 April 1983. Jacques Degory and Hesi Carmel, Israel Ultra-Secret (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1989), p.276. Beit-Hallahmi, p.64; Seymour M. Hersh, The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy (New York: Random House, 1991), p.13n. Lourie to Stevens, ISA, 93.26/2713/18, 23 Feb. 1960; Rosemary Hollis, ‘The Politics of Israeli–European Economic Relations’, Peace in the Middle East: The Challenge for Israel, Efraim Karsh (ed.), (London: Frank Cass: 1994), p.128; Ha'aretz, 27 Dec. 1983; Don Peretz, Intifada: The Palestinian Uprising, (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990), p.165. F. Robert Hunter, The Palestinian Uprising: A War by Other Means (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), p.84. Jerusalem Post, 21 July 1988, 6 and 7 Sept. 1988, 28 Aug. 1987. Cited in Dilip Hiro, Desert Shield to Desert Storm: The Second Gulf War (New York: Routledge, 1992), p.321. Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh, The Gulf Conflict 1990–1991: Diplomacy and War in the New World Order (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993), p.357. Jerusalem Israel Television in Hebrew, 18 May 1992. FBIS-NES-92-097, 19 May 1992; Jerusalem New Channel 2 Television in Hebrew, 30 Dec. 1993. FBIS- NES-94-002, 4 Jan. 1994. ‘Portugal's President in the Knesset: ‘It is necessary to awaken my countrymen to take responsibility for the injuries inflicted by the Inquisition and to bring reconciliation’, Ha'aretz, 2 Nov. 1995. Middle East Mirror, 4 Dec. 1996; Jay Bushinsky, ‘Lack of funds may force Israel out of Lisbon expo’, Jerusalem Post, 28 Dec. p.2.; ‘News in brief’, Jerusalem Post, 29 Dec. 1997; Judy Siegel, ‘Communications deal with Portugal’, Jerusalem Post, 28 Jan. 1998, p.13. ‘Declaration by the Presidency on Behalf of the European Union on Lebanon’, Press Release, Embassy of Portugal, Washington DC, 9.Feb. 2000. http:/www.portugalemb.org/global.html ‘News in Brief’, Jerusalem Post, 2 July 1999. ‘Remarks with Portuguese Director-General for Foreign Policy Ambassador Santana Carlos’, Marc Grossman, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lisbon, Portugal, 17 April 2002. http://www.state.gov/p/9608.htm The Main Lines of Portuguese Foreign Policy: Speech at the Assembly of the Republic by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Communities, Martins da Cruz, 18 June, 2002. file://A:\Government%20 Portal%20%20The%20Main%20Lines%20of%20Potuguese%’…. p.3. Jaime Gama, ‘Foreign Policy’, Portugal: Ancient Country, Young Democracy, Kenneth Maxwell and Michael H. Haltzel (eds.), (Washington DC: Wilson Center Press, 1990), p.79. Jerusalem Post, 12 March 1986.