Monkey Cage Topic Guide
Israel-Palestine
Created: December 2020
Last Updated: December 16, 2022
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See additional topic guides on Iran Nuclear Program and U.S.-Iran Crises.
Note: This guide includes substantial coverage on the ongoing territorial disputes and attempted peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine, as well as the 2020 Abraham Accords that have begun to shift long-lasting norms between Gulf Arab States and Israel. This guide also provides coverage on Israeli domestic politics and security concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear program.
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Table of contents
Dynamics of Israeli politics
Israeli-Palestinian relations
Israel-Palestine peace process
2021 Israel-Palestine conflict
Palestinian resistance
Abraham Accords
U.S.-Israel relations
Israeli elections
2022 elections
March 2021 elections
March 2020 elections
September 2019 elections
April 2019 elections
March 2015 elections
Netanyahu’s political career
2014 Israel-Gaza conflict
Dynamics of Israeli politics
- Brendan Szendro, “Israel’s Religious Zionists gained ground in the November election,” December 16, 2022.
- Nikita Lalwani, “Rich people who own newspapers can shift elections. Israel shows how,” December 6, 2022.
- Clareta Treger and Liron Lavi, “Israeli elections have become a referendum on Netanyahu,” November 17, 2022.
- Dana El Kurd, “Will Israel further normalize relations with its Arab neighbors?” July 11, 2022.
- Dalia Dassa Kaye, “Has Israel been sabotaging Iran? Here’s what we know,” July 15, 2020.
- Dahlia Scheindlin, “Here’s what the Israeli public thinks about Netanyahu’s campaign promise to annex parts of the West Bank,” September 12, 2019.
- Michael Freedman, “Repeat elections in Israel could lead to unstable coalitions,” June 7, 2019.
- Chagai M. Weiss, “How might recent confrontations with Hamas influence Israeli elections?” December 4, 2018.
- Brent E. Sasley, “Israeli elections could be happening soon. Here’s what you should know,” November 21, 2018.
- Wendy Pearlman and Boaz Atzili, “Israel-Hamas fighting erupted just as negotiations advanced. What started it, and why does it matter?” November 15, 2018.
- Joshua Freedman, “A new law in Israel complicates future peace talks. Here’s why,” August 15, 2018.
- Michael Freedman, “Why are Israel's religious parties suddenly so influential?” January 26, 2018.
- Brent E. Sasley, “What the Labor Party’s election says about the prospects for Israel’s left,” July 10, 2017.
- Devorah Manekin and Guy Grossman, “Israel passed a controversial law about settlements. Where did its parliament get the support?” February 13, 2017.
- Shibley Telhami, “How Israel's Jewishness is overtaking its democracy,” March 8, 2016.
- Guy Ben-Porat and Fany Yuval, “Why Ethiopian Jews are protesting police violence in Israel,” May 8, 2015.
- Guy Grossman, Oren Gazal-Ayal, and Sam Pimentel, “Israel’s appeal courts treat Arabs better when one judge is Arab-Israeli,” May 4, 2015.
- Brent E. Sasley, “The weakening of the Israeli left,” March 19, 2015.
- Brent E. Sasley, “The politics of Israel's security officers,” November 21, 2014.
- Boaz Atzili, “For Israel, defense may be the best defense,” September 23, 2014.
- Sefi Keller and Shai Cohen, “Lawsuit lessons from abroad,” August 21, 2014.
- Jonathan Caverley, “Paying for Israel’s wars,” July 28, 2014.
- Sefi Keller, “Will Israel’s presidential election bring an unexpected result?” June 9, 2014.
Israeli-Palestinian relations
- Brendan Szendro, “Israel’s Religious Zionists gained ground in the November election,” December 16, 2022.
- M.P. Broache and Kelebogile Zvobgo, “The ICC says it can investigate Israel’s alleged war crimes in the Palestinian territories. Netanyahu and Biden object,” February 11, 2021.
- Yael Berda, “Pompeo says Israeli West Bank settlements aren’t illegal. What does this mean in practice?” November 23, 2019.
- Erica D. Borghard and Jacquelyn Schneider, “Israel responded to a Hamas cyberattack with an airstrike. That’s not such a big deal,” May 9, 2019.
- Mark Kersten, “Can the International Criminal Court investigate the violence in Gaza?” May 17, 2018.
- Dana El Kurd, “On Israel’s 70th anniversary, what does the region think?” May 15, 2018.
- Diana B. Greenwald, “Who is responsible for solving Gaza’s massive electricity crisis?” February 5, 2018.
- Daniel Nerenberg, “Jerusalem is especially volatile right now. This is why,” July 20, 2017
- Gershon Shafir, “Israel’s ‘temporary’ occupation has lasted 50 years. A new book explains why,” June 9, 2017.
- Oded Haklai, “What do Israelis think about settlements? Turns out age matters,” January 11, 2017.
- Devorah Manekin, “Why do some Israeli soldiers use unauthorized force?” March 30, 2016.
- Yagil Levy, “How Israel shifted risk from soldiers to Gazan civilians,” August 18, 2015.
- David Traven, “How many dead civilians makes a war crime? Ask the UN, Israel, and Hamas,” July 14, 2015.
- Mark Kersten, “Israel’s challenge to the International Criminal Court,” January 20, 2015.
- Evgeny Finkel and Sarah E. Parkinson, “(In)discriminate language on Gaza,” August 7, 2014.
- Michael Robbins and Amaney Jamal, “Is Israel’s blockade worth fighting for?” August 4, 2014.
- Anna Getmansky and Thomas Zeitzoff, “Rockets and bombs make Israelis and Palestinians less willing to compromise,” July 16, 2014.
- Henry Farrell, “Israeli checkpoints fuel support for violence,” April 25, 2014.
2021 Israel-Palestine conflict
- Stephanie Dornschneider, Miles Hewstone, Oliver Christ, Sarina Schäfer, Samer Halabi and Danit Sobol-Sarag, “Can Jews and Palestinians live peacefully in Israel? The data on mixed neighborhoods says yes,” June 4, 2021.
- Somdeep Sen, “Hamas wasn’t behind the Jerusalem protests. So why is it fighting?, May 18, 2021.
- Yagil Levy, “Israel’s Iron Dome defense system protects Israeli lives. It also perpetuates the Israel-Gaza conflict,” May 14, 2021.
Israel-Palestine peace process
- Brendan Szendro, “Israel’s Religious Zionists gained ground in the November election,” December 16, 2022.
- Brent Sasley, “The White House peace plan puts Israel’s concerns first — and shortchanges Palestinians,” January 30, 2020.
- Yael Berda, “Pompeo says Israeli West Bank settlements aren’t illegal. What does this mean in practice?” November 23, 2019.
- Brent E. Sasley, “Israeli election results won’t help the Palestinian peace process,” September 24, 2019.
- Curtis R. Ryan, “The Trump administration’s new idea for Israeli-Palestinian peace is actually an old, failed idea,” September 12, 2018.
- Joshua Freedman, “A new law in Israel complicates future peace talks. Here’s why,” August 15, 2018.
- Sam Winter-Levy, “If you want Israelis to favor peace negotiations, let them trade stocks,” July 31, 2018.
- Jeremy Pressman, “Trump’s rhetoric on Jerusalem tells us a lot about what kind of Israeli-Palestinian proposal he’ll deliver,” December 8, 2017.
- Boaz Atzili, “50 years after the Six-Day War, Israel’s pre-1967 borders are still a hot topic. Here’s why,” June 8, 2017.
- Norrin M. Ripsman, “Why popular support isn’t necessary for an Israeli-Palestinian deal,” January 19, 2017.
- Miriam F. Elman, “Trump’s plan to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem could help the peace process,” December 29, 2016.
- Brent E. Sasley, “Jerusalem’s status won’t be as easy to settle as other real estate deals. Here’s why,” December 25, 2016.
- Michael N. Barnett, “Thinking beyond the two-state solution,” August 25, 2015.
Palestinian resistance
- Wendy Pearlman, “Does the Palestinian reconciliation deal make peace more likely?” October 24, 2017.
- Imad Alsoos and Wendy Pearlman, “Why a new Palestinian intifada could be non-violent: because that's what Hamas wants,” August 29, 2017.
- Akin Unver, “What Twitter can tell us about the Jerusalem protests,” August 28, 2017.
- Dana El Kurd, “Here's what made Palestinian protests in East Jerusalem last month so successful,” August 17, 2017.
- Diana B. Greenwald and Mark Tessler, “Palestinians don’t trust institutions. What that means for peace 50 years after the Arab-Israeli War,” June 8, 2017.
- Julie M. Norman, “Five myths about the Palestinian hunger strike,” April 26, 2017.
- Diana B. Greenwald, “Next month’s Palestinian local elections aren’t happening. Here’s why,” September 20, 2016
- Nathan J. Brown and Daniel Nerenberg, “Are we seeing Palestine’s spring at long last?” February 2, 2016.
- Marc Lynch, “Arabs do care about Gaza,” July 14, 2014.
Abraham Accords
U.S.-Israel relations
- Shibley Telhami, “It’s risky for Biden to go to the Middle East,” July 7, 2022.
- Jeremy Pressman and Dov Waxman, “Pompeo just visited the West Bank. That’s likely to deepen the partisan division over Israel-Palestine,” November 19, 2020.
- Shibley Telhami, “Israel is about to reveal its West Bank annexation plans. How will Congress respond?” June 22, 2020.
- Brent Sasley, “Three takeaways from Israel’s decision to turn away two US members of Congress,” August 16, 2019.
- Michael Tesler, “Anti-Semitism is linked to public opinion about Israel. But so is Islamophobia,” March 12, 2019.
- Sam Goldman, “Ilhan Omar is wrong. It’s about Christian Zionism, not AIPAC’s benjamins,” February 12, 2019.
- Brent E. Sasley, “What the controversy over Ilhan Omar’s tweets tells us about AIPAC today,” February 12, 2019.
- Erik Voeten, “Did Trump try to lose today’s United Nations vote on Israel?” December 21, 2017.
- Marc Lynch, “Three things to know about Trump’s Jerusalem gambit,” December 7, 2017.
- Shibley Telhami, “The Palestinian president is visiting Washington. A new survey shows Americans divided on the peace process,” May 2, 2017.
- Shibley Telhami, “Are Clinton’s supporters to the right of Sanders’s on the Middle East? Hardly,” July 27, 2016.
- Dina Smeltz, “Who agrees with Bernie Sanders on Israel? Large numbers of Americans,” April 22, 2016.
- Dov Waxman, “This is why Bernie Sanders’s criticism of Israel won’t hurt him in today’s New York primary,” April 19, 2016.
- Michael N. Barnett, “What really unites and divides American and Israeli Jews,” March 16, 2016.
- Dina Smeltz, “Did Netanyahu’s visit divide American opinion on Israel? These are the facts,” November 9, 2015.
- Steven Kull and Shibley Telhami, “What Americans really think about an Iran deal,” March 3, 2015.
- Shibley Telhami, “How Americans really feel about Netanyahu and why it matters,” January 30, 2015.
- Shibley Telhami and Katayoun Kishi, “Widening Democratic Party divisions on the Israeli-Palestinian issue,” December 15, 2014.
- David Malet, “‘Foreign Fighters’ for Israel,” July 22, 2014.
Israeli elections
2022 elections
March 2021 elections
March 2020 elections
September 2019 elections
April 2019 elections
March 2015 elections
- Nadav Shelef, “Why Netanyahu's win isn't that dramatic,” March 18, 2015.
- Evgeny Finkel, “The Israeli election is still too close to call,” March 17, 2015.
- Evgeny Finkel, “To Bibi or not to Bibi,” March 13, 2015.
- Yousef Munayyer, “A new role for Palestinian citizens in Israel’s election,” March 11, 2015.
- Sefi Keller, “Israel holds an election in 3 weeks. Here’s what you need to know,” February 27, 2015.
Netanyahu’s political career
- Brendan Szendro, “Israel’s Religious Zionists gained ground in the November election,” December 16, 2022.
- Clareta Treger and Liron Lavi, “Israeli elections have become a referendum on Netanyahu,” November 17, 2022.
- Jonathan Rynhold, “Could Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s indictment end Israel’s political stalemate?” November 23, 2019.
- Or Rabinowitz, “What Netanyahu’s dramatic speech about Iran’s nuclear program revealed — and concealed,” May 4, 2018.
2014 Israel-Gaza conflict
- Alex J. Bellamy, “Gaza and the UN’s dilemmas of protection,” July 30, 2014.
- Marc Lynch, “Political science after Gaza,” July 29, 2014.
- Charles Kurzman, “Failing to forecast the Israeli-Palestinian crisis,” July 29, 2014.
- Peter Krause and Ehud Eiran, “The ‘price’ of radical flanks and the conflict in Gaza,” July 11, 2014.