ABSTRACT
The most important event in this context was a secret meeting between the Israeli Foreign Minister, Golda Meir, and the Turkish Foreign Minister, Fatin Zorlu, which took place on 2 August 1958 at a private home in Zurich. The cover story for this meeting was a ‘brief rest in Switzerland’ after Golda Meir’s trip to Paris and her meeting with the French President Charles de Gaulle. At this meeting, the two foreign ministers agreed on many issues: on their shared assessment of the evil aspects of Nasserism, on the need to take steps against the West’s attempts at appeasement, particularly on the part of Italy and Germany, on the need for a coordinated plan of action between the two countries on this issue, as well as on bilateral military and economic issues, such as economic development in industry, oil, tourism, etc. In the course of the
meeting, the Turkish Foreign Minister said that ‘Israel and Turkey must work together vis-a-vis the West. There are many benefits to be reaped from such coordinated action because the West is beginning to understand that Israel and Turkey are the only trustworthy bulwarks of the Free World in the Middle East.’
