*Originally published in 2025 and preserved as part of our archive project.Get E-International Relations delivered directly to your inbox, free of charge. As you sign up, consider becoming a paid subscriber to support our work.

I recently attended an academic conference in the U.S. where several Israeli scholars were presenting. What struck me most from their presentations was not the content, but the way they referred to Israel. I marked repeated instances where they referred to Israel as a “Western” country. As someone who does a lot of work in the MENA region, my default arrangement of world regions has Israel firmly situated with its neighbours in the Middle Eastern (ME) part of the MENA acronym. Of course, there is no reason why both designations cannot be true, but it served as yet another reminder to me of the ongoing contestation over where countries belong in the world and to what regions. Israel is a good case study to illustrate how multiple geographic framings are possible for a country, and the lengths elites in a given country go to in order to achieve the desired framing.

World regions are socially constructed entities rather than geographic facts. We have collectively decided there is a place on the map called the Middle East, but the boundaries of that region, and who belongs there, are in the eye of the beholder. Likewise, for “the West,” it is an even more ambiguous concept from a geographical standpoint. My forthcoming dissertation examines the way elites shape where world regions are, and what countries are part of each region. Thus far, I have found over forty-five cases of elite creation, manipulation, and labeling of world regions. Israel’s regional belonging is a fascinating example of that elite influence.

Consider the incentives at play. Naturally, Israeli elites have an incentive to frame Israel as belonging to this region we call the West to try to appeal to American and European audiences in the ongoing battle of public opinion that accompanies the Israel-Palestine conflict. At least, they do so when dealing with Americans and Europeans. This has been especially true during the war against Hamas, where op-eds in various American papers by Israeli intellectuals framed the October 7 attack as an assault on a Western country by a non-Western power (see, for example Halevi 2023). Ironically, opponents of Israel have been framing it as a Western Imperial power since virtually its inception as a state (for the most famous example see Khomeini 1979).

Zaga and Weisel’s article “Mapping the Middle East” (2024) includes additional motivating factors that may prompt Israeli elites to seek out a Western orientation. They believe that Israel’s limited economic and social integration with its neighbours (due to a history of conflict) prompted a strategic and cultural shift to Europe more or less by default. This included........

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