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Developing an Israeli Grand Strategy toward
a Peaceful Two-State Solution
Chapter 3 – Mapping the "players" in the
process
Delaying and obstructive factors on the Israeli side
The political reality
The prime minister's ability to lead and make decisions to
promote strategic objectives.
Right-wing parties
• Likud
• Habayit Hayehudi ("The Jewish Home")
• Yisrael Beitenu ("Israel is Our Home")
• The Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties – Shas and Yahadut
Hatora ("United Torah Judaism"): the changes in their
stances over the years and the weight of their constituents.
Non-parliamentary factors
• Yesha (Judea and Samaria) Council
• Yesha (Judea and Samaria) Rabbinical Council
• Likud Central Committee members, party field operatives
and secretaries of local Likud branches as a political
interest group
• Public opinion in Israel – as influenced by other barriers,
and thereby becoming a major barrier itself.
Delaying and obstructive factors on the Palestinian side
• The ability of the Palestinian leader, previously Arafat
and currently Abu Mazen, to lead and make decisions
to promote strategic objectives.
• The disputes within the PA during the time of Arafat and
currently.
• PLO in Tunisia – Kaddoumi and the Rejectionist Front – the
Hamas, the PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad), and the PFLP
(Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine).
Gaza
• The establishment in Gaza – the Gaza Hamas
• Dissident organizations - PIJ, extremist Salafism (ISIS
and others)
Regional powers
• Iran – its connection, until recently, to the Hamas, and
support of organizations in Sinai
• Iran – support of Hezbollah
• Hezbollah – ties and pressure in the West Bank, incitation
of and pressure in in the region through the Lebanese
border
• Sinai – Salafi organizations, Jihad, ISIS, Al-Qaeda
The operative level
• Hamas terrorist attacks – in Israel and the West Bank
• Lone-wolf terrorist attacks
• High-trajectory fire and terrorist attacks from Gaza
The Arabs of Israel
Israeli Arabs constitute one of the more complex barriers
to the process:
The mainstream of Arab citizens – aspire to become
assimilated in the State in terms of their civil life.
When:
It is exactly the support of the two-state solution that is the
open and gaping wound of Arab citizenry.
The two Arab factions opposed to the two-state solution
(each with their own reasons:)
• Religious- fundamentalist (Islamism)
• Radical – the Balad ("National Democratic Assembly")
Party, and the Abnaa el-Balad ("Sons of the Land")
movement
Chapter 4 – Contact with the Palestinians
since the Oslo Accords
From signing the Declaration of Principles to the election
of Benjamin Netanyahu (1992-1996)
The signing of the Oslo Accords on September 1993 was
attended by the negotiation team that had led the secret,
back-channel negotiations. Without them there, the agreement
would likely have been disrupted and ultimately failed. Rabin
(and the Labor Party) position had already been established
in the 1988 elections – the elections prior to the campaign
that brought Rabin to power in 1992.
8
These included the
following three limits:
• There will be no return to the June 4 1967 line.
• No Israeli settlements will be evacuated from lands that
Israel cedes in the peace agreements.
• No talks will be conducted with the PLO.
Yitzhak Rabin's stance and public pronouncement that –
"Jerusalemwill never be divided" is also noteworthy, a position
he maintained until his assassination.
This position did change slightly in the party platform, even
opening up to several other possibilities, before elections
for the 13th Knesset – "The Labor Party holds to a vision
of a new Middle East, where there are no more wars and
terrorist attacks, and enormous economic resources are no
8 "The Diplomatic Process between Israel and the PLO from the
Madrid Peace Conference until Today - The Israeli Positions on
Four Core Issues: Borders, Security, Jerusalem and Refugees" by
Shaul Arieli. in: “The Israeli-Palestinian Diplomatic Process over
Time”, S. Daniel Abraham Center for Strategic Dialogue, Netanya
Academic College, 2014.
