The war between the United States and Israel against Iran and its regional consequences have significantly shifted regional and international attention toward securing global energy sources and supply, curbing Iran, and shaping a new regional balance of power. This comes after many years in which resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was perceived as the key to ensuring regional stability. However, this shift does not necessarily indicate declining interest in the conflict itself, but rather a change in approach: the prolonged...
On April 25, 2026, local elections were held across the Palestinian Authority territories—in the West Bank and in Deir al-Balah within the Gaza Strip. The elections took place across 403 cities and local municipalities, yielding a relatively low overall voter turnout of approximately 53%. Hamas boycotted the elections and did not officially participate, despite being the most popular political organization among the Palestinian public. An analysis of the elections reveals a complex picture of a society attempting to maintain a...
The West Bank arena is in the middle of a conceptual and practical transformation. Under the cover of the essential requirement of “absolute security,” the government is advancing a policy of applying Israeli sovereignty, blocking pathways to a future political settlement, weakening the Palestinian Authority to the point of collapse, and pushing Palestinians out of their places of residence. This policy effectively adopts the principles of the “Decisive Plan” promoted by the government’s ideological right and rooted in the doctrine...
The radicalization of Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip is not a new phenomenon, but the process has accelerated and deepened dramatically since Hamas’ takeover of the territory in 2007. Under its rule, an extremist religious-nationalist ideology has been systematically embedded across all spheres of Gaza life—from education and religious institutions to welfare and the media—producing a profound “Hamasification” of public consciousness.
The war that erupted on October 7 brought unprecedented ruin to the Gaza Strip, both...
The Board of Peace was initially conceived as a focused initiative intended to support the stabilization and reconstruction process in the Gaza Strip, as part of President Trump’s 20-Point Plan, which was anchored in the UN Security Council Resolution 2803. However, a review of its charter indicates a substantial deviation from its original purpose: the board is now defined as a global conflict-resolution mechanism outside the UN framework, with no reference to Gaza and no limitation to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. This gap...
The US administration has declared the transition to Phase II of the Trump plan for stabilizing the Gaza Strip, presenting both the international “Board of Peace” (BoP), which is meant to support the management and reconstruction of the Strip, and the Palestinian technocratic committee that will administer Gaza’s affairs. The general who will head the International Stabilization Force (ISF) was also announced. Israeli and Palestinian reactions reveal a gap in expectations and concerns: Israel seeks to slow the pace of progress, as...
The scope of Jewish terrorism against Palestinians living in Judea and Samaria has evolved from marginal, localized incidents into a widespread phenomenon occurring within the broader struggle for control of the area and a growing effort to uproot the Palestinian presence, primarily from Area C. The number and scale of violent attacks have increased in recent years, with greater intensity since October 7, 2023. Despite this, the Israeli government and the security establishment—including the Judea and Samaria District of the Israel...
The memorandum proposes a research framework for analyzing and understanding a major strategic challenge facing the State of Israel: an accelerating slide toward a “one-state” reality between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Such an outcome is expected to severely undermine the Zionist vision of a Jewish, democratic, secure, and prosperous state.
The memorandum examines the main drivers pushing Israel toward a one-state model. These include the erosion of the two-state paradigm; the weakening of the Palestinian Authority;...
This article analyzes Israel’s strategic maneuvering space in the Gaza Strip in 2026. In the background are the Trump administration’s determination to implement the Gaza framework and Hamas’s recovery as long as the momentum for change is delayed. Israel faces a dilemma between two main alternatives: The first seeks to fully realize the demilitarization option in accordance with the Trump framework, which would require Israel to show flexibility regarding the conditions for the return of the Palestinian Authority to the Strip; a...
In December 2025, Hamas published a document summarizing the war in the Gaza Strip nearly two years after its outbreak. The document, titled “Our Narrative: Al-Aqsa Flood—Two Years of Steadfastness and Aspiration for Liberation,” resembles the format of a document issued by the organization in January 2024 but differs in content. The earlier document, which functioned as a kind of defense brief in response to criticism leveled at Hamas and its concerns about the continuation of the war, sought to explain why it had declared war on...
International experience shows that deploying a stabilizing force as proposed in President Trump’s 20-point plan for the Gaza Strip requires a clear mandate, dedicated training, and close coordination among all the actors involved, while contending with complex cultural and operational challenges—especially in a densely populated, hostile, and violent civilian environment. Mission success depends on a strong mandate under Chapter VII of the UN Charter or similar to, comprehensive force training, and limiting the number of...
This article sets out an integrated “roadmap”—security, governance, economic, and social—for reshaping the reality in the Gaza Strip specifically and the Palestinian arena in general. A return to the situation that prevailed before October 2023 is impossible; there is a need to accelerate the positive momentum to avoid stalling the process and to prevent Hamas from reestablishing itself in the Gaza Strip. Therefore, a new organizing concept is required. The proposed concept combines: (1) responses to Israel’s essential security...
