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Despite the centrality of the integration of immigrants in Israeli society and the relatively high proportion of immigrants in the Israeli population, there has been little research on the nexus between immigration policy and the welfare state in the Israeli context. This paper seeks to explore this nexus by comparing the link between immigration and the welfare state in Israel to other settler nations specifically Australia, Canada and the U.S. These countries are all exceptional as welfare states in that they encourage immigration; they have a relatively high proportion of citizens who were born in other countries; and they can be characterized, by and large, as liberal welfare states. The comparative approach of this paper will be utilized to explain why poverty amongst immigrants in Israel is relatively low, both in comparison to other population groups in Israel, and in comparison to immigrants in other welfare state countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the possibility of change in national identities is a widely recognized corollary of constructivist theories of nationalism, the question of just how such changes take place has received less attention. Scholars have tended to assume that either rational adaptation to new realities or purposive elite manipulation cause change. This paper argues that a third mechanism should be added to our explanatory toolkit. I suggest that nationalist transformation can come about in an unguided manner akin to evolution. In this process, the interactions among competing nationalist movements and outside pressures lead to tactical adjustments in the specific claims they articulate. While these variations on the nationalist theme start out as ploys needed to address pressing local political problems, they become institutionalized as the new ideological orthodoxy if they are politically successful in the short-term. While this evolutionary dynamic has the potential to resolve some of the ongoing debates in the study of nationalism, both rational adaptation and elite imposition remain reasonable explanations of change. As a result, the paper offers an empirical rubric for testing the relative ability of all three mechanisms to account for particular instances of change. The usefulness of this rubric is illustrated with an explanation of the change in the extent of the homeland claimed by a religious nationalist movement in Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategies to counter nuclear proliferation are one of the fundamental cornerstones of American foreign policy. Efforts to curtail North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs are but a few recent examples of American counter-proliferation activities. While American policy-makers have always been strongly committed to denying nuclear technology and expertise to US's enemies, a much less explored problem of international relations is how Washington has dealt with the prospect of its allies acquiring nuclear capability, either within or outside the confines of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. A perfect case for exploring such a question is Israel. While Israel has remained an important strategic ally for the US since the early days of its independence, American policy toward the Israeli nuclear program has undergone tremendous change, ranging from outright opposition to eventual acceptance and tacit support. Thus the Israeli case offers an important opportunity to explore the conditions under which American nuclear policy vis-à-vis an ally can transform. The paper will investigate how the dynamic of US-Israeli interactions during the critical years from the late 1950s to the early 1970s shaped and influenced the American perception of and response to the maturing Israeli nuclear program. The paper will argue that the key to understanding the varying nature of the American response lies in 'proportional leverage' that the two sides understood to possess vis-à-vis each other at various points during the critical period of Israeli nuclear development. Based on original archival research, the paper will supplement and expand on the few existing works that have investigated the nature of the American response to the emerging Israeli program (Cohen & Burr, 2006; Cohen, 1998). It will also contribute to the ever-growing American foreign relations literature and will help to improve our understanding of the nature of American response to various nuclear challenges around the world, especially the under-studied problems emanating from the US's allies rather than its adversaries. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the turbulent years following Israel's creation, successive generations of policy makers and government elites heeded David Ben Gurion's advice to ally with non-Arab states flanking an Arab dominated Middle East. Although Israel found several partners for its "Doctrine of the Periphery" none was more beneficial than Iran. United by their distrust of their Arab neighbors and shared strategic concerns, Tel Aviv and Tehran developed a mutually beneficial de facto alliance spanning several important dimensions of diplomacy including trade, information sharing, and military cooperation. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, after the Shah's overthrow, dissolved the once fruitful alliance. Saddam Hussein's revanchism, however, resulted in a massive Iraqi offensive aimed at capitalizing on Iran's post-revolutionary weakness. Shortly after, Iran and Israel revived their de facto alliance in the form of covert arms sales and intelligence sharing despite Tehran's bellicose rhetoric vis-à-vis the Jewish state. This paper applies the poliheuristic theory (PH) of decision making to Israel's choice to support Iran during its eight year conflict with Iraq. Making use of primary and secondary sources, this project examines Israel's decision along political, economic, diplomatic, and military dimensions. This paper addresses why Israel elected to reconstitute its relations with a rhetorically anti-Semitic Iran and well as how this decision was made. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deterrence has been a core principle of Israel's security policy since the state was founded in 1948. Has this policy been effective? This paper looks in detail at the role of deterrence in Israeli thinking in May-June 1967. Concern that Israel's strong image was eroding in Arab eyes was a key factor in Israel's decision to launch the war. Over time, Israeli strength did convince most Arab parties that Israel could not be defeated. One additional result, however, has been a re-definition of victory or deterrence success since the Six Day War. Israeli military victory is no longer sufficient because Arab parties have emphasized symbolic factors. As demonstrated in confrontations in 1968, 1973, and 2006, the Arab ability to avoid a humiliating military defeat a la 1967 is itself considered a political or psychological victory. More broadly, the definition of both deterrence and successful deterrence is dynamic and may evolve over time.[This paper is part of a larger project examining Israel's doctrine of deterrence and its implications for Israel, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and deterrence writ large.] ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper will analyze how during the two Intifadas Israel has strategically and tactically responded to local Palestinian insurgency, which has evolved from civil disobedience to outright terrorism and guerrilla warfare, particularly following the now-defunct Oslo peace process. The paper will show how the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has tried to transform its conventional-based and trained army and to adopt low-intensity urban warfare strategies and tactics over the last 15 years ? particularly during the Al-Aqsa Intifada ? against violent rioters, guerrilla fighters and terrorists. The paper will, consequently, analyze whether or not the IDF has been able to impose a battlefield decision on Palestinian insurgency efforts and has been able to achieve ultimately strategic success during the last four years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The paper will argue that, notwithstanding the extensive innovations in tactics, weaponry and training adopted in response to Palestinian attacks, the political nature of low-intensity insurgencies and, thus, the inherent strategic restraint imposed by the Israeli political echelon?s decision to conduct low-intensity warfare ad nauseam without seriously providing an alternative political resolution to the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict, stop the IDF from imposing a clear battlefield decision. Finally, the paper will conclude by claiming that the decision to conduct low-intensity warfare in turn leads to a prolonged war of attrition, which historically has always ended in a strategic deadlock and, thus, military failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1990s saw the adoption and abolition of two institutional reforms in Israel: party primaries and the direct elections for the prime minister (PM). Both were intended to solve problems related to the country’s extreme proportional and partisan electoral system -- governability and accountability. This paper analyzes the dynamics of the processes that led to the abolition of both reforms: what led the parties Likud and Meretz to repeal primaries after using this candidate selection method only a single time? How did the opponents of direct elections for the PM -- who failed in their attempts to block its adoption ? succeed in repealing it 10 years after its adoption and five years after its implementation? The paper claims that while the reforms of the 1990s failed, the problems that they tried to address are still there. These need to be resolved directly, via reform of the electoral system rather than through bypasses ? the reforms from ?above? (direct elections) and those from ?below? (party primaries) the electoral system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the political implications of communitarian theories, using the Israeli Settlers as a case study. Focusing on the thought of Charles Taylor and Alasdair MacIntyre it strives to show that there are distinct similarities between these philosophers’ ontological premises and those of the Israeli Settlers, concluding that the communitarian political model is not necessarily congruent with the modern democratic order. The paper begins by presenting Taylor’s and MacIntyre’s ontological premises. It argues that the two philosophers base their critique of liberal thought on similar perceptions of the modern subject, which consist of two competing manifestations: firstly, the atomist subject, who defies ideals that exceeds her own self-interests, and as a result lacks commitment to any moral idea as such, her life rendered shallow and meaningless. Secondly, the communitarian subject, who shapes her identity through a dialogue with the social communities she is embedded in, and, being committed to her community’s set of values and virtues, achieves authentic moral self-realization. Both Taylor and MacIntyre conclude that a better political order should strive to reflect the particular ‘shared understandings’ of its community members. Hence they defy the moral neutrality of the liberal political sphere, arguing that modern politics ought to reintroduce fundamental moral questions to the life of the modern individual, and thus reawaken her communitarian qualities. Both claim that the political remedies they offer will solve the malaises of modern political order, mainly its alienated nature and lack of democratic participation. However, I would argue that their ontological premises could also lead to highly anti-democratic conclusions, especially in light of their originators’ rather obscure definitions of the community. In order to demonstrate this claim, the paper proceeds to compare between Taylor’s and MacIntyre’s thought and the Israeli Settlers’ worldview. This comparison is conducted through a text analysis of the Settlers’ periodical Nekudah, focusing on the year 1995, prior to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Exploring the Settlers’ stands in regards to personal autonomy, community and democratic procedures, it reaches the conclusion that the Settlers too present a stratified perception of the self, which echoes that of Taylor and MacIntyre: thus, parallel to the ‘atomist subject’ they portray the secular modern Israeli, and blame her for the deterioration of modern Israeli society; and in contrast they extol the ‘faithful self’, the Pioneer Settler, who is committed to the Jewish nation’s common good, thus alluding to Taylor and MacIntyre’s ‘communitarian self’. Nevertheless, as the third part of the paper demonstrates, contrary to MacIntyre’s and Taylor’s predictions, the Settlers’ ontological premises lead to a clearly anti-democratic critique of Israeli politics: in the name of ‘the Jewish conceptions of the common good’ they demand the exclusion of Israeli-Palestinians from the political sphere. Moreover, the Settlers’ version of the ‘faithful self’, by being so committed to her own set of values, justifies a defiance of the democratic vote once it repudiates the Settlers’ shared set of values. I therefore conclude that the Settlers’ political vision serves as a concrete manifestation of an anti-democratic potential embedded in the communitarian image of the self, a conclusion which calls for a more careful definition of the communitarian philosophers’ liberal commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of intersubjective factors on the resolution of protracted territorial disputes. I analyze the Israeli-Syrian dispute over the Golan Heights to show that Israel’s perception of the subjective value of the territory has shifted monotonically over the fifty years of this dispute in a manner that impedes its resolution. I argue that the increase in value attributed to the Golan by Israel’s leadership and public is a direct function of the duration of the dispute. I present empirical evidence for three processes contributing to the entrenchment of the dispute over time: the hardening of boundaries, integration within and across the disputed territory, the rise in the emotive value of the territory. I conclude by considering the differences between the unresolved dispute over the Golan and the resolution of the Israeli-Egyptian dispute over the Sinai peninsula: If the three processes examined here complicate disputes over time, how was an agreement on full Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai reached in 1978? Check author’s web site for an updated version of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that there is an inverse relationship between the pursuit of Israeli national unity and the pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It seeks to illuminate what is perhaps the central dialectic in Israeli politics over the last two decades, namely, the dialectic between internal peace and external peace. It is the contention of the paper that concern over the internal divisions within Israeli society has become increasingly widespread and salient over the years, to the extent that ?healing the rifts within the nation? has come to rival, if not displace, the pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peace as the leading item on the Israeli national agenda. The paper therefore traces the longing for national unity from the early 1980s onwards, providing numerous examples of leading Israeli policy-makers exhorting the need for national unity. In order to demonstrate that this did not remain simply at the level of political rhetoric, the paper shows how the need for national unity was translated into Israeli domestic politics and foreign policy. In examining the relationship between Israeli foreign policy and the politics of national unity, the paper also discusses why a national consensus is considered by Israeli policy-makers to be so important, and how they have responded to its absence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines government duration in multiparty parliamentary systems as an outcome of the coalition framer party's bargaining advantage around the cabinet table. Framing parties base the coalition on political parties with relatively similar policy positions while offering them optimal combinations of policy commitments and ministerial portfolios. Yet, giving away resources dillutes the framer's party inuence around the government table. Thus, framer parties need to increase their party members' share of portfolios in cabinet. Using data from the Israeli case between the years 1948-2013 I illustrate that two-step process: A structure that defines the coalition framer party followed by a continuous bargaining process that facilitates the framer's policy inuence while increasing government duration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between religious and political institutions, or religious and national loyalties, is an eternally contested one. The justification for the creation of state of Israel was the Zionist argument that the Holocaust demonstrated that only a Jewish state could ensure the survival of the Jewish people. Moreover, at the founding in 1948, Jewish religious and political elites made strategic choices to link their religion with political institutions. This paper will outline the founding connections between religion and national identity and will ask whether those linkages remain strong some sixty years later for Jewish citizens as well as for religious minorities. To what degree does being a member of either a religious majority or minority affect the connection between religion and nationalism? We will use public opinion data from the 2003 International Social Science Programme (National Identity II) and from the 2013 Israel Democracy Index poll to measure generic nationalism, and we will examine the second survey to analyze views of the settlements. We hypothesize that multiple regression will find that practicing Judaism makes one more likely to support generic nationalism and the settlements, while belonging to a religious minority will reduce levels of nationalism and support for these communities. We will conclude that the contemporary connections between religion and nationalism are very much a product of the original fusion of the Israeli state and nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National elections usually enjoy a higher turnout rate than local elections. However empirical analyses have shown significant variance in this phenomenon. This paper studies the conditions which are likely to create variance in turnout to local and national level political institutions. We claim that when voters' social group enjoys solidarity with the median voter on an electoral level which can increase their expected public goods then they will turnout on that level whether national or local. This can yield the unlikely situation of an increased likelihood of a local turnout higher than national turnout. We develop a typology for the influences of median voter solidarity with social groups on their members' electoral turnout on various electoral levels. We then illustrate the applicability of these electoral behavior types using ballot-box data from the Israeli case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stratification of residency rights between colonizer and colonized is one of the hallmarks of citizenship in settler-colonial states. Studies of colonial ethno-national territorial projects have largely focused on the ways in which military force is used to facilitate expulsion and dispossession of colonized populations. I argue that contemporary forms of settler-colonialism have come to rely on legal techniques, and on immigration law in particular, to achieve desired demographic transformations. This paper investigates the way in which immigration and residency laws have obstructed the realization of the right to leave and to return to one's country by focusing on the case of Israel-Palestine. I first lay-out the complex regime of residency that has developed under Israeli law since 1967 and which prevents Palestinians who have established a "center of life" outside of Israel from returning to live in Israel-Palestine. I then discuss the way in which national courts, by refusing to consider the relevance of international legal norms such as the right of return, have legitimated and extended these principles. This assertive reliance on legal formalism and legal fictions occludes considerations of internationally recognized human rights, including the right of return. In this context, colonized populations are vulnerable to being legally recast as 'aliens' or 'virtual immigrants' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clerical regime in the Islamic Republic of Iran steadfastly claims that it is not pursuing nuclear weapons capabilities. The government claims that the nuclear program is intended strictly for civilian energy use. Yet, developments in uranium enrichment and evidence of hidden facilities and inconsistencies in the government's words and actions point to a different motive. Frequent missile testing also generates much suspicion. Opinions on the ground are mixed about Iran's right to nuclear power. Western countries, and Israel, adamantly oppose Iran's nuclear program. The governments of the Persian Gulf Arab states also oppose it. However, the essence of the debate revolves around the question of rights: Does a sovereign state in the modern era have the right to acquire nuclear weapons capabilities, and do other states in the international community have the right to deny this, even though many outspoken states themselves have nuclear weapons? This paper examines the question of the rights of sovereign states, specifically the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), to secure nuclear deterrence, and the viability of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in the post-Cold War era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media's political power and significance continue to expand and have in many ways surpassed the influence of traditional media, such as television and newspaper. The powerful effect of 'new' media is seen in a growing number of international conflicts. For example, during the 'Arab Spring' Facebook and Twitter were used to circumvent state-controlled media. Media has long been seen as the key to the way in which events are perceived and the priorities they are given in governments' policies. The increasing influence of online news and social media has made this one of the most important battlefields for international public opinion. This research employs quantitative and qualitative analyses of YouTube videos posted by Israeli institutions and pro-Israeli groups and individuals, who are unaffiliated with Israeli institutions, aimed at persuading international audiences to accept Israel's policy positions and reject those criticizing the state. This paper examines the different approaches adopted by the various video uploaders and which comprise the most effective use of YouTube. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do 'Get Out The Vote' campaigns impact voter turnout? This paper hypothesizes a moderated model whereby distance to polling places is crucial to the linkage between GOTV campaigns and voter turnout. To test this model, we utilized an urban area during the latest local elections in Israel, randomly assigning prospective voters (N=16,005) to a control condition or to receive a GOTV message via direct mail or by phone. Findings show that although both methods increase turnout, GOTV's effectiveness depends on voters' distance to the polling place. In comparison to the control and in contrast to the established sense that turnout declines linearly as the distance from polling place increases our findings reveal that both GOTV methods performed best among voters residing 400 to 800 meters away from their polling place a distance which is around the average distance from the polling place (M=715, SD=580). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

see paper ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines, through political ethnography, current developments in forms of surveillance and use of power by Israel at the checkpoints in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. These new forms highlight unique and complex trends that have both theoretical and practical implications on issues of power and resistance. New forms of surveillance have been implemented by the modern state, forms that are usually accepted by the public as more legitimate and effective than the traditional forms of surveillance. The Foucauldian panopticon is such a legitimate space; the architecture shapes the individual's behavior without any use of explicit violence. Not all modern spaces, however, have been experiencing this shift in forms of surveillance. Outside of the democratic and legitimate state, as well as in some border-areas, the use of power has rarely been challenged and, thus, extreme use of power and surveillance remain the common forms of control. The checkpoints inside the Occupied Territories are an example of spaces that continue to be managed according to the pre-panoptic perceptions and rules. Two characteristics classify these checkpoints as pre-panoptic structures. First, the nature of the power deployed; in contrast to panoptic structures, the control at the checkpoints is attained and maintained by the use of violent physical force: weapons, barriers, and the confiscation of property. Second, there is no place for an outside gaze; the explicit use of force defines the checkpoints as a separate military space. The responsibility for operating the checkpoints remains in hands of military forces and any civilian gaze is restricted. During the last two years, however, some of the checkpoints have been converted into 'terminals'. This change, although mainly semantic, has some theoretical and practical implications. The architectural changes are meant to give the impression that the new 'terminals' are being activated without use of extreme force or surveillance but only through the exercise of rules and law-abiding. Qalandia checkpoint, three kilometers south of Ramallah, is an example of such a space. Since early 2006, the 'terminal' is managed as if it was a regular international point for border-crossing. Beside the Palestinian who is being checked at a given moment, no one can see the power and surveillance that is being used; new buildings allow the examination of only one Palestinian at a time and, thus, prevent an outside gaze by other Palestinians waiting on line or by human rights activists. The difficulty to see or talk with the soldiers is emphasized by random signs that direct and re-direct the Palestinians in line, every few minutes, to different empty work-stations with the excuse that security concerns impose that the Palestinians be ignorant regarding the exact location of the soldiers.What are the political and human-rights implications of these changes? Do they point to an Israeli attempt to base its control on panoptic structures in which people regulate themselves? I argue that the move from pre-panoptic forms of surveillance to panoptic forms is a cosmetic change directed at the international public opinion, and does not reduce the oppression and domination experienced by the Palestinians in the checkpoints. Moreover, concealing the use of power and surveillance makes it more difficult to resist the Occupation and the existence of the checkpoints, both for Palestinians and for human rights movements. This difficulty not only facilitates the continuing oppression, but also hides it and, thus, enables its radicalization. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are very few cases of homegrown religious based terrorism in democracies. Therefore, it is logical to assume that democracy inhibits religious violence and that democracy might be a solution to the current wave of global religious terrorism and violence. Two democracies that have seen instances of homegrown religious terrorism are Israel and the United States. This paper will compare right-wing religious terrorism (anti-abortion) in the United States with right-wing settlement related Jewish terrorism in Israel. My hypothesis is that the appearance and growth of these groups is related to the fortunes of right-wing political parties. In other words, right wing terrorism and violence is suppressed by the success of right wing political parties at the polls. This will examine that religious political groups are willing to use legitimate means to achieve their goals. However, these groups will abandon these legitimate avenues for change and turn to violence when the political process works against them. Thus, democracy may not be a suppressor of religious violence and terror but, rather, a tool used by "rational extremists" to get what they want. This question is of significance as many Islamic political groups are being shut out of the political system in a variety of Islamic countries, because it is claimed that they will use democracy to ultimately destroy it and install theocracies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines emerging patterns of local governance in Israeli municipalities within the domain of social service provision. The analysis incorporates institutional and actor centered approaches in an attempt to explain how local leaders and officials reconstruct the institutional void resulting from the perceived retrenchment of the welfare state. We offer to distinguish between high and low capacity governance networks based on five criteria: public actors' ability to steer the network; to choose the non-public actors; to continue exercising professional discretion; to compensate for loss of resources and the network's overall capacity to improve the volume and quality of public services. Pointing to differences in capacity among local governance networks in provision of welfare services, the findings enabled us to deal with the implications of the emergence of different types of governance networks on equality and on whether the new forms of governing networks create institutional bases for retaining or increasing inequality among localities. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the role played by different sources of threat perception in shaping exclusionist political attitudes of the majority toward two distinct minority groups in Israel: non-Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Palestinian citizens of Israel. We distinguish between the impact of security, economic, and symbolic threats on exclusionist political attitudes. A structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis indicated that regardless of the different levels of each threat posed by a minority group, a perceived security threat is a key predictor of exclusionist political attitudes toward different minority groups. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the latest military conflict between Israel and Hezbollah/Lebanon - July 12, 2006 to August 16, 2006 - using the theoretical frameworks of leadership trait analysis (LTA) and foreign policy analysis (FPA). LTA unveils the personality traits of the main Israeli policymakers involved in this conflict: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni, Minister of Defense Amir Peretz and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Dan Halutz. FPA draws the connection between personality traits and foreign policy preferences and behaviors.I argue that by using foreign policy analysis approaches focused on the leadership styles of the main decision-makers involved in this episode we can better understand Israel's response to Hezbollah's decision to escalate the latent conflict with the Jewish state. This analysis also offers a lesson for the future: without leaders predisposed for peace, there is not going to be any stable peace in the Middle East. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is structured as follows: In the first section, I present the argument between the liberal and the communitarian conceptions with respect to justice. The second section presents a moderate communitarian Jewish conception of justice, which combines universal and particularistic elements. The third section is devoted to the application of this principle in the context of the proper relation of the Jewish majority to the Israeli Palestinian minority, an application that should result in a significant improvement in the civil status of Palestinian citizens of Israel. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the proposition that small parties have disproportionate bargaining power under proportional representation. It presents both simulation results and case studies of Germany and Israel. We find that small parties have disproportionate influence only when the number of parties is very small. As the number of parties climbs above 4, influence tends toward proportionality. Furthermore, large party bias is far more likely than small party bias. Proportional representation elections may produce a surprisingly "majoritarian" political dynamic. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Setting up a legal expenditure ceiling is based on the assumption that such limits can in fact be enforced on contenders in elections and they will be kept by them. The question raised at this point is whether such ceilings do indeed matter? Do ceilings serve as an effective barrier when politicians are engaged in a heated close electoral race? The findings presented in this paper show that neither the way the law is drafted nor the total amount of the ceiling, have little effect on major parties' decision whether to comply with or ignore the legal ceiling (and deal with the consequences when the elections are over). The variable most likely to predict the financial behavior of Israeli party leaders is the closeness of a given electoral race ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important recent debates in Israeli political and academic circles is the question of whether Israel can be as state that is both Jewish and democratic. This question is also relevant to the larger question of what role religion can and should play in democracies in general. This paper uses the Religion and State (RAS) dataset which includes detailed information on government involvement in religion (GIR). A comparison of Israel to other democracies shows that all types of GIR which exist in Israel also exist in other democracies. This implies that the extent of GIR in Israel does not undermine its democratic character. The results also show that while democracies tend to have lower levels of GIR than non-democracies, the relationship between GIR and regime is nonlinear. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests a framework for the analysis of reform of intra-partisan candidate selection methods. The framework links three levels: the general political system, the party system and the intra-partisan arena. The usefulness of the analytical framework is exemplified by conducting a focused comparison of cases of reform initiation and adoption within the Israeli Labor and Likud parties over a period of 55 years (1948-2003). The analysis at the political system level identifies the probable direction of reform and the legitimate range of reform alternatives; the analysis at the party system level identifies factors that influence the timing of specific reform initiatives and, thus, their expected intensity. Yet, only the analysis of the balance of power at the intra-partisan level and the struggle between the relevant intra-partisan actors can account for the result of a specific attempt at promoting reform. An added value for the explanation is achieved by referring to the meeting points between these three levels. The analysis also reveals that the frequency of reform in candidate selection methods increases when both external and internal environments become more competitive. That is, the relatively flexible institution of candidate selection methods not only produces incentives for competing actors but is sometimes also part of the competition itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is a critical examination of the Egyptologist Jan Assmann’s thesis regardingwhat he calls "secondary" or "counter-religion" and its inherent intolerance against what it declares to be false gods or idols. Assmann’s two books "Moses The Egyptian" and "Die mosaische Unterscheidung. Der Preis des Monotheismus" posit an idea of monotheism that begins with the Egyptian Pharao Akhenaten and ends with Freud’s story of the "man Moses." I am using Eric Voegelin’s analysis of the genesis of the problem in Egypt and Israel to challenge some of Assmann’s ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the connection between forms of political participation and the political role of the Supreme Court. Specifically, we analyze the impact of a form of political participation that we term quasi-exit on judicial activism in Israel, understood in terms of Disposition, Justiciability and Standing. We argue that under certain socio-political and cultural circumstances, the general public, often including politicians, view the Supreme Court as a policy maker and instrumentally use it in their attempts to force policy reforms. By focusing on the public as an active player we explain the special characteristics of political participation that may lead to judicial activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The communication revolution allows cross border messages to reach every corner of the globe. These messages enable the development of common global culture and identity which in return create the emotion of individual of belonging to the same society. In a three step process, global media contribute to homogenisation of principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures around the globe, and therefore encourage the process of global belonging and participation. This paper probes the development of global environmental messages influence on the Israeli society between the two first main UN environmental conferences of 1972 and 1992 and argues that since environmentalism stands almost in total contrast to the cornerstones of the Zionist idea, Israelis’ belonging to environment ideas of the global society are the result of global media influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role of Palestinian identity in unconventional political activity among the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. In broad terms, my research demonstrates the importance of civic identity for ethnic stability. I use survey data to show the link between system-challenging political action and different kinds of identity found among Palestinian Israelis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does liberalism necessitate a strict separation of religion and state? Or are there some ways in which religion may play a role in constituting a liberal state? This paper reconsiders and reorients the liberal instinct toward separation through an engagement with the circumstances of Israel’s religion-state arrangement. First I discuss and build on Rawls’s recent attempt to justify liberal toleration of some non-liberal states he calls ?decent,? including those with limited establishments of religion. Then, based on my analysis of an NSF-funded research study involving in-depth interviews with diverse Israelis, I group religious associations with the state into categories to be regarded with varying levels of suspicion. Liberals should not assume that all religious linkages with the state are oppressive. Instead, I argue, liberals should be increasingly wary as the religion-state link in question moves from symbolic affiliations with a national-religious identity, to expenditures of government funds, to concrete fusions of state and religious authority. Urging the importance of context to normative analysis, I defend an account of liberalism that makes more room for religious connections with the state than typical varieties allow while at the same time clarifying why certain such connections are worrisome or even anathema to a liberal politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyze the cultural infrastructure of the Israeli use of force against its own citizens, as demonstrated in the violent clashes between Arab protesters and police officers during the events of October 2000. In contrast to other approaches attempting to explain this phenomenon, in this analysis we assume a socio-cultural rather than an institutional point of view. We argue that the entrenched anti-liberal characteristic of Israeli society and political culture carry the potential for exclusion, condemnation and even outright use of force towards social groups perceived as being outside the Israeli consensus, especially if they do not belong to the dominant ethnic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their claims to the contrary, the desired territorial borders of Israel posited by Israeli nationalist movements have undergone significant revision over time. Most explanations of the redrawing of the map-image of the appropriate territorial borders of the Israeli nation-state have minimized the role of domestic politics as a variable that might account for these shifts. This paper argues, however, that the impact of domestic politics is crucial for understanding the acceptance of partition of the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River by both the Israeli left, and increasingly, by the secular right. With regard to the former, the paper shows that the Labor movement's coming to terms with the 1949 armistice lines as the basis for the final borders of the state was the contingent result of inter-movement struggles rather than an automatic response to changing elite incentives or an automatic adaptation to external constraints. While this transformation took place between the early years of the state and the 1980s, the acceptance of partition on the right only began in the 1990s. The secular Israeli right had increasingly based its opposition to partition on security arguments. In the 1990s, however, the perception of the security threat shifted from national to personal security. As a consequence, a security-based argument became increasingly consistent with partition of the land rather than maintaining control of the Territories. This shift, and the attempt to maintain the political benefits that had accrued to the right as a result of their identification with a security-perspective, has contributed to the increasing willingness of their leaders to accept the principle of partition - and even, as in the case of the security barrier, to its practice. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do national parties compete in local elections? Some claim that they do so in order to maintain a cadre of local activists who will mobilize local voters during national elections. However, this practice yields policy commitments to local activists, which in turn might deter voters elsewhere from voting for the national party. Hence, we argue that national parties compete in local elections in places where the results will not reduce their expected share of votes in national elections. Moreover, we argue that party valence also affects this calculation. As valence decreases, local elections become more crucial for the creation of endogenous valence. Hence, we hypothesize that low-valence parties are more likely to compete in local elections than are high-valence parties. Moreover, these low-valence parties tend to compete in communities that include recognized groups of core constituents. The results of Israeli ballot-box data from the 2006 national and the 2008 local elections are analyzed to test the hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the domestic politics of Israel, the struggle for human rights principally involves the state's Arab citizens, roughly 20% of the population. In the eyes of many Jewish Israelis, this minority carries Israeli passports but identifies with an Arab-Palestinian nationality, raising fundamental questions about whether it should enjoy the full rights of citizenship. In most societies, tolerance toward minority groups and support for their civil liberties is strongly influenced by higher education but Israeli Jews may be an exception to that generalization for two reasons: (1) the so-called "religion of national security" to which Jewish Israelis are socialized at an early age and (2) the exposure of most Israeli Jews to military service before they begin higher education. These unique experiences raise the possibility that young Israelis may be essentially fixed in their orientations to Israel's Arab citizens at an early age, preempting the influence of university experience on attitudes to human rights. Using a survey of Israeli university students who entered higher education after military service, we test whether exposure to higher education changes attitudes to the rights of Israeli Arabs and the Israeli-Arab conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the current project is to integrate psychological research on emotion regulation with the study of democratic practices in general and political intolerance in particular. We hypothesized that use of a well-established emotion regulation strategy, cognitive reappraisal, would be associated with lower levels of group-based negative emotions towards one's least-liked group, and lower levels of political intolerance towards that group. In Study 1, we found that the tendency to reappraise negative emotions during war was associated with less intolerant attitudes . In Studies 2 and 3, we experimentally manipulated reappraisal, and this led to reduced levels of political intolerance towards Palestinian Citizens of Israel (Study 2) and towards one's most disliked group (Study 3). These effects were mediated through a decrease in negative emotions in both studies, as well as by an increase in support for general democratic values in Study 3 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with stressful experiences, such as uncertainty or novelty, the adrenal glands secrete glucocorticoid hormones to help us cope with stress. Since many decision-making situations are stressful, there is reason to believe that voting is a stressful event. In this study, we asked voters in Israel's national election (N=113) to report on their general affective state immediately before entering the polling place using the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and to provide us with a saliva sample through which we could evaluate their cortisol levels. Compared to a second sample of voters who reported their affective state on election night (N=70), we found that voters at the ballot box had higher positive and negative affect. Moreover, our voters at the polling place exhibited cortisol levels that were significantly higher than their own normal levels obtained on a similar day, and significantly higher than those of a second control group sampled the day after the elections (N=6). Our data demonstrate that elections are exciting, yet stressful events, and it is this stress, among other factors, that elevates the cortisol levels of voters. Since elevated cortisol has been found to affect memory consolidation, impair memory retrieval and lead to risk-seeking behaviour, we discuss how these outcomes of elevated cortisol levels may affect voting in general and the field of electoral studies in particular [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the use of coercive diplomacy by Israel to prevent the growth of strategic weapons. Topics discussed include national security strategy of Israel, and its failure to use traditional tools of nonproliferation like bilateral negotiations, public diplomacy, and economic sanctions.

The article presents a geopolitical analysis of the security barrier of Israel with Palestine. Topics discussed include historical background of the security barrier between both the nations, Israel's Anti-Terrorist Fence 2004, and the border demarcation established under the Armistice Agreements of 1949 between Israel and its neighbors.

The political stability of neoliberal projects is usually seen as generated by factors external to the project itself. This article suggests that there are also internal features that assist that stability. Increased market discipline promoted by neoliberalism opens the way for potential political instability. Yet, neoliberalism provides the employed masses with one major tool to mitigate disciplinary effects and improve their wellbeing - education. Acquiring education functions as a promise according to which its possessor would advance socio-economically within the (labor-) market and gain a 'safety net' against falling back. Politically, promise acts to offset possible destabilizing effects of discipline. The article argues that problems in the realization of promise contributed to and shaped the eruption of protest in Chile and Israel in 2011. In Chile, realization problems were created by the operation of the higher education system. In Israel, problems developed at the passing point from higher education graduation to improvements in income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does combat experience foster hardliner approaches to conflict, diminishing the likelihood of reconciliation? We exploit the assignment of health rankings determining combat eligibility in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to examine the effect of combat exposure on support for peaceful resolution of conflict. Given the centrality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to global affairs, and with no resolution to the conflict currently in sight, the question of the political consequences of combat becomes all the more pressing. We find that exposure to combat hardens attitudes towards the rival and reduces support for negotiation and compromise. Importantly, these attitudes translate directly into voting behavior, such that combatants are more likely to vote for hardliner parties. These findings cast doubt on research highlighting the benign effects of combat and underscore the importance of combatant reintegration for the transition from conflict to peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A heated debate focused on the impact of multiculturalism and ethnic heterogeneity on welfare state generosity has emerged in recent years. At the center of the debate is the argument that ethnic heterogeneity undermines support for the welfare state for several reasons. Prominent among these is the difficulty of creating broad social solidarity in an ethnically divided society: solidarity which is allegedly necessary for sustaining public support for the welfare state. This study explores the "heterogeneity undermines the welfare state" logic in the context of welfare state politics in Israel. Israel would appear to be a near-perfect example of how ethnic and religious heterogeneity strains social solidarity and, in turn, undermines the welfare state. Quite differently from most studies, however, this work's emphasis is not on public attitudes or voting, but on the political interaction between economically disadvantaged ethnic minorities - specifically Arabs on the one hand and orthodox and ultra-orthodox Jews on the other - in the welfare field. It is argued that shared interests enable extensive cooperation among political elites in the welfare field despite religiously-and nationally-based antagonism. Elite politics combined with low public visibility facilitate such cooperation, which appears at first unthinkable. Nevertheless, interest-based welfare coalitions of this type are shallow in the sense that they tend to be ad-hoc, focus on a narrow range of issues and are particularly vulnerable to government divide and rule tactics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study on the failure of Israel's disengagement plan from Gaza. It examines on why the result of the plan and policy implementation was a failure or the unilateralist approach of Israel to leave Gaza was basically defective. It also highlights the views of the late former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Israel's National Security and obligations of the Palestinians to disregard under the Road Map.

The article examines how gender-based interpretations of women's involvement in politics in Israel change the intervention's meaning and implements political actions or work against them. It explores two cases of women's left activism in Israel which are female anti-occupation grassroots organization Checkpoint Watch and radical activist Tali Fahima. The author argues that the political actions of these women are misinterpreted as inherent to being a woman.

The article examines the role of one-minute political speeches in helping a candidate get re-elected and enact public policies in Israel, before and after the 2007-2010 global economic crisis. It states that one-minute speeches is used by legislators to inform the public about their stances on an issue. It provides a background on the use of these speeches in Israel and discusses six hypothesis on their use. It argues that Israeli legislators focus on internal issues instead of external ones.

The article discusses protests organized by the Queen Rania of Jordan with an aim of showing solidarity with Palestinians during the invasion of various towns including Jenin, Nablus and other Palestinian towns from Israel. Two other political groups that supported march protests includes the Professionals Associations Complex (PAC) and the Islamic Action Front (IAF). Dimensions of protest has been analyzed by focusing on the spaces of contestation and legal mechanism used for regulation.

The article focuses on the significance of Anti-Defection Legislation in Israel and India. It is mentioned that the strategic consequences of the changes that were taking place in the party system of the two nations is the reason for the passage of anti-defection laws. It is noted that a special type of cohesion achieved by enforcing obedience or to a system of sanctions is party discipline.

The article offers information on the elite soldiers as misused or misplaced soldiers within the military infrastructure and facts related to extensive and costly training provided to them that sometimes undermines the ability of their units. It discusses several facts which includes military innovations, challenges of counterterrorism and a case related to Israe''s elite units.