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761. The Claim for Recognition of Israel as a Jewish State A Reassessment

Author:
Tal Becker
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
Amid efforts to relaunch and sustain Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Israel's claim for recognition as a Jewish state continues to generate controversy. While Israel's leaders have insisted that such recognition is fundamental to any peace agreement, Palestinian and other Arab leaders have responded to the claim with consistent and widespread antipathy. To begin to explore how this issue might be appropriately addressed in the context of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, it is necessary to place the claim for recognition in its historical, political, and strategic context. We must consider the nature and legitimacy of the interests at stake and examine the alternatives for addressing them.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Peace Studies, Treaties and Agreements, and Territorial Disputes
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, Palestine, and Arabia

762. Israel's Strategic Concerns over Upheaval in Egypt

Author:
Michael Herzog
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
The popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt caught Israel by surprise. Awe-inspiring as they are to Israel's government and people, these revolutions and the ongoing troubles in Bahrain and Libya are also of immense concern to Israel because of their potential strategic ramifications. Going forward, developments in Egypt will be particularly important given Cairo's traditional role in the region and the special nature of its diplomatic, security, and economic relations with Israel.
Topic:
Security, Democratization, and Insurgency
Political Geography:
Israel, Libya, Arabia, Arab Countries, Egypt, and Tunisia

763. The Philippines: Back to the Table, Warily, in Mindanao

Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Peace talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are back on track, with one round of talks in Kuala Lumpur in February 2011 and another scheduled for late April. The obstacles to achieving a final peace are huge, but the administration of President Benigno S. “Noynoy” Aquino III has at least brought some fresh air to the process. A new government peace panel seems determined to find a way out of a negotiator's nightmare: multiple parties engaged in parallel and sometimes contradictory talks; powerful potential spoilers; and ethnic divisions, feuding clans and divergent political interests among the Bangsamoro – the Muslims of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago – that make unity within the MILF's own constituency elusive.
Topic:
Islam, Peace Studies, Treaties and Agreements, and Insurgency
Political Geography:
Israel, Philippines, and Kuala Lumpur

764. Gaza: The Next Israeli-Palestinian War?

Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Will the next Middle East conflagration involve Israelis and Palestinians? After the serious escalation of the past week in which eight Gazans, including children, were killed in a single day, and the 23 March 2011 bombing in Jerusalem, that took the life of one and wounded dozens, there is real reason to worry. The sharp deterioration on this front is not directly related, nor is it in any way similar to the events that have engulfed the Middle East and North Africa. But the overall context of instability and uncertainty undoubtedly has made a volatile situation even more so. Israelis' anxiety is rising and with it the fear that outside parties might seek to provoke hostilities to divert attention from domestic problems and shift the focus back to Israel. Hamas has been emboldened by regional events and is therefore less likely to back down from a challenge. The combination, as recent days have shown, has proven combustible.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution and War
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, Arabia, Jerusalem, Gaza, Arab Countries, and North Africa

765. Japan's Economy after the Quake

Author:
Kilbinder Dosanjh
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
The human cost Many companies (Sony, Toyota) have shut factories in affected area As much as 10% of national power production temporarily down Rolling blackouts will continue until end-April.
Topic:
Economics, Humanitarian Aid, and Natural Disasters
Political Geography:
Japan, Israel, and Asia

766. Radical Islam in Gaza

Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
The recent Israel-Hamas escalation returns a spotlight to Gaza and the Islamist movement's relationship with more militant organisations. Gaza arouses multiple concerns: does Hamas seeks to impose religious law; has its purported Islamisation stimulated growth of Salafi-Jihadi groups; and will al-Qaeda offshoots find a foothold there? Hamas faces competition from more radical Islamist groups, though their numbers are few, organisation poor, achievements against Israel so far minor and chances of threatening Gaza's government slight. The significance of Gaza's Salafi-Jihadis is less military capability than constraints they impose on Hamas: they are an ideological challenge; they appeal to members of its military wing, a powerful constituency; through attacks within and from Gaza, they threaten security; by criticising Hamas for not fighting Israel or implementing Sharia, they exert pressure for more militancy and Islamisation. The policy of isolating Gaza and ignoring Hamas exacerbates this problem. As the international community seeks new ways to address political Islam in the Arab upheaval's wake, Gaza is not the worst place to start.
Topic:
Islam, Terrorism, and Armed Struggle
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, Arabia, and Gaza

767. "Gaza on Their Minds: The Effect of 'Operation Cast Lead' in Mobilizing Palestinian Action"

Author:
Julia Fitzpatrick
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
On December 27, 2008, Israeli armed forces launched air raids on the Gaza Strip. In what Israeli military officials coined, “Operation Cast Lead,” Israeli forces attacked the Gaza Strip with twenty-three days of aerial assaults and ground incursions in an effort to weaken Hamas' power in Gaza and to bring an end to Hamas rockets fired into Israel. “Operation Cast Lead” was not the first Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized power in 2007, but it was the largest Israeli military campaign since the Second Intifada and was reported to have caused the highest rates of casualties and injuries in a single day since 1948. The Arab press decried Israel's assault and described it as one of the worst attacks against Palestinians since the creation of Israel in 1948, what Palestinians call the “nakba,” or catastrophe. Populations in Arab countries took to the streets to protest Israel's actions and their own governments' complicity in them, with contentious demonstrations occurring in Jordan and Egypt, the only two Arab countries having formal peace agreements with Israel. But for Palestinians citizens of Israel (who are also called Arab Israelis or Arab citizens of Israel), or in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, “Operation Cast Lead” was a reminder of the splintered nature of the Palestinian national community in the face of continued occupation, evident in the increasing political separation of the Gaza Strip from the West Bank.
Political Geography:
Israel, Arabia, and Egypt

768. The Reform of Israeli Checkpoints: Outsourcing, Commodification, and Redeployment of the State (La réforme des checkpoints israéliens : externalisation, marchandisation et redéploiement de l'Etat)

Author:
Shira Havkin
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
Abstract:
Since 2006 the checkpoints along the borders of the West Bank and the Gaza strip have been reorganized and equipped with a new technological platform. They are now managed by private security firms. The instigators of these reforms speak of the "civilianization" of the checkpoints and justify their program on economic, organizational and humanitarian grounds. This detailed study of the concrete means by which the management of the Israeli checkpoints has been outsourced and commodified enables one to establish links between the evolution of Israeli society in terms of the relationship between the State, the market and society and the actual changes in the operation of the occupation. It would appear that this is not a case of the State receding in the face of market forces in a zero sum game. Rather it is the redeployment in a neoliberal context of the State in which it has adopted the uniquely Israeli layering of the public and the private, the national and the international, the State and civil society.
Topic:
Security, Economics, Human Rights, Science and Technology, Occupation, Neoliberalism, and Borders
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, Palestine, Gaza, and West Bank

769. Planning Ahead for a Peacekeeping Mission on the Golan Heights: a Role for NATO?

Author:
Celine Touboul
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
This research aims at examining whether NATO could be the provider of an international force to supervise the implementation of an Israeli-Syrian peace treaty. It proceeds by outlining the main characteristics of the peacekeeping mission needed for that task, based on the likely provisions of the future Israeli-Syrian peace treaty.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, International Cooperation, Treaties and Agreements, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, and Syria

770. The Best Defense?

Author:
Abraham D. Sofaer
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Foreign Affairs
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
After 9/11, U.S. President George W. Bush announced his determination to do whatever was necessary to prevent future terrorist attacks against the United States. Following the lead of several countries that had recently come to similar conclusions after their own bitter experiences -- including India, Israel, Japan, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom -- the United States tightened its immigration laws; increased the protection of its borders, ports, and infrastructure; criminalized providing "material support" for terrorist groups; and tore down the wall between the intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies, which had crippled counterterrorist efforts for decades. Washington did not authorize preventive detention, as other countries had, but it used other measures to hold persons against whom criminal charges could not be brought -- thereby preventing terrorist attacks. The U.S. government also led or joined various international efforts aimed at warding off new dangers, such as the Proliferation Security Initiative, through which over 70 states cooperate to interdict the movement of nuclear materials across international borders. But the Bush administration's call for preventive action went further: it endorsed using force against states that supported terrorism or failed to prevent it. This was a particularly controversial position, since using (or threatening to use) preventive force across international borders is generally considered to be a violation of international law: the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and most international legal authorities currently construe the United Nations Charter as prohibiting any use of force not sanctioned by the UN Security Council, with the exception of actions taken in self-defense against an actual or imminent state-sponsored "armed attack."
Topic:
Security and United Nations
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Japan, United Kingdom, Washington, Israel, and Spain