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Newest Publications
Iran Fears Growing Israel-Azerbaijan Cooperation
Dan Diker
Publications by Dan Diker
The Palestinians’ Unilateral “Kosovo Strategy”: Implications for the PA and Israel
Mahmoud Abbas’ new precondition that the international community recognize the 1967 lines in the West Bank as the new Palestinian border bolsters the assessment that the Palestinians have largely abandoned a negotiated settlement and instead are actively pursuing a unilateral approach to statehood. Read More »
Is the Palestinian Authority Stable Enough for Peace Talks?
While Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s stellar reputation in the West as a reformer-statesman continues to inspire confidence among U.S. security officials and donor nations, he does not have the political base to succeed in the long term. Moreover, Washington’s notion that reformed political power can be purchased is naïve. Furthermore, Fayyad has continued to pay monthly salaries to nearly 12,000 Hamas Executive Force members, the same force that fought IDF troops in the recent Gaza war. Read More »
Can the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah Forces Retake Gaza? Obstacles and Opportunities
It is widely believed that the PA in Ramallah only pays the salaries of civil service employees in Gaza to encourage them to stay at home to avoid working with Hamas. However, PA Prime Minister Fayyad also pays the monthly salaries of between 6,000 and 12,000 Hamas Executive Force operatives in Gaza, in line with the 2007 Mecca national unity agreement, as well as to Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades terrorists. The U.S. must avoid the temptation of once again blindly relyin Read More »
Why Israel Must Now Move from Concessions-Based Diplomacy to Rights-Based Diplomacy
Once Israel dropped its past reliance on a diplomacy based on its own rights and adopted a new concession-based diplomacy instead, its spokesmen essentially acquiesced to the Palestinian historical narrative. Read More »
President Bush and the Qods Force Controversy: Lessons Learned
Senior Israeli military and intelligence officials have with a high degree of certainty linked Iran’s senior leadership with direct involvement over the past fifteen years in Qods Force operations against Israel. The Qods Force carries out these types of military operations across the Middle East, to export the revolution and establishing an “Iranian Shiite crescent” through which Iran could assert regional hegemony. Read More »
A Strategic Assessment of the Hizballah War: Defeating the Iranian-Syrian Axis in Lebanon
Israel’s current military operations to uproot Hizballah and to destroy it as a formidable military and terror organization is not merely an operation against another determined terror group like Hamas in Gaza. Hizballah has a disciplined, well-trained army with sophisticated weaponry, backed directly by Syria and Iran. Read More »
Sharon’s Strategic Legacy for Israel: Competing Perspectives
Some Israeli opinion-makers, seeking to define Sharon’s political legacy, are determined to transform him into a political dove due to his unilateral disengagement plan that pulled Israel out of Gaza. They claim that the "new" Sharon was willing to lead Israel in another major pullback – this time from at least 90 percent of the West Bank. This interpretation assumed the West Bank security fence would constitute Israel’s eastern border. Read More »
Are There Signs of a Jordanian-Palestinian Reengagement?
For the first time in Arab diplomatic history, the Jordanians drafted a peace proposal in March 2005 calling for normalization of relations with Israel before the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. King Abdullah’s proposal omits past Arab preconditions to peace with Israel, such as a return to the 1949 Armistice lines and repatriation of Palestinian refugees. Read More »
The Expulsion of the Palestinian Authority from Jerusalem and the Temple Mount
Israel has ended the Palestinian Authority’s penetration of eastern Jerusalem and its control of the Muslim Waqf on the Temple Mount, restoring Jordanian religious administration of the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound. Read More »
The Struggle of Palestinian Journalists for Freedom of the Press
More than a dozen Palestinian reporters have been attacked since September 2003. The three major PLO-controlled dailies – Al Quds, Al Hayam, and Al Hayat al Jadeeda – are Palestinian versions of the Soviet-era Pravda. Since Israel’s Operation Defensive Shield in March 2002 that reduced Arafat’s control in West Bank cities, Palestinian journalists and reformers have become more outspoken. Read More »
What Happened to Reform of the Palestinian Authority?
According to public opinion polls, Palestinians support an end to rampant corruption and lawlessness, which they increasingly associate with Yasser Arafat. A Palestinian poll released on February 9, 2004, revealed that only 27 percent of the Palestinian public expressed “strong support” for Arafat. Read More »
Lessons from the Or Commission: Rethinking the Ideological and Religious Dimensions of the Israeli Arab Riots of October 2000
In mid-September 2000, two weeks before Ariel Sharon’s Temple Mount visit and the outbreak of widespread Israeli Arab violence, Israeli Knesset member Abdel Malik Dehamshe told a meeting of the Supreme Monitoring Committee of the Israeli Arab Leadership that "the Arab public is on the verge of a new, massive, and popular intifada.
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Lethal Gestures
Vol. 3, No. 11 18 December 2003 Despite increasing Palestinian terror, U.S. Middle East envoy David Satterfield “slammed” Israel on December 11 for continued “restrictions on the movement” of Palestinian civilians, according to a report in Ha’aretz. In addition, ... Read More »
Lethal Gestures
Despite increasing Palestinian terror, U.S. Middle East envoy David Satterfield “slammed” Israel on December 11 for continued “restrictions on the movement” of Palestinian civilians, according to a report in Ha’aretz. In addition, Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom on December 12 to do more to alleviate Palestinian hardship, according to the Washington Post. Read More »
Should Israel Now Send a New Message to the Arab World?
The impending renewal of Arab-Israeli contacts after the Aqaba summit is an appropriate occasion to reassess one of the weak points of Israel’s information effort. At the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference, then Deputy Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu "broke the ice" with scores of Arab reporters when he provided articulate explanations of Israel’s positions.
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Does the International News Media Overlook Israel’s Legal Rights in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict?
International news organizations covering the Arab-Israeli conflict frequently refer to international agreements and resolutions in ways that are prejudiced against Israel’s legal rights and claims. Frequent references to Israel’s legal obligation to withdraw to the pre-1967 borders are inconsistent with UN Security Council Resolution 242 and the Oslo Accords.
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The Influence of Palestinian Organizations on Foreign News Reporting
“Television loves emotions and cares less about facts. The Palestinians don’t care about losing people, and the Israelis can’t fight that,” said one senior international news organization representative. Read More »