ABSTRACT
Israel's political, economic and strategic aims in the Red sea are closely interconnected. In a geopolitical perspective the southern Negev region of Israel, the port of Eilat and the Gulf of Aqaba are seen as an integral unit. Israel's most important trading partners in both directions are the United States and the countries of Western and Central Europe. Trade with Africa and the Far East, apart from polished diamonds, is on a fairly small scale, although it includes a high proportion of finished goods and agricultural machinery as compared with the Western trade, in which agricultural produce is relatively more important. Before 1967 Israel's security doctrine was based on deterrence in conjunction with offensive prevention or pre-emption in the event of its failure, as marked by trip-wire casi belli, of which free navigation in the Gulf of Aqaba was among the most salient.
