The Great U-Turn. Restructuring in Israel and South Africa

Israel and South Africa often are considered similar. Both are immigrants societies whose states were founded by European minorities through planned colonization. Great Britain considered both as imperial assets for. Both gained their independence after World War II and adopted a pro-American policy. The elites in each society cultivated the self-image of a leading advanced Western state, surrounded by hostile primitive environs. Both Israel and South Africa developed state-subsidized arms industries and engaged in strategic and technological cooperation. Both developed secret nuclear weapons programmes, again in frequent cooperation with one another. Both adopted discriminatory policies against the colonized population and developed a segregated labour market.

Since the late 1980s, the economic structures and foreign relations of both states have been fundamentally transformed. This change was impelled by a significant decline in the profitability of the military-industrial sector in both countries. Both countries declared their intentions to achieve regional detente and to open a new page in their relations with their neighbours. Both began to dismantle their local monopolistic economic structures and to open their economies to the world. The process of liberalization hurt the middle strata of wage-earners; in both countries, these are the very groups that until recently made the hard core of the racist consensus. In both countries, formerly demonized enemies, such as Mandela and Arafat, became desired guests, along with transnational corporations and foreign investors.