The export of zionism? Global images of Israel in the 1960s

Throughout the 1960s, the state of Israel (established over a decade earlier in 1948) received a lion’s share of media attention, particularly in view of its size and population. This chapter analyzes the repertoire of representations of Israel in media and popular culture in order to explain why the Western media became so fascinated by this small country at this time. It argues that understanding this fascination requires placing this phenomenon both within the context of historical changes in the media, and within a specific temporal frame, one that begins with the intervention of the major powers during the Suez war of 1957 and ends with the Six-Day War and its aftermath.