The instability racking the Middle East of the past five years shows little sign of abatement, and every new conflict or war – between states and within states – constitutes another link in the chain of social, ideological, political, and territorial upheavals sweeping the region. With the Middle East thus having become a region marked primarily by violence, regional and international leaders must focus their attention on both defensive and offensive measures designed to reduce the potential for damage and destruction inherent in...
After years of social and cultural interactions, the Arab-Palestinian community in Israel has come a long way in adapting to life with the Jewish majority. The sector has undergone processes linking it inextricably to the State of Israel in many aspects of life, and the Jewish majority is the main reference group for them. The trend toward integrating Arabs into Israeli society and the Israeli economy continues, despite the crises that often affect the relationship between the two groups for social and economic or national and...
The Islamic State burst onto the Middle East scene as an entity whose conduct and very essence challenge the existing regional order. With its military conquests in Iraq and Syria, its establishment of branches elsewhere in the Middle East and beyond, its state-like governance in the areas under its control, and the cruelty it typically exhibits, the Islamic State has become the focus of regional and international interest and concern. The articles compiled in this volume examine ways of dealing with one of the most salient military,...
The spread of violence to the Arab sector in Israel following deterioration of the security situation in the territories and East Jerusalem is not a new phenomenon. Past episodes of this sort occurred during the first intifada and early in the second intifada, with the riots of October 2000. Many Arabs feel that the underlying reason for the challenging relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel is the state’s deliberate and systematic action to exclude them from cultural and political spheres. Indeed, a common opinion among Arabs...
In recent years, Jewish majority-Arab minority relations in Israel have become an increasingly salient issue. Many have come to understand that the Jewish-Arab cleavage is more acute and grave than any other social rift in Israeli society. This study surveys the major political and social developments in Israel’s Arab society that have had a formative influence on this minority’s national discourse since the 1990s. Over the last three decades, Israel’s Arab society experienced national and civic mobilization processes that left a...
Over the last two years, the Islamic State organization has become one of the most dangerous elements in the Middle East. Its very existence, essence, and actions affect many nations throughout the world; its effect is most striking in the Middle East. This terrorist organization, flying the black flag as its official banner, represents an extreme branch of orthodox Sunni Islam, challenging all existing orders of governance and seeking to replace them with an Islamic regime that imitates the conduct and way of life typical of the...
The March 2015 election results placed the Joint Arab List in a complex situation. On the one hand, despite the joining of the lists, the political status of the Arab Knesset members did not become stronger, and the Arab minority remains underrepresented. On the other hand, the formation of the Joint Arab List aroused high expectations among the Arab public. For this reason, the current period poses a new challenge to Arab politics, originating in the gap between the failure to achieve any of the anticipated political change and the...
Following the March 17, 2015 elections, a right wing government with the addition of one centrist party is expected, even though the center-left bloc won 63 Knesset seats – a majority of the vote. The reason is embedded in Israel’s political structure, whereby not every party is willing or able to sit with every other party in a coalition. In addition, three developments may reflect future electoral trends. (1) The increased power of the two large parties: for the first time in years, the two large parties are close to a...
