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Many of the conditions which British feminists have identified as necessary for the full citizenship of women seem to have been met in Israel. Even Jewish women, however, remain disadvantaged in many ways. This paper analyses the causes of their disadvantage, showing that some are shared with other nations while others are specific to Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the assumption that foreign and defence policy grows out of the domestic political arena, this paper examines the 1988 elections in Israel with a particular focus on the territorial issue of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. The two major parties, Likud and Labour, share certain fundamental views, and this fact contributed to the formation of a National Unity Government during 1984–88. Yet they also differ markedly in terms of ideological outlook and more specifically in policy towards peace-making with the Arabs and the future of the territories. The election campaign reflected the differences and incompatibilities between the two major parties, while the results indicated a political stalemate. The domestic party arena in Israel has not produced any clear long-term strategy regarding peace and the territories. This deadlock suggests incoherence in the Cabinet, the impotence of the legislature and the likelihood that external events alone can alter the political status quo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper emphasizes the effects of various societal forces on the development of corruption. The study of these factors contributes to an understanding of how corruption can thrive in countries with high levels of political development. Three stages of the life-cycle of corruption have been identified in Israel, which serves as a case study. The embryonic stage is associated with foreign domination of Palestine. The period after Israel became independent and until 1967 marks the development stage of corruption, when inhibiting and stimulating forces inter- mingled and produced white corruption, which was rationalized, condoned and allowed to prevail. The period since 1967 evidences the maturation of corruption. In this period, inhibiting forces of corruption are declining, while catalyzing forces of corruption are accentuating. The result is numerous scandals of black corruption that upset the political system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Independent offices for future generations are rare among institutional designs that aim to ameliorate short-termism in democracies. Drawing on the experience of offices for future generations in Israel, Hungary, and Wales, the article argues that such institutions face at least three challenges to their legitimacy: first, the capacity of an unelected agency to constrain government and law-making; second, the ability of a single office to adequately represent the plurality of interests within and across future generations; and third, their political fragility and vulnerability. The article develops the counterintuitive argument that offices for future generations can enhance their democratic legitimacy through embedding systematic public participation in their activities, in particular through the institutionalization of deliberative mini-publics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why is it that social movements engaged in contention sometimes experience radicalization of member factions? This article argues that relational practices of contacts, ties, exchange of information and bargaining among the contending parties mediate the influence of violence-prone ideologies as well as impulses, incentives and motives for aggression on actual engagement in political violence. A mechanism-based comparison of two similar yet different-in-outcome episodes of Jewish settler contention demonstrates the mediating role of relational mechanisms, the combined influence of which is conceptualized and operationalized as an Infrastructure of Coordination (IOC). Despite ample environmental stimuli and widespread violence-prone ideologies present in both episodes, in the Gaza Pullout radicalization was impeded through high levels of coordination established between and within the contending parties. Conversely, in the dismantling of the Amona outpost the disintegration of the IOC propelled radicalization. Supportive evidence is provided from a multi-method research design, including in-depth interviews, content analysis and contention—repression data over a series of critical events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the role of the news media in asymmetrical conflicts after countries have signed a peace agreement. While most research has focused on the inherently negative role the press plays in attempts to bring peace, this study attempts to look at this issue using a more dynamic perspective. The theoretical argument focuses on how political factors affect the quantity and quality of the news flow and some of the ways in which leaders can sometimes overcome the obstacles they face in promoting encouraging news about peace. The model considers two political factors that have a major impact on media performance: the relative level of political power of the two sides and the varying amount of hostility. To illustrate the importance of these factors we focus on the flow of news between Jordan and Israel between 1999 and 2002. The major findings from content analyses of news articles ( N = 859) appearing in both countries show that while Jordanians are exposed to massive amounts of mostly negative information about Israel, the Israeli public reads almost nothing about Jordan. Despite all this, it was also found that the initiation of diplomatic relations between the former enemies allowed for the creation of important ‘news slots’ that were previously unavailable. This development created space for less threatening types of news and also allowed leaders from both Jordan and Israel to initiate some positive stories about peace, even during some of the darkest periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the associations between religious affiliation and religiosity and support for political violence through a nationwide sample of Israeli Jews and Muslims. Based on structural equation modeling, the findings show that by and large Muslims are more supportive of political violence than Jews and more religious persons are less supportive of political violence. Deprivation, however, was found to mediate these relations, showing that the more deprived – whether Muslims or Jews, religious or non-religious persons – are more supportive of political violence. The explanatory strength of religion and deprivation combined in this manner was found to be stronger than any of these variables on their own. The findings cast doubt on negative stereotypes both of Islam and of religiosity as promoting political violence. They suggest that governments which want peace at home, in Israel as elsewhere, would do well to ensure that ethnic and religious differences are not translated into, and compounded by, wide socio-economic gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the literature that analyzes the impact of norms and ideas on international and domestic politics, it is our assumption that the widespread introduction and dissemination of a human rights discourse enables oppressed groups to translate events into rights language and to appeal to courts, politicians and media in order to seek remedies for their grievances. In so far as human rights discourse actually helps introduce more ethical policies and legislation, it is crucial to understand how this discourse, which in the past 55 years evolved and proliferated on the global level, emerges and develops in domestic settings. Using Israel as a case study, and more specifically analyzing the Israeli press, we further develop some of the existing theoretical claims about how the global and local interact. We argue that in order to understand how the rights discourse is imported into the domestic arena and how it expands once it enters the local scene, it is crucial to employ a broader conception of the global and a more differentiated view of the local. We emphasize the significance of local events and practices in determining the impact of the global on national settings, suggesting that one cannot understand transnational flows without unveiling the black box of the domestic arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My friend and colleague, Michael Gross, believes that, save for very exceptional circumstances, assassinating terrorists is both illegal and morally unjustified (Gross, 2003). As he puts it, it is a ‘morally abhorrent practice’ (p. 364). He argues that assassination also fails to achieve its avowed purpose, as it increases rather than decreases the level of bloodshed. Hence, he concludes, Israel’s policy of assassination against Palestinian terrorism during the uprising (Intifada) of 2001–2002 was unwarranted. Gross’s arguments are powerful, yet I believe they do not withstand close scrutiny. I will first direct my response to his most original argument – that based on the notion of ‘named killings’. Then, I will comment on his second line of argument – that based on the supposed harmful results of the assassination policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Israel's efforts to quell violence during the recent conflict with the Palestinians include targeted assassinations of militia leaders. The international community permits the use of lethal force in only two cases, law enforcement and just war, and assassination cannot be justified in either. In the context of law enforcement, assassination remains prohibited as a form of extra-legal execution, regardless of Israel's status as an occupying power. In the context of just war, assassination violates the proscription against perfidious and treacherous means of warfare. In the current conflict, assassination cannot be accomplished without collaborators, a practice that not only is prohibited by convention but seriously undermines Palestinian society. As a result, assassination provokes violent retaliation and corrodes the basis necessary to renew peace negotiations. Nevertheless, assassination may be defensible as a last resort in some cases. These include tyrannicide, killing a murderous and brutal leader to protect innocent civilians, together with instances of ‘ticking bombs’– that is, immediate and otherwise unavoidable grievous threats to non- combatants. In each case a modified argument from necessity offers grounds for the defensible, although limited, use of assassination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An examination of the multi-party system in Israel and to a large extent also in France during the last two decades reveals the emergence of three distinct types of party clusters. These approximate to a limited extent to Kirchheimer's catch-all thesis, but reveal motives and conditions other than those he postulated. The party clusters are distinguished as Conglomerate Blocs, Proportionally Amalgamated Parties and Unitary Amalgamated Parties. An analysis of the party systems in at least these two countries show the conditions likely to foster the formation of such party configurations, their modes of operation, and the internal stresses they generate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents three books on the Israeli conflicts. "What Makes Israel Tick?," by Ira Sharkansky; "Operation Peace for Galilee: The Israeli-PLO War in Lebanon," by Richard A. Gabriel; "Ben-Gurion and the Intellectuals: Power, Knowledge and Charisma," by Michael Keren.