Talk:France–Israel relations

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Hi,

This paragraph is completely wrong: "Until the 6 Day War, France was the main supplier of Israel's weapons. In 1967 Charles de Gaulle made a one-sided disconnection with Israel. The reason was that Ben-Gurion attacked the Arab neighbors of Israel (Egypt, Syria and Jordan)and colonized parts of those Arabian territories, and as a result de Gaulle made an arms embargo on Israel." There are few mistakes:

1. Ben-Gurion hadn't been Israel's prime minister since 1963 and wasn't even part of the leadership in 1967.

2. De-Gaulle disconnected the relationship immediately after the war and before any Israeli citizen lived in the territories.

3. The words "colonized" and "Arabian Territories" are disputed and one-sided. So is the claim Israel "attacked" its neighbors.

Thank you,

EREZREFA — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.250.76.219 (talk) 19:08, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

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Edit request 21 April 2026

Description of suggested change: This sentence " Israel wisely held out a few more months until the establishment of UNEF, which ensured freedom of navigation for Israel of the Straits of Tiran." is biased towards Israel, praising its foreign policy decisions as "wise". It should be rewritten to simply state "After the withdrawal of Britain and France, Israel continued to hold the canal zone until it was able to force the Egyptians to agree to the reopening of the straits of Tiran. These had been blocked by Egypt in 1950, preventing Israeli trade from Eilat. " This rewrite gives more context to the reasons Israel continued to stay in the canal zone.

Diff:

−

Israel wisely held out a few more months until the establishment of [[United Nations Emergency Force|UNEF]], which ensured freedom of navigation for Israel of the [[Straits of Tiran]].ORIGINAL_WIKITEXT

+

After the withdrawal of Britain and France, Israel continued to hold the canal zone until it was able to force the Egyptians to agree to the reopening of the straits of Tiran. These had been blocked by Egypt in 1950, preventing Israeli trade from Eilat. CHANGED_WIKITEXT

Algcakeism (talk) 09:30, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

In progress: an editor is implementing the requested edit. Toast1454_TC 15:15, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

thank you Algcakeism (talk) 15:16, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

 Done Toast1454_TC 15:19, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

Date of French-Israeli Arm Sales Correction

"In 1953 France started selling French weapons to Israel and became one of its closest allies and supporters.[citation needed]" - this has needed a citation since 2014. The reason there is no cite is because the claim is wrong. It must be corrected to "In 1956 France started selling French weapons to Israel and became one of its closest allies and supporters."

France started selling French weapons to Israel in 1956, not 1953. Israel's primary source for arms was the Soviet Union via Czech from 1948 until 1955. Nasser's Egypt signed a Czech arms sale agreement in 1955 and Israel was cut off. Diplomacy to enable the France-Israel arms relationship began in 1953, after Nasser's revolution, but the agreement did not actually happen until after Nasser announced the 1955 arms deal. Israel and France agreed to an arms deal in 1956!!

Two citations follow, first to an academic paper and then to a primary source:

Democracy and Preventive War: Israel and the 1956 Sinai War, Levy, Jack and Gochal, Joseph, Rutgers University Department of Political Science, prepared for presentation at the 40th Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, Washington, D.C., February 16–20, 1999 (https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/isa/lej01/):

Egypt officially announced the existence of the Czech arms deal in late October 1955, a day after British officials gave information to the press regarding the sale. Israeli intelligence was aware of Egypt-Soviet contacts during the summer of 1955 and had concluded by September that they had agreed to some sort of arms deal (Love, 1969: 98, 101). It was not for another couple of months after the announcement of the deal that Israel learned the full extent of the situation and were able to grasp its seriousness (Bar-On, 1994: 16). . . . the Czech arms deal represented “the turning point for Ben-Gurion; it caused a fundamental change in his thinking about the nature and scope of dangers from Egypt” (Troen, 1990: 181; see also Love, 1969: 102). . . . Despite the sometimes heated debates between the Prime Minister and the Chief of Staff, throughout the winter of 1956 Israeli defense and security policy centered on the search for arms. Sharett concentrated on acquiring arms from the United States, while Ben-Gurion, Dayan, and Shimon Peres, Defense’s Director General, focused their efforts on France. Sharett was almost completely unsuccessful in his attempts to gain weapons from the Eisenhower administration, and this contributed greatly to his leaving the government in June of 1956 (Golani, 1998: 24). It was in their attempts to buy weapons from France that Israel was most successful their search for arms. Following a complicated path of secret diplomacy Israeli officials were able to get French assurances on the sale of numerous tanks and military aircraft to be delivered secretly from July through early 1957 (Golani, 1998: 28)

See also, this declassified CIA doc from the JFK library, The French-Israeli Relationship, Case No. NLK 97-89, Doc No. 4, approved for release December 1999 (https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000271219.pdf):

"Following the Egyptian revolution in 1952 and Nasir's complete takeover in 1954, some Frenchmen began to view Israel as a counter to Egyptian influence and a new base from which to recoup the influence France had lost in the Middle East when Syria and Lebanon became completely independent after World War II. ​In March 1953 Pierre Gilbert arrived in Tel Aviv as French ambassador, and set about to make France Israel's major supplier of arms. To this end, he sent the director general of the Israeli Defense Ministry, Shimon Peres, to talk with influential persons in France. Peres found the French Government divided between the views of traditional Middle East experts, who favored continuing friendly relations with the Arabs, and those who leaned to Israel as an ally against a hostile Nasir. ​This difference of opinion was resolved in favor of Israel, partly as a result of Gilbert's efforts and partly because of the disclosure in October 1955 that Cairo had bought arms from the Soviet bloc. In the six months preceding the Sinai campaign France poured 40,000 tons of military equipment into Israel. This action and the subsequent close military collaboration in the Suez campaign solidified French-Israeli friendship, and there followed in 1957 and 1958 a stream of French visitors to Israel, including cabinet ministers, influential deputies, civic leaders, financiers, and industrialists."

The Wikipedia page is wrong, lacks a citation because it is wrong, and has been wrong for over a decade. Let's change it. StoneDante (talk) 18:58, 28 July 2026 (UTC)