With a winner finally announced in the US election, researchers at the PRIO Middle East Centre present a few thoughts on what a Biden presidency could mean for the Middle East. What are likely to be the guiding foreign policy principles of a Biden administration and how will regional and international actors’ positions be impacted?… Read more »
Tag: Israel
Trump’s Kosovo-Serbia Deal is Already Falling Apart
On September 4, Kosovo and Serbia signed a deal on ‘Economic Normalization’ in the White House. Not unlike Trump’s other foreign policy endeavors, the deal was ridiculed by pundits. It also received political backlash from the international community. The EU, which has facilitated the dialog between Belgrade and Pristina for the past nine years, was… Read more »
What should the world do about Israel’s proposed annexation of the West Bank?
Will Palestinians living in the annexed areas be offered Israeli citizenship, or will they become non-citizens within Israel?
Making a Regional Peacemaker
On March 3 the PRIO-CSS Jordan seminar, “Preserving Spaces for Dialogue in the Middle East”, was situated by the shore of the Dead Sea. The view was both beautiful and thematically fitting, because while most people associate the Dead Sea with a rather exotic seaside tourist destination, and the Kingdom of Jordan with being a… Read more »
“Peace to Prosperity”: The death knell of the U.S. as mediator in the Israel – Palestine conflict
Is the U.S. done as a mediator in the Israel-Palestinian conflict?
Trump calls, Israel answers
On Thursday President Trump made the unprecedented move to use a foreign power to punish domestic political actors. He tweeted that Israel should bar two congresswomen from entering the country. Prior to this tweet Prime Minister Netanyahu had decided that the congresswomen should be allowed to enter, but after the tweet he changed his mind…. Read more »
Israel and the UN – a Relationship on Israel’s Terms
It is claimed that the UN created Israel. This is only true subject to major reservations, and the relationship between the two is extremely complicated. On 14 May 2018, Israel celebrated its 70th anniversary, and in May this year it will be 70 years since the country became a member of the United Nations. These… Read more »
I Am a Friend of Israel. And I Can’t Accept Its Indiscriminate Violence Against Palestinians in Gaza
The political leadership in Israel often uses the concept of “friend” and “enemy.” Other countries also use those concepts from time to time, but it seems that they are particularly prevalent in Israeli political language. For instance, Prime Minister Netanyahu talks of “true friend” Donald Trump, “close friend” Narendra Modi of India, while other leaders… Read more »
With Orwell to the West Bank
The United States under President Trump is not the only place where the rule of law is currently being put to the test. In early February hundreds of Israeli police officers battled on the West Bank with hundreds of determined young protesters armed with stones. Sixteen police officers were injured in clashes with the demonstrators,… Read more »
Between the Mosque and the Temple Mount
Unrest on and around the Al Aqsa Mosque/Temple Mount in Jerusalem last autumn caused the Palestinian president, Mahmood Abbas, to warn that the conflict between Israel and Palestine could escalate into a religious war. The site has extremely powerful national and religious symbolic value for both Palestinians and Israelis.