The Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement is being harshly condemned by Israeli government officials, including the Prime Minister himself. However, Israeli foreign policy experts from Mitvim
On Tuesday night, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, appearing live on television, signed the documents necessary for the Palestine Liberation Organization to seek membership in 15
Palestinians see the delay in prisoners release by Israel as a negation of their commitments to halt the international campaign; Abbas is looking to increase his leverage, but the US should be
Despite the unshakable and quixotic optimism of John Kerry’s Middle East negotiating team, the prevailing prognosis in Jerusalem and Ramallah is that even an attempt to implement an interim
In December 2013, the EU has offered Israel and the Palestinians an unprecedented package of political, economic and security support in the context of a final status agreement. This package
As Secretary of State John Kerry hammers out the principles for an Israeli-Palestinian “framework agreement,” many are speculating that he has formally adopted Jerusalem’s demand that the
About six months ago, I sat in a coffee shop in al-Tireh, a suburb of Ramallah, and interviewed a senior official within Fatah. The official, wanting to talk about the internal dynamics within
New circumstances within the U.S. and the Middle East open a window for a more effective American role in transforming the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is a role that must convey a sense of
In the time it took John Kerry to announce that negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians would be starting again, a microcosm of the past couple years in the conflict played out. Initial
In the wake of the Palestinian UN campaign, many asked: ‘why?’ Why the sudden change in a decades-long process, why the abandonment of the bilateral process, why the confrontation on the
Findings of a Mitvim Poll on Israel’s Foreign Policy, November 2013 The majority of the Israeli public believes Israel’s foreign policy is more reactive than proactive and that it is not
The Arab Spring influenced the Palestinians as well. The younger generation of Palestinians began demanding to end the political division between Fatah and Hamas. In response, the veteran
A few springs past the start of the Arab Spring, and the Israeli peace camp’s flowerbed has yet to blossom. The Israeli peace organizations had difficulties in connecting regional
Hamas has notified Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that it wants to join a national unity government with Fatah, marking a breakthrough in reconciliation talks, according to the
What does Afghanistan mean to Israelis? What does Israel mean to Afghans? Most Israelis identify Afghanistan with the War on Terror and Osama Bin Laden. However, as Ajmal Sohail points out,
As the celebrations commenced in Manara Square in Ramallah, and the votes were tallied in New York, the Palestinian delegation had done something almost entirely unique to the post-Arafat era: it
On July 23rd 2012, Mitvim—The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies has conducted a workshop in cooperation with U.S. Embassy, Tel Aviv on the topic: “Spoilers of Peace and the Dilemmas
AS the dust settles over the Israel-Gaza border, attention shifts to New York, where the Palestinian delegation will ask the United Nations next Thursday to upgrade its status to that of
The claim that there is no one to talk to on the Palestinian side is a common one in Israeli discourse, seemingly an axiom. The Netanyahu-Barak-Lieberman government has managed to stick the
The democratic process was alive and well in at least one part of the Middle East this past weekend, as the West Bank saw a frenetic end to its campaign season. Municipal elections were held on
Mitvim representatives participated in meetings with a series of key Palestinian figures from Ramallah and Nablus. The meetings focused on the implications of the Palestinian UN statehood bid of
