Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process Research Articles

Divergent and Emergent Political Theologies of Peace Amongst Jewish Israelis

ABSTRACT In this article, I consider the emergent political theology of a peace from within the religious Zionist community. Given the dismal state of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, it is surprising that the last decade has seen the spontaneous emergence of several grassroots Israeli peace initiatives, and even more surprising that many of these initiatives have emerged from the religious Zionist community rather than the Israeli peace camp. The article presents ethnographic data on the scriptural interpretations of one of these initiatives, the Citizens Accord Forum. The article illustrates their hermeneutic labor on questions of Jewish sovereignty and questions of non-Jews within the Jewish state. The article considers how this alternative political theology is emerging between two far more hegemonic political paradigms: the “religious right” and the “secular left.”

The Impact of the Abraham Accords on Geopolitical Dynamics of the Middle East

The Abraham Accords, signed in 2020, have emerged as a watershed moment in the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East, marking a significant shift in regional dynamics. This scientific article provides an in-depth analysis of the Accords’ impact on the Middle East, exploring the multifaceted consequences of this historic realignment. Focusing on the normalization of relations between Israel and several Arab nations, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco, the study examines the broader geopolitical implications, with particular attention to the redefinition of regional alliances, economic and technological cooperation, and the nuanced effects on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The article delves into the strategic motivations behind the Accords and their influence on the traditional Arab-Israeli relations, underscoring a paradigm shift from longstanding animosity to a newfound cooperation based on shared interests, particularly in security and economic spheres. It evaluates the economic opportunities catalyzed by the Accords, such as increased trade and joint technological ventures, which promise to foster a new era of prosperity and interdependence in the region. Furthermore, the analysis addresses the complex implications for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, assessing the potential for the Accords to reshape the future trajectory of this long-standing conflict. While acknowledging the initial concerns of sidelining the Palestinian issue, the article explores the possibility of these agreements creating new platforms for dialogue and conflict resolution. The article also contextualizes the Accords within the broader regional and international geopolitical framework, analyzing how this development reflects the changing priorities and strategies of Middle Eastern states in response to regional threats, global economic trends, and the evolving role of external powers. The challenges and prospects for the future of the Abraham Accords are critically examined, considering the sustainability of these agreements amidst the dynamic and often volatile regional environment. In conclusion, this comprehensive study posits that the Abraham Accords signify a momentous shift in Middle Eastern geopolitics, with potential ramifications that extend beyond the immediate signatories. The Accords herald a new chapter in the region's history, where diplomatic engagement and economic collaboration may pave the way for a more stable and integrated Middle East, albeit with remaining challenges and uncertainties.

Map to Compassion

This article introduces the Human Needs Map — a sense-making tool that helps orient our minds to human needs that drive and trigger us, disrupting relationships and creating conflict. Initially inspired from fieldwork of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Human Needs Map has developed into a systems model that reveals the interior landscape of our Protective body/mind with needs and emotions in dynamic flux. The model provides a language to speak about the interconnectivity of needs through their synergies and tensions. Naming this emerging and coherent inter-dependency between needs and emotions offers a way to understand emotions as reasonable and provides more vectors to heal, dislodge or re-write narratives and beliefs, which perpetuate conflict. The implication lies not only at the individual level but also at the level of systems change to support the design of social and cultural structures more capable of taking needs and emotions into account. The present article traces the iterative process conceptualizing the model and discovering its internal patterns, followed by a discussion about the Needs system’s adaptive qualities and its role in creating and perpetuating Conflict, concluding with insights for Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding.

Is There a Role for the International Community in Palestinian State-building?

The European Union is known to be in favour of a two-state solution, but the question arises whether the two-state solution is a pan-European position, or there are Member States that have a "separate" policy, either in support of their national interests or because of historical and religious traditions and might have a different vision of the Middle East peace process. In my research, I am looking for answers to the question about the existing role of the international community in the creation of a Palestinian state. As a precondition for the emergence of an independent state, I hypothesize that EU member states do not recognize unanimously the legitimacy of a Palestinian State, despite the European Union's collective belief in the creation of a two-state solution. The research also highlights that the parties involved in state-building and peacebuilding do not necessarily shape their relations and policies in the interests of the international community. The Israeli-Palestinian peace process can partly facilitate the creation of a Palestinian State. Individual interpretations of the agreements and inflexibility on both sides have meant that neither the peace process nor state-building has made much progress in recent decades. In the research methodology, I conducted theoretical and empirical research and examined the resolutions of the UN General Assembly between 2012 and 2022. For each resolution, I examined the voting mechanism of the EU Member States in terms of whether they support the creation of Palestine or whether they support Israel. The evaluation of these results and the drawing of independent conclusions are the individually added values of the research. I draw conclusions from the voting mechanisms I have evaluated and from the involvement of the international community as to whether the involvement of the international community in state-building has been effective.

What Happens to Peace When the Process is Stalled: Competing International Approaches to the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict, 1996–2021

Abstract Does an ongoing stalemate in a peace process affect the international agenda toward the conflict and international perceptions about policies that should be adopted to resolve it? We provide a tentative answer to this question by drawing insight from analysis of developments and trends in international media attention to key terms and concepts in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict during cycles of violence, as well as periods of rapprochement and peace negotiations, in the last two and half decades (1996–2021). We find that although attention to the Israeli–Palestinian peace process has been declining over the years, much of the international discussion continues to be devoted to relaunching a negotiation process leading to a two-state solution. The ongoing stalemate in such “process,” we show, provides ample opportunities for alternative approaches to emerge advocating alternative endgames (e.g., one-state), international pressure (e.g., Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions), or unilateral steps (e.g., annexation). Each of these approaches promotes an alternative vision and provides a different path and employs its own terminology and vision of the future. The Israeli–Palestinian case study helps illustrate what may happen to peace when the process is stalled, and how a stalemate can produce change in the international debate on the conflict and push for the emergence of new policy directions and agendas.

Tracing responses to recognition in the Oslo peace process and its aftermath—The interlinkage between relational and internal ontological security

AbstractPeace processes are highly volatile and invite constructive as well as destructive relationship‐shifts. By connecting theories of recognition, ontological security, and conflict transformation, this article displays how a conflict settlement process might enable deep‐ranging conflict transformation in a process ranging from thin to thick recognition, and conversely, how that may spur backlashes whereby parties to conflict resist identity fluctuations in violent ways. By using illustrations from key developments in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, with its inherent elaborations on recognition and identity, this article showcases promises and pitfalls that may be the result of increased recognition of identity among conflict parties. The analysis unwraps how shifts in relations among parties which may lower ontological insecurities can spur introspection and increased thick recognition of the other party to conflict which also comes with shifts in self‐images. This is a highly volatile trajectory, sensitive to deterioration in relations among parties, which at a later stage can cause immense backlashes, creating furthered rifts between conflict parties as well as among internal actors who have different views on how far it is possible to go in terms of recognizing past wrongdoings in the conflict. By linking relational and internal aspects of ontological security to processes of recognition, understandings on the linkage between negotiation/conflict resolution and historical acknowledgement are furthered.

Lessons from peace negotiations: interview with Ehud Olmert

ABSTRACT Israeli PM Ehud Olmert (2006–9) offered the Palestinians the most comprehensive peace deal they had ever received. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he would reply ‘soon’ and never did. This interview records Olmert’s thoughts on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and his own attempts to end the bitter conflict.

Stockholm and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process: interview with State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Annika Söder

ABSTRACT This interview with Swedish State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Annika Söder (2014–19) discusses her involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and Sweden’s relationships with Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The interview assesses the positive and negative lessons and implications of the peace process, Sweden’s involvement in the peace process, and the likelihood of bringing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a close.

Canada, the United Nations, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

ABSTRACT Canada's official foreign policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has long reflected a continued commitment to protecting both Israel's right to exist in security, as well as Palestinian rights and aspirations for self-determination. Despite a fairly consistent official foreign policy that seeks to balance both Israeli and Palestinian rights and interests, Canada's voting behavior at the United Nations has undergone significant modifications in the decades following the passing of Resolution 181, which called for the partition the British Mandate of Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state. This paper analyzes the contributing factors that have influenced Canada's voting at the UN on issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. These factors include Canada's international reputation, domestic pressures, and strategic partnerships with both the United States and European allies.

Dynamics of the arab countries' involvement to the israeli-palestinian peace process (1967–2002)

The paper presents an analysis of the evolution of the Arab countries` involvement to the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The research was carried out through a historical analysis of the Israeli-Egyptian peace accords, the Madrid peace conference, the Oslo Process, the Israeli-Jordan peace agreements, and the Arab peace initiative. The author presents the gradual evolution of the Arab countries position to the Palestinian issue from the absolute non-recognition of Israel and open enmity to the end of the boycott and to the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel. The author also identifies the causes and the consequences of this change in the approach of the Arab countries. Results show that the main reason was the weakening of the USSR and its collapse, which predetermined the need for Arab countries to seek a new source of support in the face of the United States. Moreover, the importance of the Palestinian problem decreases for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, while influence of the economic factor and security issues increases. Other Arab countries such as Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan do not have sufficient resources to defend their position on Palestine. Another important factor is the destruction of the united Arab position, and the decline in the popularity of the concept of pan-Arabism. The author concludes that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict ceases to be a stumbling block for resolving the larger Arab-Israeli conflict, and becomes a bargaining chip. Thus, it can be assumed that even with the resumption of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process the participation of Arab countries in it will be comparably formal. While a gradual rapprochement of Israel with its neighbor countries, the conflict will continue to evolve spontaneously with regular cases of Palestinian resistance until the irrevocable Israeli occupation is over.

The Historical Antecedents of Hamas

One of the unresolved dilemmas in the Israeli—Palestinian peace process is whether peace is possible without, or feasible with, Hamas. This article seeks to explain why Israeli policies have thus far failed and why the inclusion of Hamas in the peace process is more likely to produce a lasting peace. Using data drawn from interviews, fieldwork and surveys, and theoretical perspectives from peace and social movement studies, the article analyses the evolution Hamas has undergone since its inception and how changes in its leadership, constituency and political culture have affected the movement's attitudes towards peace and compromise.

Ashkenazim and Mizrahim in the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process: The Role of Israel’s Economic Liberalization and Globalization

ABSTRACT This paper examines the mechanisms which drive the different political attitudes of Israel’s two major Jewish groups – the Ashkenazim and the Mizrahim – vis-à-vis the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in the 1990s. The study argues that the economic liberalization reforms of the 1980s along with the subsequent Israel’s integration with the global economy are key drivers of the two groups’ opposing attitudes vis-à-vis the peace process. These processes benefited mainly the business classes, who are dominated by the Ashkenazim (originating from Europe). It was such benefit that drove Ashkenazim’s support for the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, which was seen as instrumental to the process of Israel’s integration with the global economy. Conversely, the same economic processes likely hurt lower-class members of Israeli Jewish society, most of whom are Mizrahim (originating from Muslim countries). In this context the settlements in the West Bank and Gaza provided them with an alternative source of welfare to buffer the negative impacts of the integration process. As a result most of the Mizrahim population opposed any peace deal that included the evacuation of settlements. Moreover, Mizrahim’s opposition to Oslo was strengthened by the association of Oslo with Israel’s global integration, which some evidence suggests mainly benefited the business classes.

A 2017–2020-as Trump-adminisztráció Közel-Kelet-politikája

A 2016-os amerikai elnökválasztást követően sokakat váratlanul ért, hogy Donald Trump, egy ingatlanmogul és valóságshow-sztár lett az Amerikai Egyesült Államok 45. elnöke. A választási kampány során tett nyilatkozatai és egyéb megnyilvánulásai alapján sejteni lehetett, hogy most „valami új” következik az USA külpolitikájában. Ekkor még többen úgy vélték, hogy az erős és független amerikai intézményrendszer biztosítani fogja a külpolitikai folytonosságot az amerikai érdekek és értékek változatlansága révén. Trump 2017–2020-as elnöksége azonban külpolitikai szempontból sem tekinthető eseménytelennek, kiváltképp a Közel-Keletet illetően. A Trump-adminisztráció számos olyan külpolitikai döntést hozott ebben a pár évben, amelyek korábban fel sem merülhettek volna. Különös tekintettel az Egyesült Államok, Izrael és Szaúd-Arábia viszonyának alakulására, a palesztin–izraeli békefolyamatra, a szíriai amerikai szerepvállalásra és az Iszlám Állammal szembeni harcra, valamint Irán atomprogramjának megfékezésére vonatkozóan. Tanulmányunk ezen témákra fókuszálva igyekszik áttekinteni az elmúlt évek legfontosabb eseményeit és lényegre törően összegezni a Trump-adminisztráció Közel-Kelet-politikáját.

Zjawisko izraelskich nieautoryzowanych osiedli na Zachodnim Brzegu Jordanu

The phenomenon of the Israeli outposts in the West Bank The article presents the phenomenon of the Israeli outposts in the West Bank. It describes the origins, ways of establishing, sources of financial support of the outposts. There will be examined the Israeli governments’ attitude toward this type of settlement. It should be emphasized that governmental and self-governmental institutions, as well as the World Zionist Organization, are engaged in establishing and developing the outposts in the West Bank. The aim of the article is to explain and to describe this phenomenon in the light of the Israeli law and its consequences for the State of Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The examination is based on the following sources: Sasson Report, Levy Report, Judea and Samaria Settlement Regulation Law, Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, so-called Young Settlement Bill, reports published by Peace Now and B’Tselem organizations. For the research author used institutional, historical analysis and decision analysis methods. It helped to state that the Israeli outposts, despite its illegality, receive wide financial and security support from government and self-governments. The outposts threaten also the peace process. Furthermore, since 2009 Netanyahu’s governments try to recognize and legalize the outposts by legal measures.

Chasing the Holy Grail of Mediation: US Efforts to Mediate the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process Since 1993

Abstract President Clinton was deeply engaged and invested in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and this commitment seems to transcend administrations as Presidents Bush, Obama, and more recently Trump have made considerable efforts to mediate the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This article addresses the question of why would a US president risk his own legacy and the reputation of the office as an international mediator to try to solve this complicated case in the face of expected and proven failures? This study traces efforts made by recent US Presidents to mediate the long-standing protracted conflict between Palestinians and Israel understand the reasons for the ongoing US commitment to this process, and why different presidents and their administrations persist in their mediation attempts where their predecessors failed.

Arab Public Debate on the “Deal of the Century” in the “Versailles” Framework

The Trump administration has reportedly planned to publish its self-drafted Middle East peace initiative some time during the year 2019, exactly 100 years after the Treaty of Versailles (1919) was signed. Although previous and subsequent agreements, declarations and treaties, such as the Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916), the Balfour Declaration (1917), the Treaty of Sèvres (1920) and the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) had much more to do with the fate of the Middle East than the Treaty of Versailles itself, the coincidence of the announcement of the “deal of the century” with the anniversary of “Versailles” provides great significance to the latter in current Arab public debate. While the above mentioned events and decisions did not meaningfully hinder the long-term Israeli–Palestinian peace process, the “deal of the century” might have harmful effects for it. Arab leaders as well as opinionmakers of all kinds agree on the existence of a strong parallel between the aims and design of the Versailles-related treaties and those of the “deal of the century.” They agree that both of them deny the right of self-determination to Arab nations and that they are both designed to foreshadow decades of bloody conflicts between the nations of the Middle East. The “deal of the century” might also sanctify the “acquisition of land by force” which has clear implications for state-to-state relations. In my analysis, I will provide a snapshot of the Arab public debate on the “deal of the century” and how it is related to the anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles and related agreements.

A New Regional Approach toward the Israeli–Palestinian Peace Process

There are two principal reasons behind the lack of success in reaching a final peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, namely, the malfunctioning negotiations’ framework from one side and the complexity of the negotiated issues from the other. This article is mainly addressing the bilateral framework’s flaws when it comes to the Oslo accords and the way the two negotiating parties have perceived them. It is an attempt to overhaul the existing Oslo peace process and not to create a new one. Oslo process has become entrenched over more than twenty years of different practices and legal realities. The article is also introducing a negotiating framework that combines the benefits of a multilateral regional track to the Oslo process aiming to redress the latent structural flaws. It is intended not to tackle the final status issues, as there is a plethora of literature doing so. The extensive focus on those complicated issues without redressing the process’ structural flaws has led partially to the current stalemate. The role of any mediator or external partner is not to solve those issues on behalf of the principal parties, but to work on the negotiating framework and the process itself.

Securitized Diplomacy: Israel's Jewish Identity and the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process

This article addresses the Israeli demand during the 2013–14 peace negotiations that Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state within the context of securitization theory. Contrary to many readings, this article argues the demand was not merely a tactical ploy to delay or derail the peace process but rather was part of a broader process of making Israel's Jewish identity a matter of national security. The application of securitization theory beyond the liberal nation-state is also examined.

The Failures of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process: Balance and Imbalance

The Failures of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process: Balance and Imbalance

President Trump and Jerusalem : The Effects of the Relocation of the American Embassy on the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process

President Trump and Jerusalem : The Effects of the Relocation of the American Embassy on the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process