New Article: Golan-Nadir & Cohen, The Role of Individual Agents in Promoting Peace Processes

Golan-Nadir, Niva, and Nissim Cohen. “The Role of Individual Agents in Promoting Peace Processes: Business People and Policy Entrepreneurship in the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict.” Policy Studies (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01442872.2016.1161181

 

Abstract

Are individual businesspeople who operate as policy entrepreneurs willing and able to influence peace processes in conflict areas? The literature on businesspeople as policy agents shifts when talking about peace processes, focusing on group level activities and ignoring the effect of individual agents. We argue that rather than regarding businesspeople as a traditional interest group, we should consider the approaches to promoting change that strongly motivated individuals adopt as policy entrepreneurs. Based on interviews with senior Israeli businesspeople and decision-makers, we demonstrate how strongly motivated Israeli businesspeople promote peace as policy entrepreneurs. We identify their motivations, goals, challenges, and the strategies they use. The findings indicate that although motivated by economic profits, businesspeople undertake activities that may prove very beneficial to both themselves and society as a whole.

 

 

 

New Article: Jha and Shayo, Financial Market Exposure Raises Support for Peace

Jha, Saumitra, and Moses Shayo. “Financial Market Exposure Raises Support for Peace.” January 17, 2016.
 
URL: http://web.stanford.edu/~saumitra/papers/Political_Economist_piece.pdf (PDF)
 
Extract

A month and a half prior to the highly contested 2015 Israeli elections, we randomly
assigned 1,345 Jewish Israeli voters to either a financial asset treatment or a control group. Individuals in the asset treatment received endowments of assets that tracked the value of specific funds or company stocks from both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, or an endowment of cash they could invest in an asset that tracked the Tel Aviv 25 index. They were also given incentives to monitor the performance of their asset and to make weekly decisions to buy or sell part of their portfolio. We further randomized the dates at which individuals would be entirely divested of their portfolio to be either before or after the elections, and randomly assigned the initial value of the portfolio ($50 or $100).

 

 

 

New Article: Mitrani & Press-Barnathan, ‘Economic Peace’ Strategies in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Mitrani, Mor, and Galia Press-Barnathan. “The (De)Construction of ‘Economic Peace’: ‘Economic Peace’ Strategies in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Between Theory and Reality.” In Regional Peacemaking and Conflict Management: A Comparative Approach (ed. Carmela Lutmar and Benjamin Miller; Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2016): 200-18.

 

 

Extract

Our review of the several economic policies that Israel considered and partially pursued regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the years, as well as their overall failure, demonstrated not only the Gordian knot between the Commercial and Capitalist Peace, but also the need to think about the scope conditions that enable the Economic Peace arguments to play out. This case suggests that such arguments are less likely to be relevant for the resolution of asymmetric conflicts. In terms of power asymmetry, as we explain before economic interaction generates either concern and fear in the weaker party, or a temptation to be used as leverage by the powerful party. Such broad disparities also mean lack of significant mutual economic gains that may push both parties toward an agreement. In terms of actor asymmetry, the Palestinian case demonstrates that for a non-state actor fighting for recognition, economic considerations will always be trumped if and when they imply cooperation with the other side at the expense of the broader political-national goal of achieving political independence.

 

 

 

New Article: Malul et al, The Role of Academic Institutions in Mitigating the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Malul, Miki, Dafna Schwartz, Raphael Bar-El. “The Role of Academic Institutions in Mitigating the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” Journal of Policy Modeling (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpolmod.2015.12.006

 

Abstract

We explore whether the implementation of an education policy with Israeli students in a business school, including the elaboration of business projects, actually affects their attitudes towards cooperation with Palestinians. We find that this education pilot project increases the awareness of important barriers, but still at the same time improves the ability to identify appropriate cooperation models and the evaluation of benefits to all sides. Appropriate policy measures are derived, including education programs with the potential participation of third countries, subsidies and governments actual support to cooperation as an instrument for the optimization of socio-political benefits and indirect economic benefits.

 

 

Toc: Conflict, Security & Development 15.5 (2015): Special Issue on Israel-Palestine after Oslo

Conflict, Security & Development 15.5 (2015)

Table of Contents

Israel-Palestine after Oslo: mapping transformations and alternatives in a time of deepening crisis

Mandy Turner & Cherine Hussein
pages 415-424

Articles

After Oslo, a paradigm shift? Redefining ‘peoples’, sovereignty and justice in Israel-Palestine

Virginia Tilley
pages 425-453

 

Analysis

The symbiosis between Palestinian ‘Fayyadism’ and Israeli ‘economic peace’: the political economy of capitalist peace in the context of colonisation

Tariq Dana
pages 455-477

Securitised development and Palestinian authoritarianism under Fayyadism

Alaa Tartir
pages 479-502

 

Articles

The demise of Oslo and Hamas’s political engagement

Tareq Baconi
pages 503-520

 

The single-state alternative in Palestine/Israel

Cherine Hussein
pages 521-547

 

Creating a counterhegemonic praxis: Jewish-Israeli activists and the challenge to Zionism
Mandy Turner
pages 549-574

Analysis

Organising the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement: the case of the ‘We Divest’ campaign

Suzanne Morrison
pages 575-593

 

Reviews: Tovy, Israel and the Palestinian Refugee Issue

Tovy, Jacob. Israel and the Palestinian Refugee Issue. The Formulation of a Policy, 1948-1956. London and New York: Routledge, 2014.

 

 
Reviews

• Romirowsky, Asaf.”Problem across the Border: The Origins of Israel’s Policy on Palestinian Refugees.” Ynet August 5, 2015.
• Rosen, Steven J. “Review.” Middle East Quarterly, 22.4 (Fall 2015).

 

 

New Article: Saaty et al, A Structured Scientific Solution to the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict

Saaty, Thomas L., Luis G. Vargas and H. J. Zoffer. “A Structured Scientific Solution to the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict: The Analytic Hierarchy Process Approach.” Decision Analytics 2.7 (2015): 53pp.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40165-015-0017-3

 

Abstract

While the Israeli–Palestinian conflict has raged for decades, in all of its ramifications there has never been a totally structured or scientific approach to the conflict with all of its details. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approaches the problem along these lines. There are a plethora of reasons why the traditional face to face negotiations have broken down over the years. This paper identifies a significant number of those impediments and indicates how the AHP can productively address them. A summary of the highlights of the AHP approach precedes how it has been applied to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. To date, the participants, significant members of both communities, have derived and agreed upon a solution that includes all the major issues, except for the refugee problem. That problem is currently being worked on, but will take an extended period because of the unique factors involved. What has been provided is an agreed upon solution to virtually all of the issues impeding past negotiations, including borders, settlements, the status of Jerusalem, the Holy Places, security and expectations of each side.

 

 

New Article: Becker, Water Pricing in Israel

Becker, Nir. “Water Pricing in Israel: Various Waters, Various Neighbors.” Global Issues in Water Policy 9 (2015): 181-99.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16465-6_10

 

Abstract

Israel manages its water scarcity by a relatively unique combination of quantitative and pricing tools. As a semiarid climate country, efficient water pricing might prove to have much more potential welfare implications. The chapter contains a summary of the theoretical background of the different water pricing policies and reforms that have been recently implemented. The summary will then be accompanied by an effort to explain the rationale of the reforms. The chapter covers water pricing schemes in the various sectors and links them into one consistent policy vision. Currently, water pricing in Israel is more closely connected to the true scarcity value of this natural resource. Yet the goals and targets faced by water planners in Israel do not allow water prices to be the only allocation mechanism, and as such, a mixture of quantities and prices will be explored. The challenges faced now by the water regulators are new and contain pricing of different water sources (treated wastewater, desalinated water, etc.) for a variety of uses, including those that are characterized as nonmarket in nature (e.g., in-stream value) and those that should be based on basin cooperation among different countries (e.g., the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, and, potentially, Syria and Lebanon in the future).

New Article: Ward and Becker, Economic Cost of Water Deliveries for Peace and the Environment in Israel

Ward, Frank A., and Nir Becker. “Economic Cost of Water Deliveries for Peace and the Environment in Israel: An Integrated Water Resources Management Approach.” Water Resources Research (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2014WR016783

 

Abstract

This paper presents a framework for discovering an economically viable water sharing plan among neighboring communities for promoting peace and environmental protection. Its application is to the Middle East in which Israel may be facing water supply obligations to address environmental requirements and for a possible a peace agreement with its Palestinian neighbors. The framework consists of integrating external factors, constraints, policy instruments, and targets. Our findings from a constrained optimization analysis of Israel’s national water system show that the costs of increased deliveries are dependent on two major issues: (1) achieving integrated water resources management (IWRM) in which efficient combinations of expansion from several supply sources and reductions in demands occur over time, and (2) the cost of desalination technologies. We identify a $US 1.46 billion price tag, in present value terms, from using integrated management of demand reduction and supply expansion under current desalination costs. Adjustment costs will decline both with anticipated reductions in desalination costs and with an efficient implementation of IWRM. These adjustments can contribute to moderating regional tensions and protecting key ecological assets while addressing water scarcity in a volatile corner of the world.

New Article: Shichor, Chinese-Israeli Relations in a Middle Eastern Context

Shichor, Yitzhak. “Chinese-Israeli Relations in a Middle Eastern Context: Retrospect and Prospects.” Mediterranean Quarterly 26.1 (2015): 137-51.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/10474552-2873021

 

Abstract

Although studies on China’s Middle East policy frequently separate Israel from the rest of the region, Beijing has always been aware of regional contradictions and tried to navigate between the two sides it perceived as interconnected. China’s attempts to adopt a balanced relationship with both sides in the 1950s were later replaced by a zero-sum game policy in which Israel was totally excluded. Since the 1980s Beijing has resurrected its balanced Middle East policy. While still sticking to nonintervention in regional conflicts, the Chinese implicitly offer their own experience of using economic means to overcome sociopolitical tensions.

New Article: Wildeman and Tartir, Donor Aid in Occupied Palestine in the aftermath of the Arab Uprisings

Wildeman, Jeremy and Alaa Tartir. “Unwilling to Change, Determined to Fail: Donor Aid in Occupied Palestine in the aftermath of the Arab Uprisings.” Mediterranean Politics 19.3 (2014): 431-49.

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13629395.2014.967014

 

Abstract

Since 1993 the international community has invested more than $24 billion in ‘peace and development’ in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). That aid was meant originally to support the Oslo Peace Process through economic development. However, neither peace nor development has been realized, and both seem increasingly unlikely. While examining donor operations, priorities and the ‘aid-for-peace’ agenda, this article investigates whether patterns in oPt donor aid have changed following the Arab uprisings of 2011. Building on 28 original interviews with Palestine aid actors, it was found that patterns remain unchanged and that donors remain transfixed on a long failed ‘Investment in Peace’ framework that was designed for economic development by the World Bank back in 1993. By comparing these research findings with the literature on aid to Palestine, this article argues that donors are not ready to alter a framework dominated by policy instrumentalists who emphasize pre-determined normative values over actual results, quietly trading financial inducements to Palestinians to forgo political rights within a ‘peace dividends’ model. Meanwhile, critics of the existing aid framework remain largely ignored and have little influence on aid policy, in spite of two decades of instrumentalist failure to produce peace or economic growth using the existing model.

ToC: Israel Affairs 20,4 (2014) – Political Economy in Israel

Israel Affairs, Volume 20, Issue 4, October 2014 is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online.

Special Issue: Political Economy in Israel

Introduction

Introduction: the many faces of Israel’s political economy Gideon Doron & Ofer Arian Pages: 445-451 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955651

Part I The Superstructure

The development of social policy research in Israel John Gal & Roni Holler Pages: 452-469 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955652

Between the quality of the environment and the quality of the performances in Israeli local government Gideon Doron & Fany Yuval Pages: 470-483 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955653

The political economy of human rights: the struggle over the establishment of a human rights commission in Israel Nurit Hashimshony-Yaffe & Assaf Meydani Pages: 484-502 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955654

Part II Structure as details perspective

Political economy and work values: the case of Jews and Arabs in Israel Moshe Sharabi Pages: 503-516 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955655

The impact of electoral reforms on voting preferences: the Israeli 1996 and 1999 cases Hani Zubida & David Nachmias Pages: 517-529 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955656

Is an ‘economic peace’ possible? Israel and globalization since the 1970s Tal Sadeh Pages: 530-565 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955657

The evolution of public colleges in Israel Aliza Shenhar Pages: 566-576 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955658

The Visible Hand: economic censorship in Israeli media Miri Gal-Ezer Pages: 577-612 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955659

What do facts have to do with the summer 2011 protests? – Structuring reality Ofer Arian Pages: 613-631 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955661

Editorial Board

Editorial Board Pages: ebi-ebi DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.961696

 

 

New Book: Peters and Newman, eds. The Routledge Handbook on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Peters, Joel and David Newman, eds. The Routledge Handbook on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. London and New York: Routledge, 2013.

 

URL: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415778626/

Abstract

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most prominent issues in world politics today. Few other issues have dominated the world’s headlines and have attracted such attention from policy makers, the academic community, political analysts, and the world’s media.

The Routledge Handbook on the Israeli- Palestinian Conflict offers a comprehensive and accessible overview of the most contentious and protracted political issue in the Middle East. Bringing together a range of top experts from Israel, Palestine, Europe and North America the Handbook tackles a range of topics including:

• The historical background to the conflict
• peace efforts
• domestic politics
• critical issues such as displacement, Jerusalem and settler movements
• the role of outside players such as the Arab states, the US and the EU

This Handbook provides the reader with an understanding of the complexity of the issues that need to be addressed in order to resolve the conflict, and a detailed examination of the varied interests of the actors involved. In-depth analysis of the conflict is supplemented by a chronology of the conflict, key documents and a range of maps.

The contributors are all leading authorities in their field and have published extensively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict/peace process. Many have played a leading role in various Track II initiatives accompanying the peace process.

 

Table of Contents

Part 1: Competing Nationalisms

1. The Origins of Zionism Colin Schindler

2. The Palestinian National Movement: from self-rule to statehood Ahmad Samih Khalidi

Part 2:Narratives and Key Moments

3. Competing Israeli and Palestinan Narratives Paul Scham

4. The 1948 War: The Battle over History Kirsten E. Schulze

5. The First and Second Palestinian Intifadas Rami Nasrallah

6. The Camp David Summit: a Tale of Two Narratives Joel Peters

 

Part 3: Seeking Peace

7.The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process: 1967-1993 Laura Zittrain Eisenberg

8. Peace Plans: 1993-2012 Galia Golan

Part 4: Issues

9.Palestinian Refugees Rex Brynen

10. Jerusalem Michael Dumper

11. Territory and Borders David Newman

12. Water Julie Trottier

13. Terrorism Magnus Norell

14. Religion Yehezkel Landau

15. Economics Arie Arnon

16. Unilaterlaism and Separation Gerald M. Steinberg

17. Gaza Joel Peters

Part 5: Domestic Actors

18.The Palestine Liberation Organization Nigel Parsons

19. The Palestinian Authority Nigel Parsons

20. Hamas Khaled Hroub

21. Palestinian Civil Society Michael Schulz

22. Gush Emunim and the Israeli Settler Movement David Newman

23. The Israeli Peace Movements Naomi Chazan

Part 6: International Engagement

24. Palestinian Citizens of Israel Amal Jamal

25. The United States: 1948- 1993 Steven L. Spiegel

26. The United States: 1993-2010 Steven L. Spiegel

27. Russia Robert O. Freedman

28. Europe Rosemary Hollis

29. The Arab World P. R. Kumaraswamy

30. The Jewish Diaspora and the Pro-Israel Lobby Dov Waxman

Chronology Steve Lutes

New Book: LeVine and Mossberg, eds. One Land, Two States

LeVine, Mark and Mathias Mossberg, eds. One Land, Two States. Israel and Palestine as Parallel States. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014.

 

 

Abstract

One Land, Two States imagines a new vision for Israel and Palestine in a situation where the peace process has failed to deliver an end of conflict. “If the land cannot be shared by geographical division, and if a one-state solution remains unacceptable,” the book asks, “can the land be shared in some other way?”

Leading Palestinian and Israeli experts along with international diplomats and scholars answer this timely question by examining a scenario with two parallel state structures, both covering the whole territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, allowing for shared rather than competing claims of sovereignty. Such a political architecture would radically transform the nature and stakes of the Israel-Palestine conflict, open up for Israelis to remain in the West Bank and maintain their security position, enable Palestinians to settle in all of historic Palestine, and transform Jerusalem into a capital for both of full equality and independence—all without disturbing the demographic balance of each state. Exploring themes of security, resistance, diaspora, globalism, and religion, as well as forms of political and economic power that are not dependent on claims of exclusive territorial sovereignty, this pioneering book offers new ideas for the resolution of conflicts worldwide.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Foreword: Two States on One Land—Parallel States as an Option for Israel and Palestine
Álvaro de Soto

Preface
Mathias Mossberg and Mark LeVine

1. One Land—Two States? An Introduction to the Parallel States Concept
Mathias Mossberg

2. Can Sovereignty Be Divided?
Jens Bartelson

3. Parallel Sovereignty: Dividing and Sharing Core State Functions
Peter Wallensteen

4. Security Strategy for the Parallel States Project: An Israeli Perspective
Nimrod Hurvitz and Dror Zeevi

5. Palestinian National Security
Hussein Agha and Ahmad Samih Khalidi

6. An Israel-Palestine Parallel States Economy by 235
Raja Khalidi

7. Economic Considerations in Implementing a Parallel States Structure
Raphael Bar-El

8. Parallel Sovereignty in Practice: Judicial Dimensions of a Parallel States Structure
Various authors, compiled by Mathias Mossberg

9. Religion in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: From Obstacle to Peace to Force for Reconciliation?
Mark LeVine and Liam O’Mara IV

10. The Necessity for Thinking outside the Box
Hiba Husseini

11. Parallel Lives, Parallel States: Imagining a Different Future
Eyal Megged

Contributors
Index

 

New Article: Schein, Growth in Per Capita GDP in the West Bank and Gaza 1950–2005

Schein, Andrew. “Growth in Per Capita GDP in the West Bank and Gaza 1950–2005.” Middle Eastern Studies 49.6 (2013): 973-989.

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00263206.2013.838561

 

Abstract

This paper examines the growth of per capita GDP in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBG) from 1950 to 2005. Data from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics and the World Bank is integrated with Angus Maddison’s estimates of per capita GDP of the WBG and Israel to produce new estimates of per capita GDP for the WBG from 1950–2005 in 1990 international dollars. With these new estimates, it is possible to compare the growth in WBG from an international perspective. One finding is that from 1968 to 1999 the economic growth in WBG was the tenth highest in the world.

ToC: Israel Affairs 18,2 (2012)

Israel Affairs, Vol. 18, No. 2, 01 Apr 2012 is now available on Taylor & Francis Online. This new issue contains the following articles: Original Articles ‘Why are they shooting?’: Washington’s view of the onset of the War of Attrition Yehuda U. Blanga Pages: 155-176 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.659074 Demography, social prosperity, and the future of sovereign Israel Uzi Rebhun & Gilad Malach Pages: 177-200 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.659075 Israel’s foreign policy: military–economic aid and assisting Jewish communities in distress – can the two coexist? Yitzhak Mualem Pages: 201-218 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.659076 Expectations for peace in Israel and the value of the Israeli shekel, 1999–2008 Andrew Schein Pages: 219-233 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.659077 Conflict and strife on the way to Gethsemane Jonathan Ventura Pages: 234-249 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.659078 Traditional healing, higher education, autonomy and hardship: coping paths of Palestinian women in Israel Ariela Popper-Giveon & Naomi Weiner-Levy Pages: 250-267 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.659080 The influences of global news messages on national governability: an environmental case study David Mekelberg Pages: 268-285 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.659081 The Office of the Chief Scientist and the financing of high tech research and development, 2000–2010 Erez Cohen, Joseph Gabbay & Daniel Schiffman Pages: 286-306 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.659082 Book Reviews Book Reviews David Rodman Pages: 307-317 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.659083