x ac know ledg mentsDesai, the former prime minister. Starting from my fi rst meeting in July
1988, the late Walter Eytan spent hours in clarifying many of my doubts.
Ya’acov Shimoni, the former Israeli diplomat, kindly allowed me access to
his private papers.
Over the years I have had the fortune of interacting with innumerable
scholar- friends, including Ashok Kapur, Avraham Altman, Avraham Sela,
Barry Jacobs, Barry Rubin, Ben- Ami Shillony, C. Raja Mohan, Dan and
Lihi Laor, David Shulman, Edy Kaufman, Efraim Inbar, Efraim Karsh, Eli
Joff ee, Gerald Steinberg, Gideon Shimoni, Hamid Ansari, Jasjit Singh,
M. L. Sondhi, Mark Heller, Moshe Ma’oz, Moshe Yegar, Naomi Chazan,
Nissim Rejwan, Reuven Kahane, Steve Cohen, V. Narayana Rao, Yezid
Sayigh, Yitzhak Galnoor, and Yitzhak Shichor. In times of crisis, Sreeradha
Datta has always been around and smilingly spent long hours going over
many of my academic writings.
I had the privilege of meeting a host of Indian diplomats who served
in Israel and who shared their knowledge with me. The kindness and
generosity of Anita Nayar, N. A. Prasad, Pinak Chakravarthy, Deepak Kaul,
P. K. Singh, Ranjan Mathai, Raminder Jassel, Shiv Shankar Menon,
Subrata Das, and Virendra Gupta are second only to their professionalism
and passion for promoting bilateral ties. Despite his busy schedule,
Ambassador Arun Kumar Singh went over my draft and off ered valuable
comments on post- 1992 developments.
Over the years, I have interacted with a number of Israeli diplomats, es-
pecially David Danielle, David Granit, David Matnai, Eliyahu Elath, Mark
Sofer, Netanel Lorch, Oded Ben- Hur, Reuven Dafni, Ruth Kahanoff ,
Yossef Hassin, and Zev Sufott. Innumerable persons shared their
knowledge and clarifi ed some of the nuances of bilateral relations: Ari
Rath, Erza Kolet, Judith Roumani, M. R. Masani, Madhu Limaye, Yoram
Mayorek, and Yuhuda Paz. In the late 1980s, I interacted with a number
of Palestinian fi gures, including Hanna Sinora, Lesly Abu- Katar, Manual
Hassassain, Mehdi Abdul Hadi, and Nafez Assaily.
I wish to express my sincere thanks to the staff of the following librar-
ies and institutions for their help: in Jerusalem, Al Fajr (daily), the Central
Zionist Archives, the Israel State Archives, and The Jerusalem Post ar-
chives. In India: the American Studies Research Center, Hyderabad; the
Indian Council of World Aff airs; the Institute for Defense Studies and
Analyses; Jawaharlal Nehru University; the Lok Sabha Secretariat; the
National Archives of India; and the Nehru Memorial Museum and Li-
brary, all in New Delhi. The library staff of the Harry S. Truman Research