Raffaella A. Del Sarto examines the creation of Israel's neo-revisionist consensus about security threats and regional order, which took hold of Israeli politics and society after 2000 and persists today. The failed Oslo peace process and the trauma of the Second Palestinian Intifada triggered this shift to the right; conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah and the inflammatory rhetoric of Iranian President Ahmadinejad additionally contributed to the creation of a general sense of being under siege. While Israel faces real security threats, Israeli governments have engaged in the politics of insecurity, promoting and amplifying a sense of besiegement. Lively political debate has been replaced by a general acceptance of the no-compromise approach to security and the Palestinians. The neo-revisionist right, represented by Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud, has turned Israel away from the peace process and pushes maximalist territorial ambitions. But they have failed to offer a vision for an end to conflict, and there has been little debate about whether or not the hardline policies toward the region are counterproductive. Del Sarto explains this disappearance of dissent and examines the costs of Israel’s policies. She concludes that Israel’s feeling of being under siege has become entrenched, a two-state solution with the Palestinians is highly unlikely for the foreseeable future, and Israel’s international isolation is likely to increase. Del Sarto’s analysis of this tense political situation will interest scholars and students of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Middle East Studies, and International Relations.
Table of Contents
Preface
A Note on Transliteration
Introduction: Israel's New Foreign Policy Consensus after the Oslo Peace Process, 2000-2010
1. Feeling under Siege: Conflicts, Threats, and Regional Order
2. Israel's Foerign Policy Consensus: Impact and Implications
3. A New Domestic Hegemony: Factors and Explanations
4. The Return of Dissent? 2010 to the Present
Conclusions: Insecurity and the Power of Neo-Revisionist Hegemony
Appendix A: Key Political Figures
Appendix B: Chronology
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Reviews
"it combines an in-depth analysis of Israeli politics and society with an engaging style, rendering it accessible to many kinds of readers. Even those who are not experts on these issues will gain a clearer, nuanced picture from reading Del Sarto’s book."—Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs
"Thought-provoking . . . Offers a unique and valuable perspective."—Middle East Journal
"Many Israelis understand their debates about security and foreign policy historically: a strong national consensus on such issues in their state’s first decades gave way to a lively and raucous set of debates in the last third of the twentieth century. Those debates are easy for outsiders to follow. Raffaella A. Del Sarto argues provocatively, however, that a new consensus has formed that may be missed by those distracted by the liveliness of day-to-day debates. Israel’s policies seem to many critics to be unwise in their pugnaciousness and informed more by fear than wisdom, and Del Sarto shows the origin and nature of the widespread domestic consensus underlying them."—Nathan Brown, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs; Director, Institute for Middle East Studies; Director, Middle East Studies Program, George Washington University
"Israel under Siege is a comprehensive and well documented study on present Israeli foreign relations and security doctrine. Del Sarto shows very convincingly that contrary to Oslo Agreement years, Israel's neo-conservative ethno-religious self-identity shapes its strategy of extensive force-use and maintaining regional hegemony."—Menachem Klein, Professor of Political Science, Bar Ilan University, Israel
"This book is a wide-ranging and consistent analysis of a very important recent development in Israeli politics and its impact on Israel’s foreign policy and regional relations."—Israel Studies Review
About the Author
Raffaella A. Del Sarto is Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), SAIS Europe at Bologna, and a part-time professor at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute in Florence, Italy. She is the author of Contested State Identities and Regional Security in the Euro-Mediterranean Area, the coeditor of The Convergence of Civilizations: Constructing a Mediterranean Region, and editor of Fragmented Borders, Interdependence, and External Relations: The Israel-Palestine-European Union Triangle.
