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The deep-rooted Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been a major source of destabilization in the Middle East for some three-quarters of a century. Whereas other long-standing conflicts around the world have been brought to a close, this struggle (both in and of itself and within its wider Arab-Israeli dimension) remains a perennial tinderbox. This is particularly true given the unsettling realities of the region in which the conflict exists. Consequently, a certain sense of urgency for finding a permanent political settlement can be discerned both within the region and outside it. still, the search for a solution has yielded progress only on an interim arrangement (the Gaza-Jericho autonomy accord signed by Israel and the PLO September 13, 1993). To be workable, a political settlement must break new ground by conceptualizing the problem in terms which transcend the traditional, emotion-laden and myopic rhetoric commonly used by both sides. This research is an attempt to contribute to a fresh, far-reaching understanding of the requisites for a secure Israeli-Palestinian peace and, on this basis, to evaluate the alternative scenarios for the ultimate disposition of the Israeli-administered West Bank and Gaza Strip. To that end, the fundamental question is which of these alternatives would go furthest in satisfying the vital interests of both parties so that a permanent settlement of the disputed territories might at last be implemented. In developing a conceptual framework for evaluating potential solutions, this research incorporates a comprehensive definition of "national security" juxtaposed with a concept related to American-Soviet detente: common security. National security means protection against all major perils to a state's security, not merely military threats. Common security is a mutual commitment to joint survival. It is based on a recognition that because of an increasingly interdependent world, states can no longer achieve security unilaterally but rather only through the creation of positive-sum processes that lead to cooperation with one another. The first half of this thesis, then, attempts to establish the essential elements of a common security framework for Israel and the Palestinian inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza. The concluding chapters of the thesis focus on the evaluation of five alternative scenarios for an IsraeliPalestinian political settlement: 1) the present status quo: 2) the "Jordanian option," or a return to the status quo ante of June 1967; 3) Israeli annexation; 4) an IsraelJordan confederation with a Palestinian entity federally linked to one or both; and 5) a Palestinian state, either fully independent or federally connected with Israel and/or Jordan. Each option is assessed on the basis of the degree to which it would satisfy the common-security criteria formulated in the preceding chapters: 1) protection against military threats: 2) the realization of Palestinian political self-determination; 3) the preservation of Israel's Jewish and democratic ideals; 4) internal (societal) and regional stability; 5) economic viability; and 6) the sufficient and equitable allocation of water resources. The alternative rated most favorably is the establishment of a sovereign, independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, excluding the Jordan Valley and the Jerusalem Corridor. This assessment presupposes certain provisions. Among these are the deployment of an American-led multinational peacekeeping force in the Samarian mountains of the West Bank, the creation of an economic confederation and tripartite federal water authority linking Israel, Jordan and Arab Palestine, and a special status for East Jerusalem. The implementation of such a settlement, it is argued, would create a new modus vivendi among the Arabs and the Israelis, which, in turn, could serve as the underpinning of a durable and comprehensive peace.

Based on nineteen months of ethnographic field research in Israel/Palestine (including participant observation and in-depth interviews), this study presents an analysis of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition (ICAHD). First formed in 1997, it is a coalition of social movement organizations (SMOs) in the Israeli radical left peace and human rights movement. This project traces significant organizational, and wider movement, dynamics from the time of ICAHD's inception until the outbreak of the second Palestinian Intifada in September 2000. / While countless scholars investigate historical and contemporary aspects of the political conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, relatively little research attention is directed towards the efforts of Israeli and Palestinian activists towards conflict resolution. Following a brief description of the development of the Israeli peace movement, this study identifies and analyzes several mobilization issues relevant to organized activist forces in the Israeli radical movement in the final years of the Oslo peace process. / Building on recent collective action theories, this dissertation endorses analytical openness to the structuralist, rationalist, and culturalist dynamics of contentious politics. ICAHD members, as well as its organizational constituencies, are characterized by wide ideological and strategic heterogeneity, and in the first three years of its existence, this informal movement organization faced several overlapping strategic dilemmas. Investigating the historical and day-to-day dynamics of the committee, this study analyses various factors that influenced the strategic choices individual, and teams of, activists made during multiple types of mobilizations. By examining the impact of ICAHD's constituencies on how core leaders and activists engaged with dilemmas of organizational structure, strategic vision, inter-organizational alliances, mobilizing and funding opportunities, and overall goal selection, this dissertation identifies mechanisms (structural, organizational and cultural) that affected strategic decisions regarding mobilization, and outcomes of contentious politics. / The study concludes with a discussion of the relevance of its findings for the sociological study of collective protest. It suggests the extension of future research on these themes in more transnational and macro-theoretical directions.

My thesis focuses on the ideological development of the Maximalist Revisionist Zionist leader Abba Ahimeir, and positions him more accurately within the contexts of the Zionist Right, the period of his political activity, and the Zionist movement in general. Through an examination of his doctoral thesis on Oswald Spengler and first publications, I conclude that Spenglerian theory exerted a fundamental influence upon Ahimeir throughout his entire life, and that his embrace of Fascist ideology began six years earlier than is generally accepted. I thus contend that Ahimeir's ideological path was already set in 1924, far earlier than is generally believed. A survey of his journalistic output, while a member of the moderately socialist party HaPoel HaTzair, shows that Ahimeir's apparent shift from Left to Right was not the radical defection that it is currently considered to be. A study of primary source archival material allows me to demonstrate that as a leader of the Revisionist Youth Group Betar and instructor in its Leadership Training School, Ahimeir's ideological influence upon Revisionist youth was far greater than is commonly accepted. A discussion of more general intellectual-historical concepts - Spenglerian-, Fascist-, and Revolutionary- theory, Jewish Völkisch-nationalism, secular Messianism - allows me to re-weight certain ideological outlooks in the current body of research regarding Ahimeir, the Revisionist Party, and the Zionist Left. Notably, I suggest we view Ahimeir as a 'Revolutionary' who used Fascism merely as a modus operandi in the service of his revolution. This particularistic ideological outlook was exemplified in his semi-clandestine, anti-British resistance group Brit HaBiryonim, as a thorough examination of court documents from the group's trial demonstrates. The study provides the first intellectual biography of one of the most influential figures on the Zionist Right, and rights some historical wrongs that exist within Revisionist- and Labour-Zionist myths, and indeed, Israeli collective memory.

M.A. (Political Studies) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

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Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study focuses on the role of political elites in addressing the problem of why a durable peace has eluded Israeli Palestine. A theoretical background study was made on the articulation of identity within a civilization. This established identity formation as a political process. To see how the manipulation of the structure within which identity formation processes take place, six critical indicators were identified. These are: Manufacturing conditions of underdevelopment; Un-integrated social and political systems, and distributive injustice; Fostering cleavages, stereotypical images and political symbolism; Placing issues under the 'sign of security'; The production of insecurity through the manipulation of identity formation processes; and Monopolising the conflict resolution process. Political elite creation and perpetuation of structures for conflict shows an inherent inability to bring about a lasting peace in a protracted social conflict for conflict has become the source, rather than the outcome of policy formation. As a result this thesis calls for a more inclusive approach to conflict resolution, one that goes beyond the processes of arbitration, mediation, negotiation and facilitation, to include conciliation at grass roots level between civilizations, sincerely exploring the underlying emotional legacies of fear, hatred, sorrow and mistrust. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie fokus op die rol gespeel deur politieke elites in die voortslepende vraagstuk rondom vrede in Israel/Palestina. 'n Teoretiese agtergrondstudie is onderneem om die uitdrukking van 'n samelewing oftewel volksidentiteit te ondersoek. Die studie het laat blyk dat identiteitsformulering 'n politieke proses is. Om waar te neem hoe die manipulasie van die struktuur waarbinne identiteitsformulering plaasvind, is ses kritiese indikators geïdentifiseer, te wete: die skepping van toestande vir onderontwikkeling; ongeïntegreerde sosiale en politieke sisteme en ongelyke verdeling van welvaart; doelbewuste voortsetting van etniese verskille, stereotipering en politieke simbolisme; plasing van kwessies onder die vaandel van "sekuriteit"; die produksie van "onsekerheid" deur die manipulasie van identiteitsformulering prosesse; en die manipulasie van konflik resolusie prosedures. Skepping en doelbewuste voortsetting van strukture vir konflik deur politieke elites dui op 'n onvermoë om langdurige vrede in 'n 'uitgerekte sosiale konflik' te bewerkstellig. Konflik het die oorsprong, eerder as die uitkoms van beleid geword. As gevolg van hierdie feite doen die tesis 'n beroep dat konflik resolusie as dissipline 'n meer inklusiewe benadering volg. Die resolusie prosesse van mediasie, arbitrasie, fasilitering en onderhandeling is opsigself nie genoeg nie en behoort vergesel te word deur die proses van konsiliasie op grondvlak tussen samelewings. Hierdie proses moet deel vorm van 'n opregtheid om mense se vrese, haat, seer en wantroue met ootmoed aan te hoor.