Ehud Udi Eiran | University of Haifa (original) (raw)
Books by Ehud Udi Eiran
The Essence of Longing: Erez Gerstein and Israel's war in Lebanon (In Hebrew), 2007
The book explores Israel;'s long deployment in Lebanon (1985-2000) through the biography of the t... more The book explores Israel;'s long deployment in Lebanon (1985-2000) through the biography of the the country's most senior officer ever killed by Hezbollah. It further places the conflict, as well as Gerstein's life, in the broader context of changes in Israeli society in the 1990s
Post-Colonial Settlement Strategy, 2019
The book explores the motivations behind contemporary (post-1960) settlement projects into occupi... more The book explores the motivations behind contemporary (post-1960) settlement projects into occupied territories.
Settlement projects are sustained clusters of policies that allow states to strategically plan, implement and support the permanent transfer of nationals into a territory not under their sovereignty. Ehud Eiran explains why states launch settlement projects into occupied areas and introduces the international environment as an important enabling variable. By drawing comparisons between three such major projects – Israel in the West Bank and Gaza, Morocco in Western Sahara and Indonesia in East-Timor – Ehud Eiran classifies post-colonial settlement projects as a distinct cluster of cases that warrant a different analytical approach to traditional colonial studies.
Built on a careful synthesis of existing principles in international relations theory and empirical research, the book advances a clearly formulated theoretical position on the launch of post-colonial settlement projects. The result yields a number of fresh insights into the relationship between conflict, territory and international norms.
Key Features
Explains what motivates states to launch post-colonial settlement projects, against international trends and norms
Analyses three major post-colonial settlement projects (Israel, Morocco, Indonesia): one of the first books to place these projects in a comparative perspective
Also analyses three cases where states considered settlements but did not launch projects: India in Goa, Libya in Chad and Mauritania in Western Sahara
Argues that post-colonial settlement projects should be treated as a distinct category of cases, breaking with current work that views them as traditional colonial projects
Articles and Papers by Ehud Udi Eiran
Miscellanea Geographica – Regional Studies on Development 26 (3) , 2022
This paper analyzes Israel’s changing understanding of its geostrategic posture from its establi... more This paper analyzes Israel’s changing understanding of its geostrategic
posture from its establishment in 1948 to the current era. It starts by
reviewing traditional Israeli geostrategic ideas and their implementation,
mostly, as reflected in the nation’s national security doctrine. The paper
then investigates the effect of Israel’s territorial expansion after 1967 on
Israeli ideas about geostrategy. Finally, the paper shows how changing
global, regional, and technological variables in the last two decades have
transformed how Israeli elites understand their geostrategic realities and
how they allocate resources in response to these changing conditions.
Israel Studies Review , 2021
A printed and revised version of a panel from the 2020 APSA meeting, analyzing Ian Lustick's 2019... more A printed and revised version of a panel from the 2020 APSA meeting, analyzing Ian Lustick's 2019 Paradigm Lost: From Two-State Solution to One-State Reality(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019)
Journal of Conflict Resolution , 2020
This study argues that the effect of third-party trade on dyadic conflicts is conditional on the ... more This study argues that the effect of third-party trade on dyadic conflicts is conditional on the naval power of both the potential conflict initiator and its target state. This conditional effect occurs mainly because naval power allows trade-integrated initiators to reduce their trade dependence on a given trade partner and its allies more easily. At the same time, the target's naval power increases the costs that conflict inflict on the initiator's trade. As maritime trade accounts for about 80 percent of world trade volume, naval capability has an important effect on combatant states' ability to substitute trading partners during a conflict and to mitigate trade-related costs, thereby affecting the relationship between third-party trade and conflict. The findings of our statistical analyses support our theoretical expectation that the pacifying effect of third-party trade diminishes as the initiator's naval power increases, yet increases as the naval power of the potential target increases.
Journal of Intelligence History , 2020
The article analyzes the failure of the U.S. intelligence community to foresee the Egyptian-Syria... more The article analyzes the failure of the U.S. intelligence community to
foresee the Egyptian-Syrian surprise attack on Israel in 6 October
1973. The paper deconstructs the various elements of the American
failure and explores the reasons that led to it. The paper shows that
at the heart of the flawed American assessment was a paradigm
formulated by U.S. intelligence analysts, one that was influenced by
Israeli intelligence analysts. With this conclusion, the paper suggests that alongside the numerous advantages of intelligence liaison between states, the practice can also lead them to make grave errors
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, Vol. 95.5 pp. 979-997, 2019
Recent developments in the Eastern Mediterranean, such as considerable gas finds; disagreements o... more Recent developments in the Eastern Mediterranean, such as considerable gas finds; disagreements over the demarcation of maritime boundaries; large-scale violence and political instability following the Arab Spring; mass migration via sea routes; great power dynamics in the region; and environmental hazards, all create strong incentives for regional coordination on maritime security. International relations theories predict that growing security challenges (realism) coupled with expected gains (liberalism) will facilitate regional cooperation in the maritime domain. Yet, the political entities in the region rely mainly on unilateral actions, or entangle themselves in limited scale power-based quasi alliances in response to contemporary challenges. The paper demonstrates the puzzling gap between the theoretical expectation and practical outcome in the region and suggests why regional-scale cooperation in the maritime domain fails to take place.
Israel Affairs, 2019
The article analyses the effect of Israel’s new maritime orientation on its foreign policy. It f... more The article analyses the effect of Israel’s new maritime orientation on its foreign policy.
It first demonstrates that in the last two decades Israel has changed its
maritime posture in three important ways: it has developed energy dependence on offshore gas, begun extensive seawater desalination and dramatically expanded its navy’s platforms and missions. The paper then investigates the effects of these changes on Israel’s bilateral relations with its neighbors. Finally, the paper highlights the cumulative effect of these changes as well as some of their implications for Israel’s foreign policy.
KEYWORDS Israel; Middle East; Mediterranean Sea; policy; maritime s
Middle East Journal, 2018
Since the mid-1990s, both the Israeli state and Israeli society have been developing and implemen... more Since the mid-1990s, both the Israeli state and Israeli society have been developing and implementing several separate new policies regarding the country's seas. These include the extraction of offshore hydrocarbons; expansion of the navy; massive desalination projects; and several legislative, planning, and zoning initiatives. Put together, these changes amount to a "turn to the sea" that profoundly affects Israel's economy, foreign policy, and military. This article compares this shift to historical precedents, offering Israel as a template for a new, cumulative model that does not conform to the existing narratives of how polities have turned to the maritime domain. Since the mid-1990s, Israel's spatial orientation has shifted toward the maritime domain. In this time, the Israeli state and the country's civil society have been developing and implementing new policies regarding the country's seas. These include producing natural gas from the Mediterranean Sea; significantly expanding the Israeli Navy; erecting several massive seawater desalination plants; and initiating several legislative, planning, and zoning schemes. Marine-related educational and environmental initiatives have also seen significant development during the same years. This "turn to the sea" affects the foundations of Israel's economy and infrastructure, the development and deployment of its armed forces, and its foreign policy. The literature offers two main explanations for a maritime turn: a top-down governmental decision and a merchant-class/market evolution. The first, top-down, model is prevalent in centralized states, with a limited role for citizens in the decision-making process. In these cases, the central authority decides that more planning and resources should be directed at the seas. The most common reasons are expected economic gains, national prestige and power projection. The decision by the Yongle Emperor in early 15th century China to build large ships and send them on global voyages was one of the most famous manifestations of this model. 1 The maritime focus was driven by the emperor's desire to expand Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean and to secure legitimacy for his rule. The highly centralized nature of this maritime turn is reflected in the Yael Teff-Seker is a postdoctoral fellow at the Technion-Israel
Israel Studies Forum (Israel Studies Review), 2010
Foreign Affairs.com, 2013
In the summer of 2005, thirty-eight years after it gained control over the Gaza Strip, Israel lef... more In the summer of 2005, thirty-eight years after it gained control over the Gaza Strip, Israel left the sandy Mediterranean region. The Disengagement Plan, as the withdrawal was called by the Israeli government, was intended to benefit the state of Israel by finally defining its southern border, helping to secure a Jewish majority within its newly consolidated borders, and allowing Israel to take the lead in a moment of stalemate in the peace process. The plan was further intended to benefit the 1.3 million Palestinians who resided in Gaza by ending foreign control over their lives. One group, however, did not stand to gain from the move, for the Israeli rollback included not only the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces, but also the removal of some 9,000 Israeli settlers, some of whom had resided in their communities for three decades.
This paper explores and analyzes the claims and assistance facility created by Israel in order to compensate and aid these relocated settlers, and makes two contributions. First, it investigates the structural features of the claims and assistance facility. Second, it explores the effect of politics on the development, construction, and implementation of the facility. Rather than creating, as in most facilities, a mechanism to redress an injury already suffered, the Israeli government developed a compensation mechanism for a future injury that the government itself was about to cause. This situation contributed to the politicization of the facility and put the settlers in the impossible position of wanting to prevent the injury in the first place, while still having adequate compensation should the injury be unstoppable. Conversely, this situation allowed the government to use the facility as part of its effort to legitimize the injury. The compensation facility, therefore, had itself become part of the debate and not simply part of the solution.
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 2015
Does religious identity prompt radical action? This article presents a model of individual-level ... more Does religious identity prompt radical action? This article presents a model of individual-level radical action. Drawing mostly on collective action theory the article posits that organizational membership drives the effect of religious identity on individual-level radical action. Using survey data the article assesses the behavior of Jewish settlers in the West Bank in the face of the 2005 Gaza withdrawal. The article finds that contra the prevailing view, which holds that religious identity alone is sufficient to trigger violence, evidence suggests that organizational membership is a mechanism bridging religious identity and radical action. Longstanding arguments tying radical actions solely to religion may require substantial revision.
Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 1998
Negotiation Journal, 2005
Because compensation and dispute resolution lie at the core of most resettlement proposals, this ... more Because compensation and dispute resolution lie at the core of most resettlement proposals, this panel had two main objectives: to get an accurate grasp of the current Israeli approach to these challenges and to glean insights from relevant experiences in other settings. Before reading our panelists' presentations, one might be forgiven for reasonably thinking that "compensation equals cash" and "dispute resolution equals court. " As our panelists discussed, however, such a straightforward view is simply inadequate to the needs of the resettlement problem -a much richer view of compensation and dispute resolution is required.
Washington Quarterly , 2013
The Sum of all Fears: Israel's Perception of a Nuclear-Armed Iran Thucydides' ancient logic still... more The Sum of all Fears: Israel's Perception of a Nuclear-Armed Iran Thucydides' ancient logic still governs: uncertainty (over Iran's nuclear intentions) and the fear this inspires (in Israel) increases the risk of another war (in the Middle East). Even if Israel's response to the Iranian nuclear program does not lead the region into a war, Israel's fears will be crucial in shaping Middle Eastern politics and will help to determine the stability of the region in the years ahead.
The piece explores the psychological effects of the protracted conflict between Israelis and Pale... more The piece explores the psychological effects of the protracted conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
The killings of Ali and Sa'ed Dawabshe are not just a human tragedy with a potential to spark a b... more The killings of Ali and Sa'ed Dawabshe are not just a human tragedy with a potential to spark a broader clash. They are also a manifestation of a decades-old internal conflict over the nature of Israel.
The Essence of Longing: Erez Gerstein and Israel's war in Lebanon (In Hebrew), 2007
The book explores Israel;'s long deployment in Lebanon (1985-2000) through the biography of the t... more The book explores Israel;'s long deployment in Lebanon (1985-2000) through the biography of the the country's most senior officer ever killed by Hezbollah. It further places the conflict, as well as Gerstein's life, in the broader context of changes in Israeli society in the 1990s
Post-Colonial Settlement Strategy, 2019
The book explores the motivations behind contemporary (post-1960) settlement projects into occupi... more The book explores the motivations behind contemporary (post-1960) settlement projects into occupied territories.
Settlement projects are sustained clusters of policies that allow states to strategically plan, implement and support the permanent transfer of nationals into a territory not under their sovereignty. Ehud Eiran explains why states launch settlement projects into occupied areas and introduces the international environment as an important enabling variable. By drawing comparisons between three such major projects – Israel in the West Bank and Gaza, Morocco in Western Sahara and Indonesia in East-Timor – Ehud Eiran classifies post-colonial settlement projects as a distinct cluster of cases that warrant a different analytical approach to traditional colonial studies.
Built on a careful synthesis of existing principles in international relations theory and empirical research, the book advances a clearly formulated theoretical position on the launch of post-colonial settlement projects. The result yields a number of fresh insights into the relationship between conflict, territory and international norms.
Key Features
Explains what motivates states to launch post-colonial settlement projects, against international trends and norms
Analyses three major post-colonial settlement projects (Israel, Morocco, Indonesia): one of the first books to place these projects in a comparative perspective
Also analyses three cases where states considered settlements but did not launch projects: India in Goa, Libya in Chad and Mauritania in Western Sahara
Argues that post-colonial settlement projects should be treated as a distinct category of cases, breaking with current work that views them as traditional colonial projects
Miscellanea Geographica – Regional Studies on Development 26 (3) , 2022
This paper analyzes Israel’s changing understanding of its geostrategic posture from its establi... more This paper analyzes Israel’s changing understanding of its geostrategic
posture from its establishment in 1948 to the current era. It starts by
reviewing traditional Israeli geostrategic ideas and their implementation,
mostly, as reflected in the nation’s national security doctrine. The paper
then investigates the effect of Israel’s territorial expansion after 1967 on
Israeli ideas about geostrategy. Finally, the paper shows how changing
global, regional, and technological variables in the last two decades have
transformed how Israeli elites understand their geostrategic realities and
how they allocate resources in response to these changing conditions.
Israel Studies Review , 2021
A printed and revised version of a panel from the 2020 APSA meeting, analyzing Ian Lustick's 2019... more A printed and revised version of a panel from the 2020 APSA meeting, analyzing Ian Lustick's 2019 Paradigm Lost: From Two-State Solution to One-State Reality(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019)
Journal of Conflict Resolution , 2020
This study argues that the effect of third-party trade on dyadic conflicts is conditional on the ... more This study argues that the effect of third-party trade on dyadic conflicts is conditional on the naval power of both the potential conflict initiator and its target state. This conditional effect occurs mainly because naval power allows trade-integrated initiators to reduce their trade dependence on a given trade partner and its allies more easily. At the same time, the target's naval power increases the costs that conflict inflict on the initiator's trade. As maritime trade accounts for about 80 percent of world trade volume, naval capability has an important effect on combatant states' ability to substitute trading partners during a conflict and to mitigate trade-related costs, thereby affecting the relationship between third-party trade and conflict. The findings of our statistical analyses support our theoretical expectation that the pacifying effect of third-party trade diminishes as the initiator's naval power increases, yet increases as the naval power of the potential target increases.
Journal of Intelligence History , 2020
The article analyzes the failure of the U.S. intelligence community to foresee the Egyptian-Syria... more The article analyzes the failure of the U.S. intelligence community to
foresee the Egyptian-Syrian surprise attack on Israel in 6 October
1973. The paper deconstructs the various elements of the American
failure and explores the reasons that led to it. The paper shows that
at the heart of the flawed American assessment was a paradigm
formulated by U.S. intelligence analysts, one that was influenced by
Israeli intelligence analysts. With this conclusion, the paper suggests that alongside the numerous advantages of intelligence liaison between states, the practice can also lead them to make grave errors
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, Vol. 95.5 pp. 979-997, 2019
Recent developments in the Eastern Mediterranean, such as considerable gas finds; disagreements o... more Recent developments in the Eastern Mediterranean, such as considerable gas finds; disagreements over the demarcation of maritime boundaries; large-scale violence and political instability following the Arab Spring; mass migration via sea routes; great power dynamics in the region; and environmental hazards, all create strong incentives for regional coordination on maritime security. International relations theories predict that growing security challenges (realism) coupled with expected gains (liberalism) will facilitate regional cooperation in the maritime domain. Yet, the political entities in the region rely mainly on unilateral actions, or entangle themselves in limited scale power-based quasi alliances in response to contemporary challenges. The paper demonstrates the puzzling gap between the theoretical expectation and practical outcome in the region and suggests why regional-scale cooperation in the maritime domain fails to take place.
Israel Affairs, 2019
The article analyses the effect of Israel’s new maritime orientation on its foreign policy. It f... more The article analyses the effect of Israel’s new maritime orientation on its foreign policy.
It first demonstrates that in the last two decades Israel has changed its
maritime posture in three important ways: it has developed energy dependence on offshore gas, begun extensive seawater desalination and dramatically expanded its navy’s platforms and missions. The paper then investigates the effects of these changes on Israel’s bilateral relations with its neighbors. Finally, the paper highlights the cumulative effect of these changes as well as some of their implications for Israel’s foreign policy.
KEYWORDS Israel; Middle East; Mediterranean Sea; policy; maritime s
Middle East Journal, 2018
Since the mid-1990s, both the Israeli state and Israeli society have been developing and implemen... more Since the mid-1990s, both the Israeli state and Israeli society have been developing and implementing several separate new policies regarding the country's seas. These include the extraction of offshore hydrocarbons; expansion of the navy; massive desalination projects; and several legislative, planning, and zoning initiatives. Put together, these changes amount to a "turn to the sea" that profoundly affects Israel's economy, foreign policy, and military. This article compares this shift to historical precedents, offering Israel as a template for a new, cumulative model that does not conform to the existing narratives of how polities have turned to the maritime domain. Since the mid-1990s, Israel's spatial orientation has shifted toward the maritime domain. In this time, the Israeli state and the country's civil society have been developing and implementing new policies regarding the country's seas. These include producing natural gas from the Mediterranean Sea; significantly expanding the Israeli Navy; erecting several massive seawater desalination plants; and initiating several legislative, planning, and zoning schemes. Marine-related educational and environmental initiatives have also seen significant development during the same years. This "turn to the sea" affects the foundations of Israel's economy and infrastructure, the development and deployment of its armed forces, and its foreign policy. The literature offers two main explanations for a maritime turn: a top-down governmental decision and a merchant-class/market evolution. The first, top-down, model is prevalent in centralized states, with a limited role for citizens in the decision-making process. In these cases, the central authority decides that more planning and resources should be directed at the seas. The most common reasons are expected economic gains, national prestige and power projection. The decision by the Yongle Emperor in early 15th century China to build large ships and send them on global voyages was one of the most famous manifestations of this model. 1 The maritime focus was driven by the emperor's desire to expand Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean and to secure legitimacy for his rule. The highly centralized nature of this maritime turn is reflected in the Yael Teff-Seker is a postdoctoral fellow at the Technion-Israel
Israel Studies Forum (Israel Studies Review), 2010
Foreign Affairs.com, 2013
In the summer of 2005, thirty-eight years after it gained control over the Gaza Strip, Israel lef... more In the summer of 2005, thirty-eight years after it gained control over the Gaza Strip, Israel left the sandy Mediterranean region. The Disengagement Plan, as the withdrawal was called by the Israeli government, was intended to benefit the state of Israel by finally defining its southern border, helping to secure a Jewish majority within its newly consolidated borders, and allowing Israel to take the lead in a moment of stalemate in the peace process. The plan was further intended to benefit the 1.3 million Palestinians who resided in Gaza by ending foreign control over their lives. One group, however, did not stand to gain from the move, for the Israeli rollback included not only the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces, but also the removal of some 9,000 Israeli settlers, some of whom had resided in their communities for three decades.
This paper explores and analyzes the claims and assistance facility created by Israel in order to compensate and aid these relocated settlers, and makes two contributions. First, it investigates the structural features of the claims and assistance facility. Second, it explores the effect of politics on the development, construction, and implementation of the facility. Rather than creating, as in most facilities, a mechanism to redress an injury already suffered, the Israeli government developed a compensation mechanism for a future injury that the government itself was about to cause. This situation contributed to the politicization of the facility and put the settlers in the impossible position of wanting to prevent the injury in the first place, while still having adequate compensation should the injury be unstoppable. Conversely, this situation allowed the government to use the facility as part of its effort to legitimize the injury. The compensation facility, therefore, had itself become part of the debate and not simply part of the solution.
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 2015
Does religious identity prompt radical action? This article presents a model of individual-level ... more Does religious identity prompt radical action? This article presents a model of individual-level radical action. Drawing mostly on collective action theory the article posits that organizational membership drives the effect of religious identity on individual-level radical action. Using survey data the article assesses the behavior of Jewish settlers in the West Bank in the face of the 2005 Gaza withdrawal. The article finds that contra the prevailing view, which holds that religious identity alone is sufficient to trigger violence, evidence suggests that organizational membership is a mechanism bridging religious identity and radical action. Longstanding arguments tying radical actions solely to religion may require substantial revision.
Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 1998
Negotiation Journal, 2005
Because compensation and dispute resolution lie at the core of most resettlement proposals, this ... more Because compensation and dispute resolution lie at the core of most resettlement proposals, this panel had two main objectives: to get an accurate grasp of the current Israeli approach to these challenges and to glean insights from relevant experiences in other settings. Before reading our panelists' presentations, one might be forgiven for reasonably thinking that "compensation equals cash" and "dispute resolution equals court. " As our panelists discussed, however, such a straightforward view is simply inadequate to the needs of the resettlement problem -a much richer view of compensation and dispute resolution is required.
Washington Quarterly , 2013
The Sum of all Fears: Israel's Perception of a Nuclear-Armed Iran Thucydides' ancient logic still... more The Sum of all Fears: Israel's Perception of a Nuclear-Armed Iran Thucydides' ancient logic still governs: uncertainty (over Iran's nuclear intentions) and the fear this inspires (in Israel) increases the risk of another war (in the Middle East). Even if Israel's response to the Iranian nuclear program does not lead the region into a war, Israel's fears will be crucial in shaping Middle Eastern politics and will help to determine the stability of the region in the years ahead.
The piece explores the psychological effects of the protracted conflict between Israelis and Pale... more The piece explores the psychological effects of the protracted conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
The killings of Ali and Sa'ed Dawabshe are not just a human tragedy with a potential to spark a b... more The killings of Ali and Sa'ed Dawabshe are not just a human tragedy with a potential to spark a broader clash. They are also a manifestation of a decades-old internal conflict over the nature of Israel.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Negotiation Journal, 2005
Negotiation Journal, 2005
There is a danger inherent in devoting a panel to a discussion of the political aspects of the Is... more There is a danger inherent in devoting a panel to a discussion of the political aspects of the Israeli settlements issue: in attempting to discuss everything, we could have ended up talking about nothing because many practitioners and scholars view the settlements as primarily a political project. The multidisciplinary nature of this conference reflected our belief that the settlement issue is deeper and wider than "simply politics. " Yet, we were not free from the challenge of focusing a panel on the political aspects of the settlements in a way that makes a real contribution.
FES Southern Perspective: Israel's Strategic Interests in the Eastern Mediterranean, 2021
The Eastern Mediterranean emerged in the last decade as a new focus of Israeli strategic interes... more The Eastern Mediterranean emerged in the last decade as a new focus of Israeli strategic interests. Traditionally, the region was an afterthought in Israeli thinking. It posed no major threat, nor did it hold a significant promise. However, This state of affairs saw a dramatic shift that accelerated in the last decade. The discovery of substantial gas depots in Israel’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Eastern Mediterranean and Israel’s newly acquired reliance on them for its energy needs turned Israeli attention West. Part of this turn to the sea includes a quasi-alliance with Greece and Cyprus and involvement in a nascent regional organization, the Cairo-based EastMed Gas Forum, founded by the Hellenic states, Egypt, Israel, Italy, Jor dan, and the Palestinian Authority and grew later to include France. In part, with Israel’s encouragement, the US offers support, of sorts, to both the Israeli-Hellenic alliance and the Gas Forum, which it joined as an observer in March 2021. The EU is a natural ally; it extended support to the forum and entered it as an observer. With growing tensions between the Hellenic states and Turkey, the forum and the Israeli-Hellenic alliance may assume a more significant role. At a minimum, they offer European actors another framework to stabilize and possibly even benefit from the region.
Institute for International Political Studies Dossier , 2020
The piece reflects on the structural features that led Israel to greater involvement in the Medit... more The piece reflects on the structural features that led Israel to greater involvement in the Mediterranean and analyzes the promises and concerns that flow from this engagement
IAI , 2020
The piece analyzes the March 2020 Israeli elections, their effect and their legacy
POMEPS Studies , 2020
Israel adopted some of the social and technological changes brought about by the Coronavirus cris... more Israel adopted some of the social and technological changes brought about by the Coronavirus crisis in 2020, but in regards to the core question
of national identity, the preliminary phase of the response
to the Coronavirus seems to further support its existing
identity: a Jewish, Zionist state that relies on a technologyprone, forward-leaning security establishment.; thus,
protecting its core value of providing physical security,
while deflecting ontological challenges to its sense of self.
stituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), 2020
Israel is still holding to its traditional security maxim. Based on a perception of a hostile reg... more Israel is still holding to its traditional security maxim. Based on a perception of a hostile region, Israel's response includes early warning, deterrence and swift-including pre-emptive-military action, coupled with an alliance with a global power, the US. Israel is adjusting these maxims to a changing reality. Overlapping interests-and perhaps the prospect of an even more open conflict with Iran-led to limited relationships between Israel and some Gulf states. These, however, will be constrained until Israel makes progress on the Palestine issue. Israel aligned with Greece and Cyprus around energy and security, which may lead to conflict with Turkey. Russia's deployment in Syria placed new constraints on Israeli freedom of action there. The US's retrenchment from the Middle East is not having a direct effect on Israel, while the Trump administration's support for Israel's territorial designs in the West Bank may make it easier for Israel to permanently expand there, thus sowing the seeds for future instability in Israel/Palestine. The EU could try and balance against such developments, but, as seen from Israel, is too divided to have a significant impact.
THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN: NEW DYNAMICS AND POTENTIAL FOR COOPERATION THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN: NEW DYNAMICS AND POTENTIAL FOR COOPERATION N. Goren (Ed.), 2018
The brief focuses on regional effects of the natural gas finds in the Eastern Mediterranean. It r... more The brief focuses on regional effects
of the natural gas finds in the Eastern Mediterranean. It reviews specific gas discoveries
in the region since the late 1990s, looks at their effect on regional security and on
environmental policies, analyses international boundary demarcation in the region, and
examines the roles of external actors – the US, EU and Russia. The chapter claims that
the discoveries have yet to become a game-changing driving force of regional integration,
reconciliation and closer relations with Europe, and that in some cases they even created
new regional tensions. Despite this state of affairs, the chapter emphasises those areas
that show potential for regional cooperation and the instances where this potential has
already materialised.
Promoting Liberal Democracy in the Eastern Mediterranean, 2018
The chapter (in pp. 38-48) explores Israel's democratic challenges and shows how the alliance wit... more The chapter (in pp. 38-48) explores Israel's democratic challenges and shows how the alliance with Greece and Cyprus can help to deal with them
United States Institute of Peace Brief: Watching from the Sidelines: Israel and the Syrian Uprising, 2011
This 2011 brief assesses Israel's initial response to the Syrian Civil war and investigates its s... more This 2011 brief assesses Israel's initial response to the Syrian Civil war and investigates its sources
Jerusalem Post , 2021
The broader drivers of Biden-era Israeli-American relations
Foreign Policy , 2021
The piece argues that security studies experts should include food security as part of their unde... more The piece argues that security studies experts should include food security as part of their understanding of security
Jerusalem Post , 2019
A strong democracy is vital for Israel’s security. Fair elections and regime change, checks and b... more A strong democracy is vital for Israel’s security. Fair elections and regime change, checks and balances with an emphasis on restraining the power of the executive branch, an open and democratic culture of criticism, and the ability to attract and retain the creative classes are the pillars of an effective Israeli national security. Undermining them means not only a different political order, but also a real threat to the security of the state.
YNET, 2019
The piece argues that democracy is an important aspect of national security
Jerusalem Post , 2019
The piece suggests that Prime Minister Netanyahu adopted a monarchic diplomatic style. I then poi... more The piece suggests that Prime Minister Netanyahu adopted a monarchic diplomatic style. I then points to the implications of such an approach
הארץ - בלוגים , 2019
בנימין נתניהו מיצב עצמו כמנהיג שמרכז בידיו את הטיפול בסוגיות הדיפלומטיות היום-יומיות, מדלג מעל הפ... more בנימין נתניהו מיצב עצמו כמנהיג שמרכז בידיו את הטיפול בסוגיות הדיפלומטיות היום-יומיות, מדלג מעל הפקידות האמונה על התחום ומשיג לבדו הישגים דיפלומטיים. לסגנון הזה יש משמעויות נרחבות
YNET, 2012
This January 2012 op-ed suggests that Israelis - who once feared their foes’ strength - now worry... more This January 2012 op-ed suggests that Israelis - who once feared their foes’ strength - now worry about their weakness
Jerusalem Post, 2019
This op-ed makes the case for strengthening Israel's MFA, mostly in order to better adapt to glob... more This op-ed makes the case for strengthening Israel's MFA, mostly in order to better adapt to global power transitions
Jerusalem Post, 2019
Published in March 2019, the piece calls for adding a liberal-democratic aspect to the emerging I... more Published in March 2019, the piece calls for adding a liberal-democratic aspect to the emerging Israeli-Hellenic alliance
ISA 2019 Annual meeting , 2019
Recent developments in the Eastern Mediterranean create strong incentives for greater interstate ... more Recent developments in the Eastern Mediterranean create strong incentives for greater interstate coordination in the maritime domain there, though current state preferences are expected to limit the gamut of joint action. Yet, the nature of early 21 st century maritime security challenges in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as the expected inability of unilateral state action to resolve them, suggest that in the medium to long terms we should expect these conditions to lead to a more unified regional action in order to achieve maritime security. Indeed, early signs of such action are already visible.
Edinburgh University Press eBooks, Apr 1, 2019
Settlement projects are sustained clusters of policies that allow states to strategically plan, i... more Settlement projects are sustained clusters of policies that allow states to strategically plan, implement and support the permanent transfer of nationals into a territory not under their sovereignty. Once a common feature of the international system, settlement projects are now rare, and contradict international norms. Yet, these modern projects had been an important feature of some of the longest conflicts of our times, such as Israel-Palestine and Morocco-Western Sahara. Moreover, they had a profound effect on conflicts: they led to their prolongations, affected their levels of violence, patterns of resolution, as well as post-conflict stability. With this significance in mind, the book asks why states launched new settlement projects during the era of decolonization, against common practice and against international norms. The book introduces the international environment as an important enabling variable for the launch of these projects. By drawing comparisons between three such major projects--Israel in the West Bank and Gaza, Morocco in Western Sahara and Indonesia in East-Timor—the book classifies post-colonial settlement projects as a distinct cluster of cases that warrant a different analytical approach to traditional colonial studies, including settler-colonialism approaches. Built on a careful synthesis of existing principles in international relations theory and empirical research, the book advances a clearly formulated theoretical position on the launch of post-colonial settlement projects. The result yields a number of fresh insights into the relationship between conflict, territory and international norms.
Edinburgh University Press eBooks, Apr 1, 2019
The theory chapter explains how scholars analyse current-day post-colonial settlement projects. I... more The theory chapter explains how scholars analyse current-day post-colonial settlement projects. It shows that much of the focus in the literature is on internal explanations such as settler-driven or an audience costs perspective; or bicommunal/bilateral explanations such as social control or economic utilization.
Purdue University Press eBooks, Dec 15, 2021
Foreign Affairs, Oct 8, 2014
Israel Studies, Dec 1, 2021
ABSTRACT:The article examines Justice Elyakim Rubinstein's approach to compromise in the judi... more ABSTRACT:The article examines Justice Elyakim Rubinstein's approach to compromise in the judicial process, based mainly on his judicial record on the Israeli Supreme Court bench, (2004–2017) but also on his speeches and publications. The two arguments advanced here are first, that Justice Rubinstein believed in compromise (rather than adjudication) as the preferred outcome of the legal process; and second, that according to his reading of Hebrew Law, compromise is justified by more than utility, efficiency, and benefit to the common good. The article likewise considers the limits and shortcomings of Rubinstein's approach, and the manner in which he mitigated some of them.
Foreign Affairs, Mar 18, 2013
Terrorism and Political Violence, Jul 11, 2016
ABSTRACT In the early morning of July 31, 2015, masked attackers threw firebombs into two Palesti... more ABSTRACT In the early morning of July 31, 2015, masked attackers threw firebombs into two Palestinian homes in the West Bank village of Duma, south of Nablus, killing three Palestinian civilians. Contrary to claims by Israeli and Palestinian politicians, this attack was neither an isolated anomaly nor just another incident of settler violence. Instead, it was the latest attack in an important but largely unknown phenomenon called “price-tag,” in which a loosely connected group of young Israelis called “hilltop youth” burn Palestinian mosques and destroy property in hundreds of attacks accompanied by threatening graffiti that references Israeli settlers, outposts, and anti-Arab slogans. Using an original dataset of price-tag incidents and interviews with key actors, we demonstrate that the perpetrators, targets, and strategies of price-tag are different than previous patterns of settler violence. Whereas previous settlers saw the Israeli state as legitimate and largely decided to cooperate with it, the hilltop youth have decided to confront it by using price-tag attacks to deter settlement withdrawals and chain-gang the state into a conflict with the Palestinians. This analysis of the strategic logic of price-tag reveals its potential to shift the political landscape within and between Israelis and Palestinians.
Journal of Dispute Resolution, Dec 31, 2005
If the outline of a deal that would better serve the interests of most Israelis and Palestinians ... more If the outline of a deal that would better serve the interests of most Israelis and Palestinians is so obvious, 3 why has it proven so difficult to make progress towards peace? The most common explanation relates to failures of leadership. Many blame the breakdown at Camp David on Yasser Arafat, 4 although Prime Minister Ehud Barak and President Clinton are sometimes said to be responsible as well. 5 In the years since, some commentators have suggested that the Bush II administration bears blame for the lack of progress towards resolution because it failed to design a strategy to enable the parties to accept the terms of a deal that would appear to serve the interests of both sides. 6 While we agree that political leadership is a necessary condition for progress towards peace, we believe there is a deeper reason for the apparent paradox: there are profound internal conflicts among Israeli Jews, on the one hand, and among Palestinians, on the other, that stand as barriers to progress at the negotiation table. Among Palestinians, this conflict relates to the refugee problem and the meaning and scope of any Palestinian "right of return" that would essentially be extinguished by the deal. Among Israeli Jews, the conflict concerns the future of the settlements. A contiguous Palestinian state would encompass many existing Jewish settlements, and as a practical matter displace thousands of Jewish settlers. It would also mark the end of the "settlement project." For some religiously observant Israelis this project was meant to guarantee the fulfillment of a messianic desire to include within the Jewish state the cradle of "Eretz Yisrael" 7-biblically ___________________________ 3. Two different "third track" unofficial collaborative efforts by Israelis and Palestinians have demonstrated that the terms of a beneficial deal remain well known. Over 100,000 Palestinians and 150,000 Israelis have signed the Ayalon-Nuseibeh initiative, which spells out the essential principles that would provide a foundation for a deal. Ami Ayalon is a retired Admiral who headed the Israeli Navy and served as head of Israel's internal security agency. Sari Nuseibeh, a leading Palestinian public intellectual, is President of Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. In a process facilitated by a Swiss professor, leading Israelis and Palestinians negotiated the Geneva Accords, an agreement that works out in considerable detail all of the final status issues. The Ayalon-Nuseibeh initiative is available at
Miscellanea geographica, Jul 1, 2022
Gurion. The meeting-titled the Negev Summit-concluded with a decision by the forum to meet on a r... more Gurion. The meeting-titled the Negev Summit-concluded with a decision by the forum to meet on a regular basis, and to create six permanent working groups that will deal with a variety of regional issues including security, energy, tourism, health, education, and food and water security (Ravid 2022). All in attendance highlighted the significance of the moment. Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita called the event a "very historic and timely … summit" while his Emirati peer, Abdullah Bin Zayed, declared that this was "a historic moment." Israeli Foreign Minister Lapid explained the historical significance, stating that: "What we are doing here is making history, building a new regional architecture based on progress, technology, religious tolerance, security, and intelligence cooperation (United States Department of State 2022). The statement went to the heart of Israel's old geostrategic predicament: while situated at the heart of the Middle East, the state was rejected by all regional players for decades, as they saw it as an illegitimate colonial implant. Seen from Jerusalem, therefore, the long and slow process of acceptance into the region has reached a new peak. Israel-once a regional pariah shunned by its neighbors-is becoming an active and accepted peer state, and is even participating in shaping the regional strategic architecture. The following paper investigates this process: the evolution of Israel's understanding of its geostrategic realities and its subsequent policies. Geostrategy, in this paper, refers to the way in which a state's geographic configuration affects its national power-based priorities, mostly as manifested in its security doctrine, foreign relations, and to a more limited extent, economic priorities, mostly in terms of natural resources and energy production. Among the core aspects of the geographic consideration under study are the state's location, size, shape, elevation, and hydrographic characteristics, including access to 1 More recent Israeli scholarship casts doubt as to whether Lebanon indeed invaded Israel, or only supported the invading forces of the Arab League's Arab Liberation Army with artillery and logistics (Maayan & Erlich 2000). Israel's changing geostrategic posture
Territory, Politics, Governance, Jan 6, 2017
Between land and sea: spaces and conflict intensity. Territory Politics Governance. Do different ... more Between land and sea: spaces and conflict intensity. Territory Politics Governance. Do different levels of sovereignty affect the intensity of international conflicts that unfold there? The paper answers this question by comparing territorial conflicts between Israel and Lebanon in two spaces: land and sea. These spaces are subject to different levels of sovereignty. On land, sovereignty is understood to be full and indivisible. In the portion of the sea under dispute between Israel and Lebanonthe exclusive economic zonesovereignty is only partial and refers primarily to the right to extract resources. The paper concludes that a partial form of sovereignty is indeed associated with a less intense conflict.
Negotiation Journal, Apr 1, 2005
The impetus to claim and settle the areas known as the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) originated i... more The impetus to claim and settle the areas known as the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) originated in the aftermath of Israel's surprising victory over Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in the Six-Day War in 1967 (Gazit 2003: 241). Before this war, there was virtually no domestic political pressure within Israel to expand the boundaries of the state. Herut, a right-wing party and the Likud party's predecessor, held to a traditional aspiration that the Jewish state should extend to "both banks" of the Jordan River, but by the mid-1960s only a small minority of Israelis held this view. The Six-Day War's outcome surprised and elated Israelis, and laid the foundation for a fundamental change in attitude. Israel suddenly found itself with a vastly, unexpectedly enlarged territory, and various political and religious movements developed ideological, political, and financial resources to fill it. Immediately after the war, Israel annexed East Jerusalem, and there was a broad consensus that Jerusalem should become the undivided capital of Israel. Steps were taken to encourage Jews to move to these newly annexed neighborhoods of Jerusalem. However, our focus is on settlements activities in the West Bank and Gaza, not the new Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem proper. 1 One way to understand the history of the settlements is to distinguish two broad time periods: the period between 1967 and 1977, when the Labor party was in power, and the period since 1977, when Likud formed its first government.
Routledge eBooks, Feb 16, 2023
Edinburgh University Press eBooks, Apr 1, 2019
<p>The chapter investigates three cases of prolonged occupation from the post-colonial era ... more <p>The chapter investigates three cases of prolonged occupation from the post-colonial era that did not produce a settlement project: India in Goa (1961 onwards), Libya in Chad (1974-1992) and Mauritania in Western Sahara (1975-1979). The cases serve as "negative cases".</p>
The Journal of Intelligence History, Jun 18, 2020
The article analyzes the failure of the U.S. intelligence community to foresee the Egyptian-Syria... more The article analyzes the failure of the U.S. intelligence community to foresee the Egyptian-Syrian surprise attack on Israel in 6 October 1973. The paper deconstructs the various elements of the American failure and explores the reasons that led to it. The paper shows that at the heart of the flawed American assessment was a paradigm formulated by U.S. intelligence analysts, one that was influenced by Israeli intelligence analysts. With this conclusion, the paper suggests that alongside the numerous advantages of intelligence liaison between states, the practice can also lead them to make grave errors.
Comparative politics, Jul 1, 2018
Violence and territorial control have always gone hand in hand. States are defined by their monop... more Violence and territorial control have always gone hand in hand. States are defined by their monopoly on the legitimate use of force internally, and war has historically been how states and empires expand externally. From the ancient Greeks to the Ottomans and onward, conquering and controlling foreign lands and peoples has been the norm. However, while over 80 percent of interstate conflicts from 1648 to 1945 resulted in territorial redistribution, just 30 percent of such conflicts did so from 1946 to 2000. 1 International territorial disputes continue-there are at least 109 ongoing cases-but they take on different forms as nation-states and the international community attempt to align or "right-size" political and human borders. 2 To the extent that states like Russia, Armenia, and China have sought to extend their territorial control in recent years, they have largely done so in areas with high concentrations of co-ethnic nationals, such as Crimea, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Taiwan, respectively. 3 States have made hundreds of irredentist claims since 1945, including attempts to forcibly annex nineteen different territories with co-ethnics, from Albania in Kosovo to Pakistan in Kashmir. 4 Not coincidentally, some of these areas have higher numbers of co-ethnics due to previous attempts at "demographic engineering," such as "Russianization" in the Caucasus. 5 An increasing amount of scholarship provides valuable explanations of the dynamics and outcomes of these territorial disputes, but the vast majority focus on states: why do states make territorial claims, initiate conflict, and resolve some disputes, but not others? 6 The literature suggests that states direct changes in territorial control and international borders, and that non-state groups-whether they are local councils, militias, or individual migrants or settlers-are relatively inconsequential. We argue, however, that state behavior is often preceded in time and superseded in importance by the actions of these smaller, less organized groups on the contested ground. Modern territorial expansion faces three significant constraints: 1) norms of "border fixity" that aim to preserve the status quo; 2) norms of self-determination that seek to
Edinburgh University Press eBooks, Apr 1, 2019
The chapter investigates the Moroccan settlement project in the Western Sahara and the Indonesian... more The chapter investigates the Moroccan settlement project in the Western Sahara and the Indonesian settlement project in East-Timor (1975-1999). It uses the framework advanced in the book and shows that both projects were meant to secure permeant territorial expansion into occupied regions. Following the model, the chapter analyses the four variables that led to the launch of the settlement projects: Legally plausible case for expansion, American support, institutional capacity and a low level of local affinity to the occupying states. The section dealing with each case includes four parts: the why and how of occupation and expansion, the evolution of the settlement projects, the four variables that led to the projects, and then how these variables interacted to produce a settlement project. The chapter is concluded with some observations about the comparison between the two cases.
Edinburgh University Press eBooks, Apr 1, 2019
The chapter explains the launch of the Israeli settlement project in Gaza and the West-Bank (Incl... more The chapter explains the launch of the Israeli settlement project in Gaza and the West-Bank (Including East-Jerusalem) following Israel’s occupation of these regions in the 1967 Six-Day War. The chapter uses the theory advanced in the book and shows that Israel launched the settlement project in order to secure permanent territorial expansion into these areas. Israel believed that the future of these areas will be determined in a negotiation within the framework of UNSCR 242. The settlement project was meant to affect the outcome of these future talks. The chapter identifies the conditions for the launch of the project: US support and a legal ambiguity regarding the status of these areas, American support, and an institutional capacity to carry out such a project. The local population’s low level of affinity with Israel further contributed to the launch of the project.
Regional Strategies Topic Week, 2020
This short text reviews the transformation of the Israeli Navy in the last decades, ties it to Is... more This short text reviews the transformation of the Israeli Navy in the last decades, ties it to Israel's broader "turn to the sea", and highlights some of the future challenges it may face.
War on the Rocks , 2019
Israel is in the midst of a “turn to the sea”: a systematic allocation of national, corporate, an... more Israel is in the midst of a “turn to the sea”: a systematic allocation of national, corporate, and civil society resources toward the nation’s maritime domain. As many regional actors, including Egypt, Turkey, and Iran, are naval powers, and as global actors such as Russia and the United States have a naval presence in the region, Israel’s evolution has broader implications for regional security.
BECOME A MEMBER
The country’s new maritime focus includes six major elements, some of which are interrelated: the discovery, production, and subsequent dependence on natural gas from the sea; an expansion of the navy; the leveraging of this newly energized navy as a significant tool in military diplomacy and alliance-building; the development and subsequent dependence on seawater desalination facilities for water supply; new regulatory frameworks for the sea; and an alliance with Cyprus and Greece.
Strategic Assessment , 2020
The piece reviews Professor Uri Bialer's book "Israeli Foreign Policy: A People Shall not Dwell a... more The piece reviews Professor Uri Bialer's book "Israeli Foreign Policy: A People Shall not Dwell alone" (Indiana University Press, 2020)