Middle Eastern Conflict Research Articles

Chinese Weaponry in Contemporary Middle Eastern Conflicts

AbstractThis article examines the role of Chinese armaments in recent Middle Eastern conflicts, showing that although their use has increased over the past decade, they remain less numerous or significant compared to those from the United States and Russia. Chinese‐made weapons have been used in conflicts in Gaza, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and Lebanon due to affordability, streamlined procurement processes, and improved quality. China's critics have alleged that it has played a negative role in these conflicts through proliferation, claims that Beijing has consistently denied. This research investigates the accuracy of these charges and assesses whether China's role should be considered prominent. The study examines weapons that have been used in five ongoing regional conflicts, including the Gaza war. It finds that, unlike Washington and Moscow, which have deliberately transferred military equipment to the region, China has avoided intentionally directing armaments to Middle Eastern conflict zones. Instead, Chinese arms have been redistributed by third parties. The analysis concludes that China's strategy of balancing its relationships across states in conflict has limited the amount of its weapons in the region and kept the impact of those armaments to a minimum.

Immigration Crisis in Palestine (1933–1936) as Reflected in Periodical Press of United States

The image of Palestine during the years 1933 to 1936 was shaped in the periodical press of the United States under the influence of the “colonial discourse”. In the first half of the 1930s, the issue of Jewish immigrants became one of the central themes in the “Palestinian question”. The materials from the periodical press allow for an exploration of how perceptions regarding the causes of the crisis in the Middle East evolved within the informational discourse of the United States; how the representations of Arabs, Jews, and Great Britain underwent transformation. Publications from American newspapers provide insights into evaluations of British measures aimed at resolving the immigration crisis in Palestine during the 1930s. An analysis of U.S. newspapers reveals distinctive features in the construction of the images of the Jewish and Arab populations of Palestine. It identifies who was categorized as “the other”. The first half of the 1930s proved decisive for American public opinion in prioritizing positions within the context of the Middle Eastern conflict. The material presented in this article vividly illustrates the stages of evolving assessments of the situation in Palestine from 1933 to 1936. The study examines the manipulative techniques and strategies employed by American periodicals in the 1930s concerning Palestine, thereby providing a clearer understanding of how the issue of Jewish immigration was integrated into the broader narrative of Palestine within U.S. periodical literature.

The role of Indonesian government in middle east conflict resolution: consistent diplomacy or strategic shifts?

Indonesia and Middle Eastern countries are associated with a shared characteristic in the form of Islam, despite the geographical separation and cultural and ethnic distinctions. Since gaining independence in 1945, Indonesia has consistently advocated for the peaceful resolution of conflict in the Middle East, including the Palestinian/Arab–Israeli conflict. Therefore, the objective of this study was to explore the motivations behind Indonesia’s consistent support for Middle Eastern conflict resolution. Although the Indonesian government is eager to advance its involvement in the conflict resolution process, it is also compelled by the constitution to uphold the “Free and Active” foreign policy axiom, which essentially restricts Indonesia from taking on a side, maintaining cordial ties with the parties involved. These principles prevent Indonesia from favoring one side and maintaining positive relations with both conflicting parties. Indonesia has often played a passive role as a facilitator or participant in conflict resolution attempts rather than actively taking on the role of a mediator. Indonesia’s unwavering commitment to resolving the Middle East conflict largely originates from Islamic solidarity with a predominantly Muslim population in the region and a shared identity as a fellow developing country, rather than being solely based on its constitution. Alternatively, this sense of unity may also stem from the notion of solidarity within the Global South.

Moral exemplars and moral disillusionment. How the perception of Poles' behavior during the Holocaust shapes current Polish‐Israeli conflicted relations?

AbstractThe moral exemplars model of reconciliation (Cehajic‐Clancy & Bilewicz, 2021) proposes that through focusing on the moral behavior during the genocide, the descendants of perpetrators, bystanders, and victims could become more willing to reconcile and engage in intergroup contact. In the present article we aim to test the boundary effects of such approach by analyzing the usage of moral exemplars argument in the Polish‐Israeli conflict over the history of the Holocaust. In two studies, we tested whether Poles' and Israeli's estimations of moral behavior and emotions (vs. immoral ones) during the Holocaust are related to their attitudes towards contemporary counterparts. The studies confirmed that higher estimations of moral behavior during the Holocaust were related to more positive attitudes of Israelis towards Poles but not of Poles towards Israelis. On the contrary, higher estimations of such moral behavior among Poles were positively related to secondary antisemitism and harsh criticism of the current role of Israel in the Middle Eastern conflict. The results of our studies suggest that the moral exemplars‐based model of reconciliation should be carefully applied to the contexts in which historical perpetrators and bystanders aim at whitewashing their histories.

Structures of Loyalty: A Comparative Study of Jewish and Palestinian Evangelicals' Acquiescence to Fundamentalist and Authoritarian Values

This is a qualitative comparative study of two evangelical movements in Israel and in the West Bank: the Israeli Messianic (IM) movement and the Palestinian Evangelical (PE) movement. Through interviews on how informants understand the Middle Eastern conflict, our aim is (1) to compare the prevalence of fundamentalist/authoritarian (F/A) values in the IM and PE movements and (2) to understand how a particular socio-political context —Israel and the West Bank—might affect the acquiescence to a F/A mindset amongst the two movements. To accomplish this, we created a F/A construct that measures five values: literalism, social withdrawal, authoritarian aggression, authoritarian submission, and conventionalism. We found that the IM scores higher on all five F/A values. To explain the difference, we point out the importance of structures of loyalty: the difference in how IMs and PEs connect to key societal groups affects the way they acquiesce to fundamentalist and authoritarian values.

Can democratic values bring the parties to the table in a protracted, Middle Eastern conflict? The attitudes of youth in the context of the Arab- Israeli conflict

ABSTRACT How do democratic values affect the willingness of parties to reconcile in the context of protracted conflict? Based on a survey of 2171 students conducted in Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia between 15 November 2015 and 10 March 2016, the results indicate that democratic values and the willingness to reconcile are not necessarily positively correlated; in fact, in some cases, the correlation is negative. The main argument of this article is that neither democratic values nor democratic regimes can guarantee reconciliation or peace, but liberal democratic values and democratic regimes working together can decrease or even help reject the unwillingness to reconcile. The value of justice, just solution, protected values, threat perception, interests, nature and reality of the regime for example, can also explain peaceful attitudes. Finally, this article theorizes that individual and state level actors working together can contribute to understanding democratic peace processes and reconciliation between countries.

ИЗРАИЛЬСКАЯ ИСТОРИОГРАФИЯ О СОВЕТСКОЙ ПОЛИТИКЕ В БЛИЖНЕВОСТОЧНЫХ ВОЙНАХ

Soviet policy in the Middle Eastern conflict and, in particular, in the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967– 1973 present a topic that has been comprehensively studied in foreign, and, above all, in Israeli historiography. Although Israeli specialists, as a rule, approach the study of this complex phenomenon on the basis of the accepted academic methodology and analysis of rather contradictory sources, the monographs discussed in this article present the reader with a very one-sided and biased interpretation of the role of the Soviet state in this historical period. They refute the traditional version that Moscow was interested in maintaining a controlled crisis, but not in its transition to a military phase, and tried to restrain the Arabs. Instead, Israeli authors I. Ginor and G. Remez set out to prove that it was the USSR, in secret conspiracy with the leaders of Egypt and Syria, that prepared attacks on Israel in 1967, oriented the Arabs exclusively towards a military solution to the conflict after the “Six-Day War” and prepared plans for a joint attack on Israeli positions in 1973. Soviet policy in the Middle East at that period was neither a model of “peacefulness and brotherly assistance”, as Soviet propaganda presented it, or a modern version of a “crusade” against the Holy Land, as Israeli authors portray it in the works under consideration. The complex interweaving of global and regional interests, ideological indoctrination, and internal political struggle for power were the main factors that influenced the process of political decision-making. Having excluded many of these factors from their research and rather subjectively approaching the selection of sources, I. Ginor and G. Remez presented a rather distorted and not credible version of events.

Peran American Military Industrial Complex dalam Konflik Bersenjata di Timur Tengah

Negara-negara di kawasan Timur Tengah, mulai dari Iran, Irak, Lebanon, Suriah, Yaman, Bahrain, Mesir, hingga Turki, dan negara-negara lainnya, seolah tak henti didera konflik politik. Di beberapa negara, konflik bahkan berujung pada konflik bersenjata, misalnya di Irak, Suriah dan Yaman. Setiap harinya, selalu muncul berita yang mengabarkan perkembangan konflik bersenjata di kawasan tersebut, seakan menunjukkan bahwa konflik di sana tak akan pernah usai. Hal tersebut memunculkan pertanyaan, apa yang menyebabkan konflik di Timur Tengah berlarut-larut? Artikel ini mengaitkan hubungan antara konflik bersenjata yang terjadi di Timur Tengah dengan fenomena neoliberalisme yang saat ini menjadi motor penggerak ekonomi global. Dengan menggunakan konsep military-industrial complex, artikel ini berargumen bahwasanya ada pemodal besar yang memaksa kondisi ini untuk tetap berlangsung karena mereka diuntungkan oleh berlarut-larutnya perang ini.

THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND THE MIDDLE EAST

The First World War in the Middle East swept away five hundred years of Ottoman dominion. It ushered in new ideologies and radicalized old ones – from Arab nationalism and revolutionary socialism to impassioned forms of atavistic Islamism. It created heroic icons, like the enigmatic Lawrence or the modernizing Atatürk, and it completely re-drew the map of the region, forging a host of new nation states, For many, the self-serving intervention of these powers in the region between 1914 and 1919 is the major reason for the conflicts that have raged there on and off ever since. Yet many of the most common assertions about the First World War in the Middle East and its aftermath are devoid of context. This article argues that, far from being a mere sideshow to the war in Europe, the Middle Eastern conflict was in fact the centre of gravity in a war for imperial interests. Moreover, contrary to another persistent myth of the First World War in the Middle East, local leaders and their forces were not simply the puppets of the Great Powers. The way in which these local forces embraced, resisted, succumbed to, disrupted, or on occasion overturned the plans of the imperialist powers for their own interests in fact played an important role in shaping the immediate aftermath of the conflict – and in laying the foundations for the troubled Middle East.

La demografía de Israel y de Palestina: presente y futuro

The debate around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict involves a great array of political, military, economic and cultural factors. The conflict in Israel and Palestine involves a large amount of political, military, economic and cultural factors. This paper focuses on the different rhythm and determinants of Jewish and Arab population development, and discusses some consequences of demography on the political outlook of the Israel/Palestine area under conflict. During many decades, the Middle Eastern conflict has fed on tensions based on ethnic and religious identities, which have favored or even determined the strategic importance of figures for the evolution of conflictive episodes. The analysis presented aims to demonstrate that a systematic evaluation of demographic tendencies is essential to understand not only the nature of the problems yet to be solved, but also to draw up proposals for policies towards normalization and peace.

Socio-psychological barriers to peace making: An empirical examination within the Israeli Jewish Society

Socio-psychological barriers play a major role in the continuation of intractable conflicts. They are responsible for the socio-psychological closure that resists and prevents the entertainment of alternative information that could potentially facilitate the acceptance of ideas advancing peacemaking processes. In an attempt to validate a process model that depicts the functioning of the socio-psychological barriers to conflict resolution, an empirical study was conducted among a nationwide representative sample of Jews in Israel, within the context of the Middle Eastern conflict. The reported study utilized a large scale survey, based on a nationwide representative sample of Israeli Jews who were asked to respond to a questionnaire which included the model’s selected variables. As hypothesized, the results showed a path leading from general worldviews (e.g. General values, Right Wing Authoritarianism, Implicit theories about groups) to openness to new information and readiness to compromise through the mediation of the conflict-related societal beliefs (e.g. victimhood, delegitimization). These results indicate that closure to new information that may shed new light on both the rival and the conflict emerges as a crucial factor in the maintenance of society members’ non-compromising views. The theoretical as well as the applied implications of the findings are discussed.

Israelis' Moral Judgments of Government Aggression and Violations of Human Rights: Is Democracy Under Siege?

This article presents the attitudes of Israeli citizens concerning government aggression andviolations of human rights, highlighting moral dimensions of these views, and illuminates howprotracted Middle Eastern confl ict shades the respondents’ beliefs and moral judgments.Results focus specifi cally on the ramifi cations of the protracted Israeli – Palestinian confl ict onIsraelis’ moral judgments of government aggression and are based on an international surveythat was administered to people from multiple countries, including 155 Israelis. Most respondentsasserted the importance of supporting governments in the time of war but also endorsedthe right of citizens to protest against war. The dominant reaction to a hypothetical event ofother nation’s violence toward one’s country was hatred, rage, and desire for retribution.Israelis’ construal of government aggression seems to refl ect a predominantly ethnocentricutilitarianism moral orientation.

The psychodynamics of self‐righteousness and its impact on the Middle Eastern conflict

The psychodynamics of self‐righteousness and its impact on the Middle Eastern conflict

Does peace have a prayer? The effect of mortality salience, compassionate values, and religious fundamentalism on hostility toward out-groups

Religious fundamentalism has been shown to be associated with higher levels of prejudice, ethnocentrism, and militarism, in spite of the compassionate values promoted by the religious faiths that most fundamentalists believe in. Based on terror management theory, we hypothesized that priming these compassionate values would encourage a shift toward less support for violent solutions to the current Middle Eastern conflict, especially when they are combined with reminders of one’s mortality. Study 1 demonstrated that among Americans, religious fundamentalism was associated with greater support for extreme military interventions, except when participants were reminded of their mortality and primed with compassionate religious values. The combination of mortality salience and compassionate religious values led to significant decreases in support for such interventions among high but not low fundamentalists. Study 2 replicated this finding and showed that it depends on the association of the compassionate values with an authoritative religious source; presentation of these values in a secular context had no effect on fundamentalists. Study 3 replicated these effects in a sample of Iranian Shiite Muslims: although a reminder of death increased anti-Western attitudes among participants primed with secular compassionate values, it decreased anti-Western attitudes among those primed with compassionate values from the Koran.

Trusts for the Middle Eastern client and conflict of laws

With the relatively recent growth in the market for trusts by wealthy Middle Eastern Islamic clients, this Article looks at the interaction between some general conflict of law principles and Shari’a law in relation to trusts set up by Muslim clients and how attacks on such trusts might be avoided.

One for All and All for One: Using Multiple Identification Theory Simulations to Build Cooperative Attitudes and Behaviors in a Middle Eastern Conflict Scenario

The authors previously developed multiple identification theory (MIT) as a system of simulation game design intended to promote attitude change. The present study further tests MIT’s effectiveness. The authors created a game (CULTURE & CREED) via MIT as a complex simulation of Middle Eastern conflict resolution, designed to change attitudes and behaviors from competition to cooperation. Participants completed pretest questionnaires measuring “cooperation versus competition,” “truthfulness versus deception,” and “viewing a situation from a social versus an individual perspective.” Participants played the simulation twice and then completed posttest questionnaires. The authors recorded behavioral measures of players’ cooperative or aggressive actions during the simulation. Statistical analysis found significant change in a cooperative direction for both attitudinal and behavioral measures. Robust effect sizes were observed. More than 60% of participants reported transferring the cooperative attitudes they learned in the game to life situations. Simulations designed with MIT could be applied to other conflict scenarios and used to modify attitudes.

Subliminal exposure to national flags affects political thought and behavior

Political thought and behavior play an important role in our lives, from ethnic tensions in Europe, to the war in Iraq and the Middle Eastern conflict, to parliamentary and presidential elections. However, little is known about how the individual's political attitudes and decisions are shaped by subtle national cues that are so prevalent in our environment. We report a series of experiments that show that subliminal exposure to one's national flag influences political attitudes, intentions, and decisions, both in laboratory settings and in "real-life" behavior. Furthermore, this manipulation consistently narrowed the gap between those who score high vs. low on a scale of identification with Israeli nationalism. The first two experiments examined participants' stance toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Experiment 3 examined voting intentions and actual voting in Israel's recently held general elections. The results portray a consistent picture: subtle reminders of one's nationality significantly influence political thought and overt political behavior.

The Rise and Fall of ‘Mediterranean Atlanticism’ in Italian Foreign Policy: the Case of the Near East

The article aims at studying the reasons for the new way of looking at the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by the Italian political world: the mutual recognition of Israel and the Vatican, the visit to Jerusalem by the leader of the formerly fascist party, Mr. Gianfranco Fini, and the beginnings of a movement of interest towards the Jewish State also within the political left. From a historical viewpoint, anti-Semitism in Italy found its origins in the Church's attitude toward the ‘deicide people’. Beginning with WWI, to this position was added the worry that the Holy Places might fall under Jewish control. From those times dates the Holy See's evermore manifest liking for the Arab populations of Palestine. Nowadays the line of conduct of the Church has as its basic objective the defense of Christian minorities in the Middle East, and for this reason it maintains dialogues with all actors in the region. The weight of the Church influenced also the attitude of the Italian State, even though from its inception the latter had to make adjustments because of other international requirements. This multiple subordination caused the different republican governments to always keep an official equidistant stance among the conflicting parties in the Near East. Behind this apparent neutrality, however, the feelings of benevolence for the Arab countries and the Palestinians have gradually intensified. Italian leaders have been trying to conduct a Mediterranean policy on the borders of the Western alliance, and their feelings have been oriented in consequence. During the 1970s, the governments went as far as to conclude a secret pact with Palestinian terrorists, to avoid terror acts on the Peninsula in exchange for some freedom of action. And in the mid-eighties the Craxi government did not hesitate to challenge the US in order to guarantee the continuity of that line of conduct. On that occasion Craxi, speaking in Parliament, compared Arafat to Mazzini. The end of the Yalta-established order has modified the traditional data of Italian foreign policy. However, the increased attention paid to Israel has also other causes: the changed attitude of the Church after the civil war and the Syrian occupation in Lebanon, events which both caused difficulties for the consistent Christian minorities; the hope that the Oslo process could reward the Italian ‘clear-sightedness’; last, but not least, the quarrelsome internal politics that make the Palestine conflict a mirror of the Roman conflicts. Lastly, the article connects the recent goodwill for Israel with the threats of Islamic terrorism in Italy. A political opinion trend would revisit the Middle Eastern conflict as the upturned perspective of a ‘clash of civilizations’ already existent nowadays. And a possible act of terrorism in Italy might give to this opinion a mass basis.

Passion for Islam: Shaping the Modern Middle East: The Egyptian Experience

revival is reshaping Egypt and other Arab countries in ways beyond violent politics. The yearning for personal solace, a just political system, indigenous lifestyles, and relevant theology all await satisfaction....Just as the Nile runs through Egypt for almost eight hundred miles, giving it life, so also the Straight Way, the way of Allah, runs through it, beckoning its people. The search by Egypt's Muslims for a modern understanding of the Straight Way is the essence of today's passion for -- from Chapter 1, First Verses Written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, this authoritative and enthralling primer on the modern face of provides one of the most comprehensive accountings for the roots of religious terrorism and Middle Eastern strife. Over decades, a myriad of social, political, and religious factors has made today's Middle East a combustible region and has contributed to Islam's new power and turmoil. Passion for Islam uses one particular country, Egypt, as a lens through which to show how these forces play out across the area, allowing terrorism to gain a foothold. Through the personal experiences and observations of individual Egyptians encountered during her five years as the Washington Post's Cairo bureau chief, veteran journalist Caryle Murphy explores how Islam's contemporary revival is unfolding on four different levels: Pious Islam highlights the groundswell of grassroots piety that has created more Islamic societies; Political Islam examines how Islamists, using both violent and peaceful means, are reshaping the region's authoritarian secular political order and redefining Islam's role in the public arena;Cultural Islam looks at Egyptian efforts to resist a ubiquitous Western culture by asserting an Islamic identity; Thinking Islam reveals how intellectuals are reexamining their theological heritage with the aim of modernizing Islam. Representing years of exhaustive research, Passion for Islam also looks at how the tortured Israeli-Palestinian conflict has contributed to the region's religious ferment and political tumult. By revealing the day-to-day ramifications of all these issues through the eyes of Egyptian intellectuals, holy men, revolutionaries, and ordinary citizens, Passion for Islam brings an unparalleled vitality and depth to Western perceptions of Middle Eastern conflict.

Narratives of Armed Conflict and Terrorism in the Theatre: Tragedy and History in Hanoch Levin's Murder

The play Murder by the Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin, which premiered at the Cameri Theatre, the Tel Aviv municipal theatre, in the fall of 1997, is unique in confronting the extremely complex conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Levin's text?as well as the performance based on it?directed by Omri Nitzan, the artistic director of the Cameri Theatre, are a compelling theatrical representation of the chain of violence and counter-violence, of terror, revenge and retaliation that is still feeding this now more than century-old Middle Eastern conflict. Examining this play and some details from the performance, as well as situating it within Levin's oeuvre as a playwright, I want to raise a number of issues about the possibilities of the theatre to reflect and comment on violence and terror, and perhaps even bring about a change of attitudes towards such phenomena within the Israeli political and ideological con texts. I want to stress from the outset that I will examine an Israeli play from an Israeli perspective, and, at the same time, I am aware that there is another side as well. The broader issue I want to raise here, however, is how acts of terrorism and armed conflict shape the narratives performed on the theatrical stages in Israel. Is it at all possible to portray such acts of violence within an aesthetic framework? And how do these kinds