ABSTRACT
Covert agreements and operations are a fact of world affairs. Secrecy in diplomacy remains as much a challenge for international politics as it is for national and foreign policy. This chapter aims to address aspects of clandestinity at both the domestic and external levels. The secret opening to China in 1971 is of undisputed historical importance. Not only is it a watershed for modern diplomacy, bringing about a major power realignment and easing rigid bipolarity; it also provides an exceptional insight into the way operating in the back channel actually takes place. The China gambit is rivaled perhaps only by the secret prelude to the 1977 visit by Egyptian President Sadat to Jerusalem–which proved instrumental in conflict termination and Middle East peacemaking. Participation by Israel in that particular exercise in diplomatic secrecy is not exceptional. Rather, it is argued that Israel offers the premier example of a small state practitioner of quiet diplomacy.
