ABSTRACT
My involvement in China studies, and more specifically in the study of China’s Middle East policy, began in high school. Discharged from military service as a lieutenant, I continued my academic training at the Hebrew University, graduating summa cum laude with a master’s thesis on Sino-Palestinians relations. Still a student, in 1971 I joined the military intelligence where I set up the China Desk, and in 1973 left for the London School of Economics and Political Science where I wrote a PhD on China’s Middle East policy. Back at the Hebrew University, I began an academic career teaching and studying Chinese politics, Islam, foreign policy and defense modernization.
