Conflict Resolution, Ethnonationalism and the Middle East Impasse

Abstract

The intractable Middle East conflict is examined from the prism of `ethnic' conflict resolution. The resolution of conflicts between states and ethnonationalist movements (placed under fourteen different headings) is distinguished into `denial' solutions and `acceptance' solutions - policies that accept the other side as a people apart and as an interlocuteur valable. Denial policies are by definition non-negotiable. They need to be enforced. As a result, they are unlikely to resolve conflicts that are basically ethnic, such as the one of the Middle East, particularly under present circumstances of world-wide ethnic assertiveness. Only acceptance solutions may lead to a process of conflict resolution through negotiations between the two main parties concerned, in this case the State of Israel and the PLO. To the extent that states and ethnonationalist movements are implacably irredentist, they cannot present the other side to a conflict with other than non-negotiable denial policies. Ten problems are identified as instrumental for the Middle East impasse and suggestions are made as to how they can be settled. They are the objective (zero-sum) conflict of interest, conflict attitudes, the domestic factor, the positive functions of the conflict, ethnonationalism, the asymmetry between state and revolutionary movement, the role of the superpowers, the religious-cultural dimension, regional expansionism and the regional arms race.