Changing world, shifting relations: Israel’s ties with China
Israel and China are peculiar partners. In almost every way, they display contrasts as opposed to commonalities – across cultures, history, size, political systems, economic structures, and ideology. In the face of their differences, they have succeeded in cultivating flourishing economic relations, and today, China is Israel’s second-largesttrading partner country. China’s relations with Israel are emblematic of […]
Reflecting On Moroccan Sense Of Tolerance
Morocco is not a fully-fledged democracy, as is the case in the West, but incrementally the country, is slowly but surely, moving in that direction. As a matter of fact, the constitution of 2011 has opened the door to the devolution of power and has strengthened the diverse identity of the Moroccan individual: he is […]
Israel’s China Challenge
The question of how to deal with an increasingly assertive, powerful China has left many in the international arena baffled – including Israel. Until recently, Chinese investment entering the Jewish state both in infrastructure and high technologies was viewed strictly through an economic lens. But recent developments, emerging in part from increasing U.S.-China tensions, have […]
Unprecedented Speech By Mossad Chief
Dear friends and colleagues, This morning, Mossad chief Yossi Cohen gave today an unusual speech, the first one of this kind ever given by an acting chief, a speech which reveals a bit of the organization’s activity and his views. I bring here a translation of a few paragraphs that seemed important to me. Sorry for […]
Business as Usual? China’s Social Credit System
“Why did you bring me into the world to suffer?” Ren Chen, a 13-year-old boy from Hunan province, asked his mother after a decade of constant illness and two kidney surgeries. He is one of almost 300,000 children who fell ill after 22 companies, including state-owned dairy company Sanlu, laced their milk powder with melamine, a chemical used to make […]
A Global Order of Connectivity – The Chinese Vision
The international political order that was created after the Second World War is based on the concept of sovereignty. With the breakup of the western empires, the sovereign nation-state became the basic and dominant form of political order. These sovereign states adopted numerous treaties that regulated the complicated relationship between them. The treaties attempted to cover […]
Ancient History, Contemporary Practice: China’s Encounter with the Xiongnu
What can China’s struggle with the Xiongnu, a nomadic, horse-riding people who lived on the country’s northern frontier 2000 years ago, teach us about how the Middle Kingdom conducts its foreign affairs today? Quite a lot, so long as we acknowledge the enduring influence of China’s historical memory on present-day foreign affairs. To borrow the […]
From David Ben-Gurion to Ben-Gurion University: the Israel–China Connection, from Idea to Action
David Ben-Gurion, founding father of the State of Israel, often expressed his appreciation for the Chinese people and predicted that China would again play a senior role—one of leadership and influence—in world affairs as it had once before. While one may be inclined to diminish the importance of these statements, one might also accordingly argue […]
What Israel Can Learn from the Sino-Swiss Free Trade Agreement
China and Israel wrapped up their fifth round of free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations this past January. The negotiations began in 2016. Prime Minister Netanyahu has pushed for reaching a final agreement in 2019. The goal of this final accord is a win-win outcome, but how would that look? The Middle Kingdom is a mammoth of economic […]
Can the Belt Road Initiative Help Ameliorate the Arab-Israel Conflict?
Abstract. One of the main purposes of China’s Belt and Road Initiative is to enhance trade between countries, increase mutual learning between civilizations and promote greater people-to-people exchanges. Furthermore, this unprecedented project is also designed to promote dialogues and exchanges among civilizations and to enhance friendly interactions between countries. Could these lofty ideas be applied […]