...scholarship on a core question from Neil Caplan’s book,” The Israel-Palestine Conflict, Contested Histories, What are the true intentions of the Palestinians and the PLO: To eliminate the Jewish state of Israel and replace it with an Arab state of Palestine? Or to create a Palestinian Arab state in part of historic Palestine, to coexist alongside an Israeli Jewish state? ,. (212) . Caplan’s book gives a large variety of historical context and changes to the answer of this question. The first source I will analyze is an article on Aljazeera website called, Palestinian National Council to discuss ending ties with Israel. The articles main point is that the Palestinian Liberation Organization and other Palestinian factions will vote on a new 18 member council....
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...Analysing the Israel-Palestine Conflict in International Relations Perspective Introduction to International Relations Analysing the Israel-Palestine Conflict in International Relations Perspective Background Since the early 20th Century, Israelis and Palestinians have been fighting over the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. With the assumption that Palestine is a state to facilitate discussion, this report sketches out the most significant elements of the conflict on the three levels defined by Kenneth Waltz, and applies the Realist theory of international relations (IR) to the “Two-State” solution. Levels of analysis 1. First Level The first level focuses on individuals involved in the international relations. On Israel’s side, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has an important role to play because he has the final word in all political decisions. On the side of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas enjoys an even stronger position. Not only is he the chairman of Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), he is also the President of the Palestinian National Authority (PA), which is the ruling body for the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. He does not to have to face elections as he runs an authoritarian regime. On the regional level, the most influential figure is Mohamed Morsi, President of Egypt, who is vital to negotiating efforts for the conflict. Egypt is the first Arab country to accept Israel as a...
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...Perception of Terrorism and Influence over the Audience By principle, the media should be impartial, unbiased and independent while illustrating their duties. The main aim and task of the media is to give accurate information to the public which should be based on the truth. During times of war the western media has become a place where the opinion of the audience at home is of vital importance to the success and failure of the war being fought against terrorism. In today’s time, the media is the main means of expression through which people receive information on terrorism or any other conflict, which then enlighten us about the unfolding events. Since the western media undisputedly is the most powerful, it has the means to present government actions in a supportive way, expose atrocities on either side and raise issues to the public which assist their governmental agenda. Here the question that comes to mind is whether the western media portrays terrorism, Muslims and Arabs in an accurate aspect. The western media uses certain techniques to depict terrorists in their own view which have had disastrous effects on Arabs as well as Americans all over the world. It is very unfortunate that despite all the recent terrorist attacks, weather they were significant or minor, the media still has not come up with a definitive definition of “terrorism” and “who is a terrorist”. The main issue with western media reporting on terrorism is their flaw of having discrepancies in their news...
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...1. Introduction In a media war, journalistic approaches have political consequences. I saw that happen during the biggest media onslaught I’ve ever witnessed- the failure of the peace negotiations at Camp David. Luyendijk, 2009, p. 229 Luyendijk evaluates further that the media misrepresented the failure of Camp David II, which focussed only on the Palestinian rejection of the Israeli offer, although the offer was not as generous as it was presented (cf. p. 230). But to what extend was it misrepresented? Which offer did the Palestinian’s reject? And finally, why did Camp David II fail? In order to understand why it was impossible to establish peace between Palestine and Israel in 2000 and to help my reader understand why the role of media representation of the Middle East is so influential, l am studying the reasons...
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...The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been one of the most important issues that the United Nations has focused on since its founding in 1945. It has been the central topic for many resolutions, special committees, and peacekeeping efforts over the last sixty years. The United Nations has served as a platform for discussion about this conflict and has been used as a mediator between the opposing groups as a peaceful resolution to the issues is sought. Its main interest is in creating a peaceful end to this conflict and ensuring that both sides are just in their actions. At the time that the United Nations was founded, Great Britain administered the area of Palestine as a result of a mandate that had been assigned to them by the League of Nations. The British supported the establishment of a Jewish state in the area and Jewish immigration was greatly increasing especially following the Holocaust during World War II. This was met by opposition from the Arab population in Palestine and, as violence between the groups increased, the British were forced to turn the region over to the United Nations. On 28 April 1947 a special session of the UN General Assembly established the Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), which had the task of investigating all of the questions surrounding the problems in Palestine and to recommend solutions to be considered by the General Assembly later that year. UNSCOP recommended two solutions. The first was that the area be divided...
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...5/8/2014 Israeli–Palestinian conflict - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Israeli–Palestinian conflict From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Israeli–Palestinian conflict (Arabic: اﻟﻨﺰاع اﻟﻔﻠﺴﻄﯿﻨﻲ - اﻹﺳﺮاﺋﯿﻠﻲ al-Niza'a al'Filastini al 'Israili; Hebrew: הסכסוך הישראלי-פלסטיני Ha'Sikhsukh Ha'YisraeliFalestini) is the ongoing struggle between Israelis and Palestinians that began in the mid-20th century.[1] The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is sometimes also used in reference to the earlier sectarian conflict in Mandatory Palestine, between the Zionist yishuv and the Arab population under British rule. The Israeli–Palestinian conflict has formed the core part of the wider Arab–Israeli conflict. It has widely been referred to as the world's "most intractable conflict".[3][4][5] Despite a long-term peace process and the general reconciliation of Israel with Egypt and Jordan, Israelis and Palestinians have failed to reach a final peace agreement. The remaining key issues are: mutual recognition, borders, security, water rights, control of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements,[6] Palestinian freedom of movement,[7] and resolving Palestinian claims of a right of return for their refugees. The violence of the conflict, in a region rich in sites of historic, cultural and religious interest worldwide, has been the object of numerous international conferences dealing with historic rights, security issues and human rights, and has been a factor hampering tourism in and...
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...constant features of its relations with the predominantly Arab and Sunni Middle Eastern states. If Iran is somewhat of an outcast in the region, this is even more the case for Israel as the only ethnically and religiously Jewish state, not only in the region but in the world at large. Aside from Turkey, which is really the only other significant non-Arab state actor in the region, Iran and Israel represent deviations from the norm of mostly Sunni Muslim and ethnically Arab states in the Middle East. Still, what stands out as truly unique in the modern Middle East is the Iranian-Israeli connection, a facet of international politics unparalleled elsewhere in terms of Persian-Jewish contact and cooperation spanning thousands of years, overall international interdependence, and the abrupt switch from amity to enmity as of 1979. While the international media has cast an ever-stronger spotlight on the Iranian-Israeli relationship in the past five or ten years, it has long deserved closer scrutiny. For two countries to be as intertwined at the political, military, economic and societal levels – like Iran and Israel from the 1950s through to the 1970s – and then to become and remain bitter and irreconcilable enemies – thanks to a radical Iranian regime change in 1979 – is virtually unheard of in the realm of international politics. This phenomenon begged further study, and was spurred along by the need for an impartial and inclusive analysis to mitigate the perpetual barrage of news headlines...
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.... ìGETTING TO NOî AN ANALYSIS OF FAILED MEDIATION IN THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT (1993-2000) Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy Thesis Submitted by Ahsiya Posner 9 February 2003 Under the advisement of Professor Eileen Babbitt and Professor Diana Chigas ABSTRACT This paper will attempt this difficult but important task with the humble understanding that ìthe full storyî is impossible to know and telló even for the very participants of the process. Nevertheless, in this investigation, the author will explore four main questions. The first three questions are: 1) did the OPP set the Israelis and Palestinians on a trajectory that ìdoomedî CD2 from the start?; 2) were there problems inherent to the process and structure of CD2 that led to its failure?; and, 3) how should future mediation attempts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict be structured in order to meet with more success? The fourth question, however, requires further introduction. The forthcoming study of CD2 will be guided by a ìProvisional Framework (PF)î of seven criteria that I believe are necessary ingredients to successful peacemaking processes. I devised this framework after consulting existing literature and scholars in the field of mediation and negotiation in general, as well as after reviewing scholarly pieces focusing on the Israel-Palestinian peace process in particular. Thus, after using this framework to analyze CD2, conclusions will thus be drawn with regard to a fourth and final question:...
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...Proliferation It has been argued that the Israeli fear of a nuclear Iran is more due to the resultant threat of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East than an Iranian NW per se.23 The revolutions that have swept across the region over the year or so will conceivably lead to greater control of Arab foreign policy by the Arab street, thus animosity towards Israel will appear in future decision-making. Israeli apprehension is born out of the theory that an Iranian NW will, by way of the security concept mentioned previously, lead to proliferation in the region. Combine greater regional acrimony toward the Jewish state with an Arab nuclear capability and Israeli fears are comprehensible. As Kenneth Waltz has argued, history demonstrates that the cascade concept (a state will rapidly construct NWs to counter strategic imbalance created by a hostile neighbour’s nuclear arming) is flawed. His argument is further consolidated by virtue of the fact that the fear of rapid nuclear proliferation has been vociferously audible in Western media almost every year since the 1960s, yet the world possesses only nine nuclear powers.24 Leaving this convincing argument to one side, would a nuclear Iran provoke proliferation in the Middle East? Sagan’s aforementioned three theories assume that a state has the ability and the opportunity to develop a weapon.25 By inserting such a caveat we can eliminate numerous states from this predictive analysis of proliferation in the region. Whilst existing...
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...A Definition……………………………………….…….7 Benefits of Cultural Diplomacy – In General and Specifically for Israel……………………………………..8 Can the Benefits of Cultural Diplomacy be Measured?.................................................................................17 Examples of the Positive Effects of Cultural Diplomacy Programs…………………………………………18 French-German Relations: A Case Study of Successful Cultural Diplomacy………………………………21 3. Appreciation for Cultural Diplomacy in the United States and Europe The United States of America…………………………………………..……..25 Europe……………………………………………………………………..…..28 4. Cultural Development in Israel Israeli Culture……………………………………………………………….…31 Organizations in Israel Promoting Culture……………………………....……34 Governmental Support of the Promotion of Culture………………………….35 5. The Israeli Government’s Attitude Toward Cultural Diplomacy Does the Israeli Government Value Cultural 1 Diplomacy?................................................................................36 Reasons for the Inferior Status of Cultural Diplomacy In Israel……………………………………………………..…42 A History of Cultural Diplomacy in Israel…………………………………….45 6. Cultural Diplomacy as a Means to Promote Israel’s Public Image Israel’s Public Image in the United States……………………………………..46 Israel’s Public Image in...
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...ISRAELI TARGETED KILLINGS Sarah Arrasmith INTL 614 - Assassination October 25, 2014 "Consequently, today's threat is just a real from seven thousand miles away as it is from ten feet away," Michelle Mallette-Piasecki, Albany Law Review, 2013. In 1995, Yahya 'Ayyash, otherwise known as "The Engineer," and an expert terror planner for Hamas, answered his last phone call. The Israelis had laden the phone with explosives and detonated while he was carrying it ( Luft, 2003, 2). In that same year Fathi Shiqaqi, the spearhead of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who had organized several suicide bombings against Israelis, received fatal gunshot wounds by Mossad, the often mythical Israeli Intelligence (Luft, 2003, 2). These were not the first nor last targeted killings performed by the State of Israel yet are signatures of Israel's propensity and tenacity to not fall victim to terror attacks. The history of violence and threats inflicted by terror groups and nations against the state of Israel has lead to Israel's development of tenacious military and intelligence capabilities. Due to its geopolitical disadvantage, Israel must utilize aggressive and resilient tactics against terror groups, state, and non-state actors. Are targeted killings a necessary resort? Are other enforcement and intelligence strategies just as effective? Israel has propagated targeted killings as effective and credits this action with saving more lives of the innocent while reducing terrorist incidents...
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... The contestations between Israeli and Palestinian nationalism to achieve statehood are not the only two factors that have prevented the Palestinian people from succeeding. The civil war between Fatah and Hamas is an intricate factor that is responsible for making the resistance movement weak. The beginnings and methods of two main resistance groups will be examined as well as how the differences have undermined the potential strength of the Palestinian people. The fact of the matter is that the Palestinians have two political systems that continue to further polarize. Consequently, they have disrupted progress towards their essential goal which is ultimately to create a completely independent and sovereign state for the Palestinian people. Fatah first surfaced between the Suez War of 1956 and the June War of 1967. The founding leaders of Fatah include; Yasser Arafat, Farouk Qaddoumi, Salah Khalaf, Khalid al-Hassan, and Khalil al-Wazir. The birth of the movement was inspired by the lack inspiration of the Arab regimes and political parties to establish a solution for the Palestinian problem(Britannica). For quite some time ,,it was believed that the liberation of Palestinian would present itself under Arab unity. Fatah came to the realization of how important it was to mobilize the Palestinian people regardless of their backgrounds, " They formulated its' this program of struggle, avoiding class, factional, sectarian and regional conflicts. Fatah focused on restoring the...
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...News Media and Terrorism: Changing Relationship, Changing Definitions Zohar Kampf Department of Communication Hebrew University In this article I discuss two aspects that are important for understanding the relationship between Western news media and terrorism: the changing representation of terrorists and terrorist attacks in the media, and with it, the changing definition of terrorism. By calling attention to evolving news media practices in times of terrorism, I argue that advanced communication technologies and the emergence of global media ecology since the 1990s has made terrorism more visible in both national and international media landscapes. One consequence is that the more the news media expose terrorism to global audiences via the "front-door", the more controversial the use of the terms terrorism and terrorist become in social, political, and scholarly discourse. The paper addresses the new journalistic practices and their consequences as documented in previous studies on media reporting of terrorism in several national contexts, mostly the UK, the US and Israel. Terrorism, media, and the nation (or, reading about terrorists in the next day's newspaper) Classic definitions of terrorism evolved in a world in which a modernist view reigned supreme. Despite constant debates about how to define the term (Schmid 1983; Schlesinger 1981; Gibbs 1989; Nacos 2007), one conventional definition, at least under U.S. law, characterizing a nationalistic perception...
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...memberships” (Rourke and Boyer 2010, G–8). A good example of an NGO is Amnesty International. The topics I’ve picked out for this week are: human rights, the environment and third world development. I want to showcase them here because NGOs are heavily involved in these international topics, but that isn’t to say that states and IGOs aren’t also heavily involved. They are! The article from Steinberg on NGOs in the Arab-Israeli Conflict in the reading this week demonstrates this very well. I recommend keeping the form in the week 2 lesson notes on hand when you read that article so you can keep straight the actors, their identities, their purposes (e.g. realist or liberalist) and the levels of analysis they impact the most. If you aren’t familiar with the conflict, I recommend checking out this fabulous interactive by CFR on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, which is a subset of the wider Arab-Israeli Conflict. On a side note, the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is my favorite example of why constructivism is so important in IR. It is shortsighted to advance a way forward to end the conflict without first understanding the identities of the actors involved and their unique history with each other. The things to remember about NGOs are that they are involved in every major international issue, that there are thousands of them and that some are better than others. Here are some book excerpts on human rights, the environment and development of the third world to help you better understand some...
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...Contents Preface to the First Edition Introduction Part 1. Thought Control: The Case of the Middle East Part 2. Middle East Terrorism and the American Ideological System Part 3. Libya in U.S. Demonology Part 4. The U.S. Role in the Middle East Part 5. International Terrorism: Image and Reality Part 6. The World after September 11 Part 7. U.S./Israel-Palestine Notes Preface to the First Edition (1986) St. Augustine tells the story of a pirate captured by Alexander the Great, who asked him "how he dares molest the sea." "How dare you molest the whole world?" the pirate replied: "Because I do it with a little ship only, I am called a thief; you, doing it with a great navy, are called an Emperor." The pirate's answer was "elegant and excellent," St. Augustine relates. It captures with some accuracy the current relations between the United States and various minor actors on the stage of international terrorism: Libya, factions of the PLO, and others. More generally, St. Augustine's tale illuminates the meaning of the concept of international terrorism in contemporary Western usage, and reaches to the heart of the frenzy over selected incidents of terrorism currently being orchestrated, with supreme cynicism, as a cover for Western violence. The term "terrorism" came into use at the end of the eighteenth century, primarily to refer to violent acts of governments designed to ensure popular submission. That concept plainly is of little benefit to the practitioners of state terrorism...
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