New Article: Aboultaif, Just War and the Lebanese Resistance to Israel

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Aryeh

Aboultaif, Eduardo Wassim. “Just War and the Lebanese Resistance to Israel.” Critical Studies on Terrorism (early view; online first).

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2016.1175268

Abstract

The literature on Lebanese resistance to Israel is overwhelmed with work on Hezbollah, the role of religion, and its connection to Iranian influence. However, few of these studies have looked at the totality of Lebanese resistance, from its secular origins to its Islamic monopoly. Moreover, no work to date has looked at Lebanese resistance through the prism of just war theory. This article aims at addressing this gap by applying the criteria introduced by Childress regarding the justness of war. Moreover, the article examines resistance as a practice of non-state actors and its terrorist label, and at the same time, evaluates Israel’s military response to Lebanese resistance through the prism of state terrorism.

New Article: Magen, Israel’s Foreign Policy Response to the Arab Spring

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Aryeh

Magen, Amichai. “Comparative Assessment of Israel’s Foreign Policy Response to the ‘Arab Spring’.” Journal of European Integration 37.1 (2015): 113-33.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07036337.2014.975992

Abstract

This article analyses Israel’s foreign policy response to the ‘Arab Spring’ in comparative perspective. Following the analytical framework shared by all contributions to this Special Issue, the article addresses four main dimensions in as many parts. Part I examines Israel’s initial reactions to the advent of the popular upheavals and regime changes in the Arab world in 2011–2014 and explores how those reactions have evolved over time. Part II identifies Israel’s main policy objectives in relation to events in the region and particularly its immediate neighbours: Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Part III examines the instruments which Israel has used, and eschewed, in pursuit of its policy objectives. Finally, part IV undertakes a theoretically informed analysis with the aim of explaining Israel’s distinctive strategic posture and policy responses to the events of the ‘Arab Spring’ thus far.

New Book: Alpher, Periphery – Israel’s Search for Middle East Allies

Posted on June 19, 2015 by Aryeh

Alpher, Yossi. Periphery. Israel’s Search for Middle East Allies. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.

Since its establishment after World War II, the State of Israel has sought alliances with non-Arab and non-Muslim countries and minorities in the Middle East, as well as Arab states geographically distant from the Arab-Israel conflict. The text presents and explains this regional orientation and its continuing implications for war and peace. It examines Israel’s strategy of outflanking, both geographically and politically, the hostile Sunni Arab Middle East core that surrounded it in the early decades of its sovereign history, a strategy that became a pillar of the Israeli foreign and defense policy. This “periphery doctrine” was a grand strategy, meant to attain the major political-security goal of countering Arab hostility through relations with alternative regional powers and potential allies. It was quietly abandoned when the Sadat initiative and the emerging coexistence between Israel and Jordan reflected a readiness on the part of the Sunni Arab core to deal with Israel politically rather than militarily. For a brief interval following the 1991 Madrid conference and the 1993 Oslo accords, Israel seemed to be accepted by all its neighbors, prompting then Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to muse that it could even consider joining the Arab League. Yet this periphery strategy had been internalized to some extent in Israel’s strategic thinking and it began to reappear after 2010, following a new era of Arab revolution. The rise of political Islam in Egypt, Turkey, Gaza, southern Lebanon and possibly Syria, coupled with the Islamic regime in Iran, has generated concern in Israel that it is again being surrounded by a ring of hostile states—in this case, Islamists rather than Arab nationalists.

The book analyzes Israel’s strategic thinking about the Middle East region, evaluating its success or failure in maintaining both Israel’s security and the viability of Israeli-American strategic cooperation. It looks at the importance of the periphery strategy for Israeli, moderate Arab, and American, and European efforts to advance the Arab-Israel peace process, and its potential role as the Arab Spring brings about greater Islamization of the Arab Middle East. Already, Israeli strategic planners are talking of “spheres of containment” and “crescents” wherein countries like Cyprus, Greece, Azerbaijan, and Ethiopia constitute a kind of new periphery.

By looking at Israel’s search for Middle East allies then and now, the book explores a key component of Israel’s strategic behavior. Written in an accessible manner for all students, it provides a better understanding of Israel’s role in the Middle East region and its Middle East identity.

Table of Contents

For Whom it May Concern
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction

The Periphery Doctrine at Work

Evolution of a Grand Strategy
The Northern Triangle: Iran and Turkey
Morocco
The Southern Periphery
The Levant Minorities
The Kurds of Northern Iraq
The Jewish Dimension
The American Dimension
End of the First Periphery, 1973-1983

Ramifications

Iran: periphery nostalgia and its costs
Israeli skeptics
Between peripheries: peace, isolation and Islam
Is there a new periphery?
Arab reaction

Conclusion

Can Israel find a regional identity?

Heads of Mossad
Persons interviewed
Maps:

The original periphery concept
The expanded southern periphery
The ethnic periphery
A new periphery?

Index
About the Author

Yossi Alpher was an officer in Israeli military intelligence, followed by twelve years of service in the Mossad. Until 1995, he was director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. In July 2000, he served as Special Adviser to the Prime Minister of Israel during the Camp David talks. From 2001 to 2012 he was coeditor of the bitterlemons.net family of internet publications.

Conference program: MESA, Washington, DC (22-25 Nov, 2014)

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Aryeh

Israel Studies events at the annual conference of MESA, Washington, DC, November 22-25. For full program click here (PDF).

AIS–Association for Israel Studies Reception

Saturday, 11/22

Reception, 8:30-10:30pm, McKinley (M)

(3681) Settler-Colonialism and the Study of Zionism: Erasure, Transfer and Assimilation

Sunday, November 23, 11am-1pm

Organized by Arnon Degani

Sponsored by Palestinian American Research Center (PARC)

Chair: Gabriel Piterberg, UCLA

Discussant: Lorenzo Veracini, Swinburne Inst for Social Research

Susan Slyomovics, UCLA–“The Object of Memory” and Settler Colonialism Studies 16 Years Later

Honaida Ghanim, Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies–Judaization and De-Indigenization: Settler-Colonialism in East Jerusalem

Areej Sabbagh-Khoury, Mada Al-Carmel–The Zionist Left and Settler-Colonialism in Marj Ibn ‘Amer: Land, Population and Property

Arnon Degani, UCLA–Non-Statist and Bi-Nationalist Zionism as Settler-Colonial Agendas

(3756) Rule of Experts?: Revolutions, Doctrines, and Interventions in the Middle East

Sunday, November 23, 2m-4pm

Organized by Osamah Khalil

Seth Anziska, Columbia University–Israel, the United States and the 1982 War in Lebanon

(3925) World War One and Its Aftermath

Sunday, November 23, 2m-4pm

Chair: Weston F Cook, Jr, UNC Pembroke

Roberto Mazza, Western Illinois U–Cemal Pasha, Zionism and the Alleged Expulsion of the Jews from Jaffa in April 1917

(3792) Israel Studies in the Arab World

Sunday, November 23, 4:30m-6:30pm

Organized by Johannes Becke

Discussant: Elie Podeh, Hebrew U of Jersusalem

Hassan A. Barari, U Jordan–Israelism: Arab Scholarship on Israel, a Critical Assessment

Mostafa Hussein, Brandeis U–Israel Studies in the Arab World Between Two Dictums: ‘Whosoever Learns People’s Language Avoids Their Plot’ and ‘Know Your Enemy’

Johannes Becke, U Oxford–Hebrew in Beirut: Studying Israel in the Last Arab Frontline State

Hebatalla Taha, U Oxford–The Politics of ‘Normalisation’: The Israeli Academic Centre in Cairo

Amr Yossef, American U Cairo–Egyptian Israelists: The View from Israel

(3886) Social Media, the Digital Archive, and Scholarly Futures

Sunday, November 23, 4:30m-6:30pm

Organized by Ted Swedenburg

Chair/Discussant: Elliott Colla, Georgetown U

Rebecca L. Stein, Duke U–The Perpetrator’s Archive: Israel’s Occupation on YouTube

(4006) Special Session

Abandoned Yet Central: Gaza and the Resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Sunday, November 23, 4:30m-6:30pm

Organized by Sara Roy

Chair: Sara Roy, Harvard University

Chris Gunness, UNRWA, Office of the Commissioner General, Jerusalem

Paul Aaron, Political Analyst and Consultant, Gaza Community Mental Health Program

Bill Corcoran, American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA)

Ilana Feldman, George Washington University

Brian Barber, University of Tennessee

Susan Akram, Boston University School of Law

This session will present an overview of the past summer’s violent clashes between Israeli and Hamas forces and the ensuing destruction in Gaza. Representatives from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) will provide an “on-the-ground” analysis of the destruction and human toll of the 50-day war. Scholars will further place the recent violence in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and examine the prerequisites for a sustainable resolution of the conflict.

(3737) Religious Inclusivity and Civilizational Identity: Expanding Iranian Identities Along Religious, Ethnic, and Gender Lines

Monday, November 24, 8:30am-10:30am

Organized by Lior Sternfeld

Chair/Discussant: Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, U Toronto

Lior Sternfeld, U Texas Austin–Iran is My Homeland, Jerusalem is My Qiblah: Iranian Jews Between Zionist and Iranian Identities

(3643) Israel, the United States and a Changing Middle East

Monday, November 24, 11am-1pm

Organized by Robert O. Freedman

Sponsored by Association for Israel Studies

Chair/Discussant: Robert O. Freedman, Johns Hopkins U

Eyal Zisser, Tel Aviv U–Israel and the Arab World – Who’s First – Syria, Egypt or Lebanon?

Ilan Peleg, Lafayette Col–Israel, Netanyahu & the Palestinians: Is the Third Term the Charm?!

Rami Ginat, Bar Ilan U–The Israeli-Egyptian-American Strategic Triangle: A Reassessment in Light of the Arab Uprising

Joshua Teitelbaum, Bar-Ilan U–Israel and the Gulf Cooperation Council: New Opportunities for Cooperation?

Uzi Rabi, Tel Aviv U–Iran and Israel: Post 2013 Elections

(3697) Bridging the Rupture of 1948: The “Decolonization” and Erasure of Mandate Palestine

Monday, November 24, 2:30pm-4:30pm

Organized by Jeffrey D. Reger and Leena Dallasheh

Sponsored by Palestinian American Research Center (PARC)

Chair: Zachary Lockman, New York U

Discussant: Shira Robinson, George Washington U

Jeffrey D. Reger, Georgetown U–Uprooting Palestine: Olive Groves, Mass Dispossession, and Peasant Resistance, 1945-1955

Hilary Falb Kalisman, UC Berkeley–Learning Exile: Palestinian Students and Educators Abroad, 1940-1958

Leena Dallasheh, Rice U–Defying the Rupture, Affirming Presence: Palestinians in Nazareth Surviving 1948

Rephael Stern, Princeton U–Israel’s Postcolonial Predicament and Its Contradicting Jurisdictional Claims in 1948

(3917) Perilous Peacemaking: Israeli-Palestinian Relations Since Oslo

Monday, November 24, 5pm-7pm

Chair: Timothy Schorn, U South Dakota

Elie Podeh, Hebrew U Jerusalem–Missed Opportunities in the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Case of the Arab Peace Initiative (2002-2014)

Maia Carter Hallward, Kennesaw State U–Choosing to Negotiate Under Sub-Optimal Conditions: The 2013 Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations

Gabriele Mombelli, U Florence–The Palestinian National Authority Security Sector: An Operational Overview

Karam Dana, U Washington–Twenty Years after Oslo: What Do Palestinians Think?

Andrew Barwig, Department of State–“New Blood” in Israel’s Knesset: Elite Circulation and Parliamentary Resilience

(3867) Urbanism and the Politics of the Mandate Period, Local versus Imperial Interests

Tuesday, November 25, 11am-1pm

Organized by Harrison Guthorn

Chair: Elizabeth F. Thompson, U Virginia

Noah Hysler Rubin, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design–Planning Palestine: British and Zionist Plans for Tiberius and Nathanya

(3893) Public Opinion in the Middle East

Tuesday, November 25, 11am-1pm

Organized by Yael Zeira

Devorah Manekin, Arizona State U–Carrots and Sticks: Policy Instruments and Public Opinion in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

(3919) Palestinian Resistance: Spaces and Standpoints

Tuesday, November 25, 11am-1pm

Chair: Timothy Schorn, U South Dakota

Timothy Seidel, American U–Narrating Nonviolence: Postcolonial Interrogations of Resistance in Palestine

Maya Rosenfeld, Hebrew U Jerusalem–The Movement of Palestinian Political Prisoners and the Struggle Against the Israeli Occupation: A Historical Perspective

Sharri Plonski, SOAS U London–Transcending Bounded Space: The Struggle for Land and Space by the Palestinian Citizens of Israel

Julie Norman, McGill U–Prisoners Dilemma?: Prison-Based Resistance and the Diffusion of Activism in Palestine

Maryam Griffin, UC Santa Barbara–Movement as/and Non-Movement in Palestine

(3949) Transnational Cultural Production

Tuesday, November 25, 1:30pm-3:30pm

Chair: Zeynep Seviner, U Washington

Isra Ali, Rutgers, State U of New Jersey–Adaptation: Cultural Alliances and Television Production in Israel and the United States

Robert Lang, U Hartford–Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir: Whose Trauma?

ToC: Israel Affairs 20.3 (2014)

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Aryeh

Israel Affairs, Volume 20, Issue 3, July 2014 is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online.

This new issue contains the following articles:

Articles
The ‘Arab Spring’: implications for US–Israeli relations
Banu Eligür
Pages: 281-301
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.922802

The effects of the ‘Arab Spring’ on Israel’s geostrategic and security environment: the escalating jihadist terror in the Sinai Peninsula
Yehudit Ronen
Pages: 302-317
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.922807

Consolidated monarchies in the post-‘Arab Spring’ era: the case of Jordan
Nur Köprülü
Pages: 318-327
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.922803

Turkish foreign policy after the ‘Arab Spring’: from agenda-setter state to agenda-entrepreneur state
Burak Bilgehan Özpek & Yelda Demirağ
Pages: 328-346
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.922806

Myth and reality, denial and concealment: American Zionist leadership and the Jewish vote in the 1940s
Zohar Segev
Pages: 347-369
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.922808

Middle Eastern intellectual correspondence: Jacob Talmon and Arnold Toynbee revisited
Amikam Nachmani
Pages: 370-398
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.922804

Fiscal allocation to Arab local authorities in Israel, 2004–12
Tal Shahor
Pages: 399-409
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.922809

‘Spring of Youth’ in Beirut: the effects of the Israeli military operation on Lebanon
Dan Naor
Pages: 410-425
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.922805

Book Reviews
Bohaterowie, hochsztaplerzy, opisywacze: wokół Żydowskiego Związku Wojskowego [Heroes, hucksters, storytellers: the Jewish Military Organization
Yehuda Bauer
Pages: 426-429
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897470

Israel: a history
David Rodman
Pages: 430-431
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897025

Holy war in Judaism: the fall and rise of a controversial idea
David Rodman
Pages: 431-432
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897027

Saturday people, Sunday people: Israel through the eyes of a Christian sojourner
David Rodman
Pages: 433-434
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897028

The Arab Spring, democracy and security: domestic and international ramifications
David Rodman
Pages: 434-436
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897029

Operation Damocles: Israel’s secret war against Hitler’s scientists, 1951–1967
David Rodman
Pages: 436-437
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897030

A Jew’s best friend? The image of the dog throughout Jewish history
David Rodman
Pages: 437-438
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897031

2048
David Rodman
Pages: 438-440
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897032

Tested by Zion: the Bush administration and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
David Rodman
Pages: 440-441
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897033

Routledge handbook of modern Israel
David Rodman
Pages: 441-442
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897034

Israel’s clandestine diplomacies
David Rodman
Pages: 442-444
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897026

Erratum
Erratum

Pages: 1-1
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.937589

New Article: Naber and Zaatari, Feminist and LGBTQ Activism in the Context of the 2006 Israeli Invasion of Lebanon

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Aryeh

Naber, Nadina and Zeina Zaatari. “Reframing the War on Terror: Feminist and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Activism in the Context of the 2006 Israeli Invasion of Lebanon.” Cultural Dynamics 26.1 (2014): 91-111.

URL: http://cdy.sagepub.com/content/26/1/91

Abstract

This article seeks to expand the kinds of questions we ask about the diverse militarized campaigns referred to collectively as the “war on terror,” the grassroots resistance to these wars, and efforts committed to creating a world without destruction and killing. Shifting the focus of this feminist critique of war away from the center of power (the empire) to the everyday lives of feminist and queer activists living the war on terror from the ground up, this article examines a distinct feminist and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) social movement that worked to respond to and resist the US-backed Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006. We argue along with our interlocutors in Lebanon that asymmetrical systems of gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and family are entangled in the historical conditions of transnational capital, empire, and war, and necessitate an intersectional approach that refuses to impose false binaries or hierarchies on a complex social reality. We conclude by arguing the importance of reframing the war on terror and reimagining feminist and LGBTQ policies as a critique of the post-racial discourse, beyond dominant imperialist and nationalist discourses, which are exclusionary, sexist, and homophobic in different ways.

Cite: Petrelli, The Evolution of Israeli Counterinsurgency, 1987–2005

Posted on November 28, 2013 by Aryeh

Petrelli, Niccolò. “Deterring Insurgents: Culture, Adaptation and the Evolution of Israeli Counterinsurgency, 1987–2005.” Journal of Strategic Studies 36.5 (2013): 666-691.

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01402390.2012.755923

Abstract

This article studies the Israeli ‘way of war’ in counterinsurgency in the period 1987–2005 by analysing the characteristic features of Israel’s approach and its ability to adapt to the challenges posed by the Palestinian and Lebanese insurgencies. It first outlines the evolution of the Israeli counterinsurgency. It subsequently examines the Israeli approach through the lens of the country’s strategic culture, illuminating its features, rationales and goals, and concludes by examining to what extent Israel managed to adapt to the challenges of fighting insurgents.

Cite: Samaan, The Dahya Concept and Israeli Military Posture vis-à-vis Hezbollah Since 2006

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Aryeh

Samaan, Jean-Loup. “The Dahya Concept and Israeli Military Posture vis-à-vis Hezbollah Since 2006.” Comparative Strategy 32.2 (2013): 146-59.

URL: www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/ucst/2013/00000032/00000002/art00005

Abstract:

Since 2008, the Dahya concept has been portrayed by journalists, independent experts, and scholars as an official policy of Israel to address the threat of Hezbollah in Lebanon. However, there has been no official Israeli document formulating a Dahya strategy. Although this Dahya concept is not officially endorsed by the Israeli Defense Forces, it is a key reflection of the state of the Israeli military vis-à-vis Hezbollah debate since the 2006 war. This debate reflects a significant evolution of Israeli threat assessment and the remedies for these challenges. It acknowledges not only the political support and military strength of the Lebanese organization, but also its rationality. Conceding the extreme difficulty of dismembering Hezbollah’s power, the Dahya concept postulates a deterrence system that, as a matter of fact, finds its roots in traditional Israeli strategic doctrine.

Cite: Tidy, The Social Construction of Identity: Israeli Foreign Policy and the 2006 War in Lebanon

Posted on September 2, 2012 by Aryeh

Tidy, Joanna. “The Social Construction of Identity: Israeli Foreign Policy and the 2006 War in Lebanon.” Global Society – ahead of print.

—

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13600826.2012.710597

—

Abstract

This article uses a constructivist analysis to consider the social construction of identity and the Israeli military action in Lebanon in 2006. Strands of meaning, constructive of a collective sense of self, emerged out of historical continuities, interacted and were made meaningful in relation to each other around the issue of the Hezbollah threat in 2006. They framed, contextualised and constituted that policy issue to form a situated and contingent identity of the possible, within which the policy decisions that produced the second Lebanon War were taken. Whilst a body of work has resulted from engagement with this conflict, and a well established literature discusses Israeli identity, little has been done to bring the two together and consider in detail the role of identity in constructing the 2006 war as possible and desirable for Israel. This is the focus and contribution of this article. Domestically, the institutional context of the 2006 Knesset elections revealed a national identity in which the multi-faceted vulnerability identity and Fighting Jew identity were salient, interacting strands. The narratives of ordeal, existential threat, and self-reliance acted to increase the power of the Fighting Jew identity, predicated on a faith in military solutions to threats. These ideas came up against and were rearticulated in the context of the global “War on Terror” to make the war in 2006 both possible and desirable.

Cite: Haas, Missed Ideological Opportunities and George W. Bush’s Middle Eastern Policies

Posted on September 2, 2012 by Aryeh

Haas, Mark L. “Missed Ideological Opportunities and George W. Bush’s Middle Eastern Policies.” Security Studies 21.3 (2012): 416-54.

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09636412.2012.706499

Abstract

Numerous analysts have criticized George W. Bush’s Middle Eastern policies for their strong ideological content. This article agrees with a core premise of these critiques, but it does so for very different reasons from most analyses. Ideological rigidity on some issues, paradoxically, prevented the Bush administration from taking advantage of the full range of ways in which ideologies shape international relations. There were three major opportunities to advance US interests in the Middle East during Bush’s presidency that were created by the effects of ideologies. First, liberalizing parties in otherwise illiberal regimes tended to be significantly more supportive of US interests than other ideological groups in the same country at the same time. Second, major ideological differences among different types of illiberal enemies of the United States enhanced America’s ability to adopt “wedge” strategies toward various hostile coalitions. Finally, the existence of different types of ideological enemies in the Middle East created incentives for some illiberals to align with the United States because of mutual ideological enmity for a third ideological group. The Bush administration, however, failed at key times to take advantage of these openings. If Bush administration officials had been less ideologically dogmatic while, somewhat paradoxically, making better strategic use of ideologies’ major international effects, America’s security would have been significantly advanced in critical cases.

Reviews: Blanford, Warriors of God

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Aryeh

Blanford, Nicholas. Warriors of God. Inside Hezbollah’s Thirty-Year Struggle against Israel. New York : Random House, 2011.

Reviews

Al-Shawaf, Rayyan. “Review.” Boston Globe, October 25, 2011.
Holahan, David. “Review.” Christian Science Monitor, November 21, 2011.
Badran, Tony. “Review.” Washington Post, December 30, 2011.
Chaiklin, Harris. “Review.” Washington Independent Review of Books, January 2012.
Totten, Michael J. “Hezbollah’s Relentless Rage.” City Journal, March 9, 2012.
Saab, Bilal Y. “Review.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 35.5 (2012): 405-409.

See also interview with Blanford on book: “The Inner Workings of Hezbollah” (CNN).

Cite: Dakhlallah, The Arab League in Lebanon: 2005–2008

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Aryeh

Dakhlallah, Farah. “The Arab League in Lebanon: 2005–2008.” Cambridge Review of International Affairs 25.1 (2012): 53-74.

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09557571.2011.646241

Abstract

Contrary to expectations, the Arab League has emerged as an active player in the Middle East region over the past decade. The League’s roles in negotiations to end the 2006 Israel–Lebanon War and in the brokering of the 2008 Doha Agreement between warring Lebanese factions present two instances of ‘partial’ and ‘direct’ contributions to success in resolving major extra-systemic and minor internal conflicts. These developments are part of a global trend of the regionalization or decentralization of security in the post-Cold-War context.

ToC: Bustan (Middle East Book Review) 2 (2011)

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Aryeh

Several Book Reviews of interest in Bustan: The Middle East Book Review, issue 2, 2011:

– Itamar Rabinovich on Laura Zittrain Eisenberg and Neil Caplan, Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998), 45-47.

– Josef Joffe on George W. Bush, Decision Points (New York: Crown Publishing, 2010), 51-54.

– Itamar Rabinovich on Neil Caplan,The Israel-Palestine Conflict: Contested Histories (Contesting the Past Series; Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 59-61.

You can see full Table of Contents here:

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/mebr/2011/00000002/00000001

Also, note that the first issue is offered for free browse, and includes, among others, the following reviews:

– Itamar Rabinovich, “Making Peace and Writing about It,” 21-28.

– Eyal Zisser, “Israelis Confront the Second Lebanon War,” 29-43.

– Eyal Zisser on Yigal Kipnis, The Mountain that was as a Monster: The Golan between Syria and Israel (Heb.); Michael Milstein, Mukawama, The Challenge of Resistance to Israel’s National Security Concept (Heb.); Götz Nordbruch, Nazism in Syria and Lebanon: The Ambivalence of the German Option, 1933-1945. 45-46

– Asher Susser on Marwan Muasher, The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation; Benny Morris, One State, Two States: Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict. 47-49

– Ephraim Lavie on As’ad Ghanem, Palestinian Politics after Arafat: A Failed National Movement. 54-57