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Copyright of Politische Vierteljahresschrift is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article is devoted to identifying the features of the еastern liquefied natural gas (hereinafter referred to as LNG) markets and new opportunities for entering them. The purpose of this article is to study the problems of LNG producing companies entering the еastern markets and ways to overcome them. The work analyses the current state of the еastern LNG markets and their development prospects, existing barriers, including those caused by the conflict in the Middle East, and possible consequences of the escalation of the conflict. The authors consider the issues of developing localised infrastructure and technological solutions that increase the efficiency of supply chains, meet specific market needs and provide a competitive advantage in the еastern markets. Logframe and comparative analysis, systems approach, and modelling have been used in the research process. As a result, the study has identified a number of challenges for LNG producers, primarily related to geopolitical complexities, regulatory environment, and market development dynamics, to innovations, ecological norms, and understanding regional tensions that may impact supply chains and trade agreements. The findings of the article can be used when domestic companies develop strategies to enter the еastern LNG markets with existing contracts or expand them.

The article "Political Commitments and Critical Science: On the Relationship between Criticism of Racism and Scientific Criticism" discusses the relationship between criticism of racism and scientific criticism in educational research. Various theoretical approaches and variants of criticism in educational science are presented and analyzed. In addition, the polarized public discussion on the Middle East conflict is addressed and its impact on the sciences is examined. The article uses a case study to illustrate the differences between a criticism of racism and a distant interpretation, and discusses the relationship between analysis and criticism. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of SIRIUS - Zeitschrift fur Strategische Analysen is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Between 1972 and 1980, Israel and authoritarian Uruguay developed a political partnership based on their shared self-perception as misunderstood Western bastions fighting terrorism and the proxies of communist expansion, as well as shared concerns about détente and Western human rights discourse. While Uruguay remained the most consequential anti-PLO South American regime, Israel helped the Uruguayan dictatorship manipulate public opinion and cover up antisemitism and Nazi sympathies within its repressive apparatus. When dealing with the effects of Uruguayan repression of leftist Jews, Israeli diplomats tended to prioritise their alliance with the regime over their ethnic-ideological commitment to Jewish solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of French Journal of British Studies / Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique is the property of Centre de Recherches et d'Etudes en Civilisation Britannique and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Six-Day War of 1967 was a war conflict almost unanimously defined in the scientific literature as a school example of preemptive war. The conflict was initiated with Israel's attack on Egypt and Syria, after prolonged concentration of strong military forces on their common borders by the two countries. In order to prevent joint and coordinated attack on two fronts, Israel destroyed the Egyptian and Syrian Air Force with a carefully planned airstrike in the matter of hours. Since the founding of the State, the Israeli political and military elite have been guided by a collective narrative in addressing serious security threats. This narrative is based on drawing historical parallels with the experience of collective political violence against Jews as a political community in the past. It dictates proactivity in the protection of national interests and national security, and over time it has manifested itself in various ways. The Israeli army, as well as other security branches, have acted preemptively and preventively many times whenever the need to protect the lives and property of Israeli citizens arose. In the eyes of the Israeli political and military elite each of the mentioned above security threats was placed in the context of the German attempt to exterminate the Jews in WW2. Regardless of our attitudes towards the Middle East conflict, the fact remains that Israel's survival was most threatened in 1948 and 1973, that is, the only two times when Israel was not the first to attack its enemies who grouped against it.

Copyright of Revista Comunicação Midiática is the property of Universidade Estadual Paulista, Faculdade de Arquitetura, Artes e Comunicacao and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There are times when small nations can make "great history," and after 1964 Romania made such a history for a decade or so. The communist government in Bucharest--and to a far lesser extent the Romanian people--benefited from the international perception that its foreign policy was able to generate in the specific environment of the Cold War. The honors with which Nicolae Ceausescu was received everywhere in the civilized world were the most visible expression of this state of affairs. A key dimension of the Romanian foreign policy was its focus on the crisis in the Middle East. The Bucharest leadership was widely praised for intermediating the contacts between Israel and Egypt, which ultimately led to the signing of the 1978 Camp David Accords. The reasons behind this foreign policy of the Bucharest regime arc investigated in-depth, as the Romanian leaders themselves surprisingly stated that they were not mediators in that crisis, while investing a great deal of energy and resources in finding a solution to it. One interesting explanation arose from the archives of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which ascribes Ceausescu's efforts in the Middle East to the elusive dream of gaining the international recognition brought by the Nobel Peace Prize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to find out how Hidayatullah.com online media constructs news about the death of Qassem Soleimani. The killing of Soleimani carried out by the United States at Baghdad International Airport, Iraq, on January 3, 2020 by an airstrike. This attack heightened the tension between Iran and the United States. This study uses qualitative methods and Robert Entman's framing analysis. The research data are 5 news texts published by Hidayatullah.com during January 2020 which reported about Soleimani's death. This research focuses on the choice of words in reporting about Soleimani which can form certain framing. Based on the analysis that has conducted, there is an emphasis on the figure of Soleimani as someone who played a role in conflicts in Middle Eastern countries, such as Iraq and Syria. Besides highlighting Soleimani's figure as the cause of Middle East conflict, the 5 articles also emphasize the concerns of various parties over a further conflict between Iran and the United States as the result of Soleimani's murder.

This article focuses on the opening ceremony for the new US embassy in Jerusalem, which took place on 14 May 2018. By analyzing a live transmission of the ceremony, it seeks to show how Jerusalem is constructed as a “holy city” through the ceremony and its medial representation. It thus aims to deepen our understanding of the relationship between religion and politics in the Middle East by focusing on the intersection of ritual, (sacred) space, conflict, and the media. More specifically, adopting a spatial approach to religion, drawing on this episode it looks at media rituals in the construction of holy space within the Middle East conflict.

Behind the dispute about definitions of antisemitism we can detect a deep conceptual divide. The paper outlines the development of two distinct and incommensurable families of concepts of antisemitism: substantial and abstract-formal concepts. The semantic core of substantial concepts consists in hostility towards Jews (or Judaism) as Jews (where Jews may also be replaced by substitutes like Israel). In the recent past, mediated by bridging concepts like communication latency, abstract-formal concepts of antisemitism have emerged. In certain forms of criticism towards Israel these concepts consider antisemitic they merely see a historical connection to hatred of Jews. However, hostility towards Jews is no longer a necessary property of the concept. This axiomatic divide blocks the research on and the fight against antisemitism on an analytical and ethical level. What is needed is transparency about the basis of the conversation and a recognition that these two families of concepts exist.

France's colonial past and its aftermath remain an "open wound" to this day. After a long period of silence, painful issues such as the role of France in the transatlantic slave trade, colonial crimes in Africa, and the Algerian War have more and more become part of public consciousness in France. Interestingly, many French rap musicians who are the children or grandchildren of immigrants from former French colonies frequently use their songs to remind France of its colonial past. However, their messages sometimes compete with remembrance of the Holocaust. The singers' condemnation of French colonialism becomes wrapped up in the Middle East conflict and Israel is portrayed as a new "colonial power." By analyzing selected lyrics of recent French rap songs this article aims to explore the complex and sensitive intersection of post-colonial and Middle East politics and set the lyrics in the broader socio-political context of remembrance culture in France. The article argues that the musicians' approaches to France's troubled past are an important form of self-affirmation for their communities in the postcolonial context. By bringing up previously silenced topics, they contribute to a more diverse remembrance culture and contest narratives that have been predominant for a long time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Konflik Palestina-Israel merupakan salah satu konflik global yang tidak berujung hingga saat ini. Kota Yerusalem merupakan kawasan yang diperebutkan dan sebagai pemicu konflik sepanjang masa antara Palestina-Israel. Kota ini dianggap merupakan tempat yang begitu sakral bagi umat Islam dan kaum Yahudi sehingga terus menjadi perebutan dua negara tersebut. Kemudian di penghujung tahun 2017, Donald Trump telah memicu konflik memanas kembali dengan pernyataan keberpihakannya terhadap Israel dengan memindahkan Kedutaan Besar AS ke Yerusalem. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menjelaskan klaim sepihak Amerika Serikat dibawah pemerintahan Trump terhadap kota Yerusalem sebagai ibukota Israel dengan menggunakan perspektif konstruktivisme. Peneliti menggunakan metode penelitian kualitatif dengan pendekatan studi pustaka. Dalam studi kepustakaan, data dan informasi dikumpulkan dan dianalisis untuk memahami fenomena yang dikaji. Berdasarkan hasil pembahasan dan analisis data, bahwa klaim sepihak dilakukan berdasarkan unsur identitas (identity) dan kepentingan (interest), sehingga Amerika Serikat menganggap Israel sebagai ‘kawan’ dan Palestina sebagai ‘lawan’. Kata kunci: Perspektif Konstruktivisme; Kota Yerusalem; Klaim Sepihak Donald Trump.

Als der Bundessicherheitsrat unter Kanzler Helmut Schmidt im Frühjahr 1982 neue Politische Grundsätze für den Rüstungsexport verabschiedete, wurde eine geheime Protokollnote angenommen, die als Israel-Klausel firmierte. Sie gab vor, dass bei Entscheidungen zur Waffenausfuhr „auch die geschichtliche Verantwortung der Deutschen gegenüber dem jüdischen Volk berücksichtigt wird". Hintergrund war der Wunsch Saudi-Arabiens, Hunderte Leopard 2-Panzer zu erwerben, der in Bonn eine monatelange Kontroverse ausgelöst und zu einer tiefen Krise der deutsch-israelischen Beziehungen geführt hatte. Hubert Leber untersucht den Panzer-Streit von 1981/82 erstmals auf Basis deutscher wie israelischer Regierungsakten und verknüpft dabei Internationale Geschichte mit vergangenheitspolitischen Perspektiven. Das Verantwortungspostulat, das sich die Bundesregierung auf Initiative von Außenminister Hans-Dietrich Genscher zu eigen machte, markierte eine Zäsur für die Bonner Israel-Politik. Galt im Umgang mit dem jüdischen Staat bis dahin eine Art Verjährungsparadigma, so wurde die Erinnerung an den Holocaust zu Beginn der 1980er Jahre als dauerhaft wirksamer Faktor deutschen Regierungshandelns anerkannt. When the Federal Security Council passed new political principles for arms exports under Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in spring 1982, a secret protocol note was adopted, which became known as the Israel Clause. It stated that decisions about arms exports should "also take into account the historical responsibility of the Germans towards the Jewish People". The background was that Saudi Arabia wished to purchase hundreds of Leopard 2 tanks, which had led to months of controversy in Bonn and a deep crisis in German-Israeli relations. For the first time Hubert Leber investigates the 1981/82 tank dispute on the basis of both German and Israeli government files while connecting international relations with the politics of the past. This postulated responsibility, which the German government approved on the initiative of Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, marked a caesura in Bonn's Israel policy. While until then a sort of statute of limitations paradigm applied in relation to the Jewish state, the memory of the Holocaust was recognised as a permanently operative factor in German governance in the early 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The African American UN mediator Ralph Bunche ended the 1948 Arab-Israeli war by getting the combatants to sign armistice agreements. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950, Bunche became an international hero, acclaimed as the outstanding mediator of the Arab-Israeli conflict. This impression emerged almost immediately; everything written over the years corroborated it. But studies published after the turn of the century propagated a different view of Bunche as a weak mediator, manipulated by the Israelis and Americans. The present article, drawing on materials from archives and other sources (some of them available only in Hebrew), including new knowledge about Israeli plans for military operations while the talks were in progress (most of them remained on paper), casts a different light on those months. Analysing Bunche's role in the negotiations (principally with Egypt and with Jordan), it shows that he ran the talks objectively and skilfully and prevented a renewal of the fighting – which would have resulted in an overwhelming Israeli victory, at the expense of the Arab countries and Palestinians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Die Nachricht, dass Frankreich moderne Panzerabwehrraketen an Syrien liefere, sorgte 1978 für Unruhe in Israel. Produziert wurden die Flugkörper im Rahmen einer deutsch-französischen Rüstungskooperation. Daher forderte Israel von der Bundesregierung, das Waffengeschäft zu unterbinden. Es kam zu einem monatelangen Konflikt zwischen Bonn und Jerusalem, den Hubert Leber erstmals anhand von Archivquellen aus beiden Ländern untersucht. Die Analyse bietet Einsichten zur normativen Entwicklung der deutschen Rüstungsexport- und Israel-Politik. Nach außen gab sich die Regierung Schmidt/Genscher machtlos. Tatsächlich aber verzichtete sie darauf, eine Veto-Option auszuschöpfen, die sie sich intern gegen Exporte aus Partnerländer der Rüstungskooperation vorbehalten hatte. Zu den Folgen gehörte, dass israelische Soldaten im Libanonkrieg 1982 durch deutsche Militärtechnik verletzt oder getötet wurden. The news that France would deliver modern anti-tank missiles to Syria led to disquiet in Israel in 1978. The missiles were being produced within the context of German-French armaments cooperation. Therefore, Israel demanded that the West German government prevent the weapons deal. Months of conflict between Bonn and Jerusalem followed, which Hubert Leber investigates here using archival sources from both countries for the first time. The analysis offers insights into the normative development of German armaments exports and Israel policy. The Schmidt/Genscher government outwardly proclaimed its impotence. In fact, it decided not to use an internally preserved veto option regarding exports from armaments cooperation partner countries. One of the consequences was that Israeli soldiers were injured or killed by German military technology during the Lebanon War of 1982. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Annual incidence of eye injury among members of the US armed services is high and can cause vision impairment and blindness. Traumatic brain injury is also associated with visual function. An estimate of the cost of treatment, benefits for those who are disabled, productivity loss for those with reduced vision function, and the cost of replacing and retraining others to take the responsibility of those who are discharged from the military will provide a benchmark to which to compare the cost of new methods to prevent, diagnose, mitigate, treat, and rehabilitate vision loss after injury.Materials and Methods: The modeling exercise used a combination of data from military websites, results previously published in the literature, and from other government websites. Data were combined to estimate the number of superficial injuries, the number of injuries with a high risk of blindness, the cost of medical care, the cost of disability benefits, and the cost of potential lost productivity.Results: Over the time period in question, the average annual incidence of eye injury was 15,681 with 304 hospitalized and 298 at high risk of blindness. There were 4,394 annual TBI cases without injury to the eye but with visual impairment. The total cost of treatment, benefits, and potential lost productivity is $2.4 billion annually; $1.9 billion is associated with TBI. $11.7 million is associated with replacing and retraining members of the military.Conclusions: The cost of eye injury and vision dysfunction in the military is substantial. The cost of potential productivity loss associated with TBI makes up the largest proportion of total costs. Developing new standards to enhance eye safety and limit TBI could be cost-effective. Cost analyses such as this study should prove helpful in determining the economic return on investments to prevent, mitigate, treat, and rehabilitate visual system injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ortadoğu çatışmaları on altı on yedi başlık altında kategorize edilebilmekle birlikte özellikle son yirmi yıldaki tüm sorunların ana-kökü mezhepsel sorunlara bağlanmaktadır. Bölgedeki günlük yaşamda din, bölge halkları arasındaki hala en önemli faktör, din adamları da bölgede uygulanan politikaları meşrulaştır(ma)ma konusunda en önemli aktörler olarak öne çıkmaktadır. İşte bu çerçevede özellikle rijit alimler, bölgedeki mezhepsel sorunların ana sorumluları olmaktadır; çünkü onların, provokatif, rijit ve sert fetvaları bölgede savaşan hükümet ve paramiliter grupların çatışmacı politikalarına izin vermekte ve/veya meşruiyet sağlamaktadır. Bu çalışmada bölgedeki sorunları çözmek için çatışma çözümü teorisinin pratiğe uygulanmasına çalışılmış ve en etkin yöntemlerden biri kullanılmıştır: Sorunun kökünü oluşturan özden (core) yani rijit ulema fetvalarından başlayarak yedi adımlı bir yumuşama (de-escalation) önerisi. İlk olarak Ortadoğu'daki Şii, Sünni (hatta İbadi) alimler biraya gelerek ortak yapıcı fetvalar vermelidir. Bu sırada kurulacak olan "Ortadoğu Alimler Birliği" orta vadeli dönemde Ortadoğu'nun barış ortamının sağlanması ve Ortadoğu'nun yeniden yükselmesinin en önemli katalizörü olacaktır. Diğer adımlar sırasıyla, bu fetvaların bölgedeki çatışan halklar arasında kısa ve orta vadede barış ve toleransın yayılması, ortak yaşamın gelişmesi, halklardan hükümetlere barış politikaları taleplerinin yansıması, hükümetlerin barışçıl politika ve kanunlar ile transformasyonu, bu politikaların hem iç, hem de uluslararası ortama pozitif klasik ve kamu diplomasisi olarak yansıması, devletler ve bölge halkları arasında (ve hatta STK'lar arasında) barışın yayılması, sivil ve devletler arası yapıcı projelerin geliştirilmesi şeklinde devam etmektedir. İlk olarak mezhep sorununu başarılı ve barışçıl bir şeklide çözen devlet, diğer bölge devletlerine önce örnek sonra da "Avrupa'nın Almanyası"nda olduğu gibi bölgenin doğal lideri olacaktır. Eğer bu projeler tutarsa uzun vadede kurulacak olan "Ortadoğu Birliği" bölgenin kaderini ekonomik, sosyal ve politik açıdan yeniden şekillendirecek olan yeni aktör olacaktır.

The aim of this article is to describe a model for analyzing potentially new genres in political communication, which has been developed as part of a doctoral dissertation on generic properties of the discourse of conflict illustrated by an analysis of the Israeli political discourse on the conflict in the Middle East. This study and the model it proposes come as a response to the problem of approaching newly developing and/or hybridizing structures of political communication, which receives growing attention in the domain of Political Linguistics. The proposed model draws on concepts from genre studies conducted within well-established linguistic disciplines and perspectives, and supplements them with new insights that derive directly from the data analyzed. For these purposes, a cognitive-pragmatic critical approach was used, which entailed a detailed qualitative analysis of the speeches of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but this article illustrates the core of the proposed model on the basis of one selected Netanyahu’s speech. So far, there have been no attempts at analyzing generic properties of the discourse of conflict and this study illustrates how researchers can approach such complex phenomena and how the results of such analyses might contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of conflicts not only in linguistics, but also in the interdisciplinary domain of peace and conflict studies.

International law provides guidelines for the acceptable behavior of states and, ideally, sanctions. It does not prescribe, however, political solutions to conflicts or set out blueprints for reconstituting an unjust political situation in forms that conform to it. While taking international law as a fundamental element defining the parameters of political settlements, this paper asks: what political program best translates its norms and values into concrete form? It explores the two-state solution, apartheid and the prospect of a single democratic state, the last conforming to international law and supported by the One Democratic State Campaign (ODSC). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the impact of emotions on the European Union (EU)'s international identity and agency in the context of the memory of trauma. Emotions are understood as performances through which an actor expresses itself to others while constructing its identity, creating its agency, and potentially affecting the social order. It is argued that the memory of trauma is translated into EU foreign policy practice through emotional performances of EU representatives. Empirically, we explore this impact in relation to the EU's engagement in the Israel‐Palestinian prolonged conflict that has many underlying emotions linked with past traumatic experiences. By doing so, we aim to instigate a discussion between the emotions literature in International Relations and the European Union studies literature to nuance understanding of the politics of emotions that increasingly constrain what kind of a global actor the EU actually is or can become. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As in the entire UN System, the Middle East conflict leads to challenging debates within UNESCO. The admission of Palestine as a full Member State in 2011 and the following withdrawals of the USA and Israel from the organization symbolized the most recent escalation of the conflict within UNESCO. The above article uncovers how the decision to admit Palestine as a Member State came about. It also reflects on what must be done to overcome the growing politicization of UNESCO and return to the collaborative efforts geared towards achieving UNESCO's goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, the International Criminal Court (ICC) accepted the State of Palestine as a Member State of the Rome Statute and launched preliminary investigations into possible crimes committed on the territory of Palestine since 2014. The investigations focus mainly on the 2014 Gaza war as well as on the support to and acceptance of (illegal) settlements. Were formal investigations into the latter issue to take place, it could lead to the prosecution of high ranking Israeli officials. The same would be true if the Court were to address discriminatory practices in the occupied territories. This article briefs on the legal and political implications of the ICC investigations and the role of the UN therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the Palestinians have scored a number of remarkable successes with regards to international recognition: to date, more than two thirds of UN Member States have recognized the State of Palestine, in 2012, Palestine was upgraded to a non-member observer state by the UN General Assembly. This has allowed the Palestinians to pursue their fight against the occupation regime through the international legal system. At the same time, however, the realization of Palestinian statehood in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 is becoming ever more unrealistic. The reasons are Israel's continued settlement and annexation policies, and the political split of the Palestinian territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relations between Israel and the UN are of a complex nature. This contribution focuses on the multiple dimensions of the interrelation between Israel and the UN within a comprehensive global multilateral system. For this purpose, there w ill not only be an examination of the origins of this relationship, but also a detailed account of it in various UN organs such as the General Assembly, the Security Council, UNESCO, the Human Rights Council as well as UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). In addition, this relation will be contextualized with overarching questions of multilateral conflict governance and dynamics of international legalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aims of the present work is to open a space for reflection on the possible significance of the study of the Argentine Communist press in relation to international issues of transcendence in the context of the Cold War, using as examples the case of China and the Middle East conflict. The internationalist vocation and the membership of the International Communist Movement make the communist parties a unique case. From this assumption, it could be presumed that episodes occurred in other regions of the world could affect local positions, or at least enable to alternative positions.

No abstract available.

Little systematic effort has been made to examine the role of law and its implications for EU foreign policy-making. Addressing this research gap, we identify key legal dynamics that operate in supranational policies, but have increasingly led to legal 'spillovers', both institutionally and discursively, into the Common Foreign and Security Policy. We illustrate the relevance of these dynamics for the case of EU-Israeli relations. Since the late 1990s, legal inconsistencies in EU-Israeli co-operation have been addressed by the Commission via soft law, by various MEPs via parliamentary questions, and by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Simultaneously, external actors like NGOs and corporations have used the EU's legal infrastructure to confront the EU with the fact that its de facto relations have not lived up its de jure position. Over time and also as a consequence of the Lisbon Treaty, even the Council found it difficult to ignore non-compliance with its own legal position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is Romeo and Juliet relevant to a description of the Middle-East conflict? This is the question raised in Compromise, an Israeli documentary that follows the Jerusalem Khan Theater's production of the play in the mid-1990's. This paper describes how the cinematic documentation of a theatrical Shakespeare production can undermine the original intentions of its creators. This staging of the play was carefully planned in order to demonstrate to the country and the world that Israelis and Palestinians are willing to search for a peaceful solution in the Middle East: Two directors - Israeli -Eran Baniel and Palestinian Fuad Awad - co-directed both Israeli and Palestinian actors, using both languages: Arabic and Hebrew. This seemingly balanced solution was acclaimed on European television but for Israeli director Even, this was only a façade. Following backstage situation, Compromise reveals the truth behind the mask in order to denounce the manipulative use of what Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben defines as state of emergency, which is the hegemonic mechanism that deprives people of the elementary civil rights. Questioning the issue of co-existence against the political background of the 1990's (including bomb attacks and the signing of the Camp David Treaty in 1993), the film plays on the discrepancy between the denouement of Romeo and Juliet and the unsolvable situation in which people in the Middle-East - amongst them the actors themselves- are condemned to live.

This article examines the role of national identity in the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, an orchestra consisting of young musicians from Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and Iran. The article is built upon the idea that there are constant negotiations at play in the orchestra, including among the musicians internally, between them and the orchestra’s founder and conductor Daniel Barenboim, and between the orchestra and its larger political and geographical context. This article unveils the inner dynamics of the ongoing identity negotiations in the orchestra, and the politics and power-mechanisms informing and defining these negotiations.

Among the others, sectarian issue is the main reason of the Middle East Conflicts. Religion is still the most effective factor on people’s lives in the region. So, the most important actors in the region is clerics and religion scholars to (un)justify politics and In this picture clerics are the first responsible actors of the sectarian issues in the region; because their provocative interpretations yield states and paramilitary groups to flame and escalate the current conflicts. Hence, to solve the conflict, first step should start from the roots which are clerics. They should take positive action and give constructive fatwas for the other sect(s). Herewith, hatred among the sects will mislay justification point and slowly (maybe quickly in non-violent areas) brotherhood will resurrect and it will reflect to the governments as rapprochement demands from the bottom. In this study, Middle East conflict resolution is built up in seven de-escalation steps: Constructive interpretations (Fatwa), rapprochement in domestic level, yielding and reflecting demands from people to the state, positive response from state to intra-state level, deterrence in interstate level, tolerance in international public diplomacy and rapprochement among regional peoples. In this resolution process, Middle East Clerics Union is the first and most important step, Middle East Union is the last, long-term, and ideal one. As a last and long term prediction, the country which can lead this peace process and sectarian approach may become the natural regional leader of the Middle East [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]