In recent years, there has been a growing interest from both the Israeli and Taiwanese sides in intensifying the relationship between the two countries and peoples. Evidently, we can observe attempts to strengthen Israel-Taiwan cooperation in various policy areas, as well as a desire to know more about each other. While this is indeed a welcome development, there is still little heed being paid by existing literature to the study of the connection between both countries, as research remains scarce and scattered across disciplines (and languages). This is no surprise given the predominance of Sino-Israeli studies among Israeli academics and the limited focus on Taiwan’s relations with the Middle East in the Taiwanese scholarship. Against this backdrop, the overarching objective of this paper is to offer the first comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art of Israel-Taiwan literature that includes sources in English, Chinese, and Hebrew. In so doing, it seeks to demonstrate the wealth of research possibilities, which not only comprises the examination of the fascinating (and sometimes clandestine) relations between Jerusalem and Taipei, but also includes a wide range of comparative case-study analyses that capitalize on the numerous similarities between the two countries. Finally, the paper seeks to illustrate that there is still much room for further theory as well as policy-oriented research by offering recommendations as to how scholars could further develop the study area.
