The Arab-Israeli Conflict Transformed: Fifty Years of Interstate and Ethnic Crises (Suny Series in Global Politics)

The Middle East conflict, be it between the state of Israel and Arab states or between Jews and Palestinians, is a staple of international news. Utilizing both theoretical approaches and empirical evidence, Hemda Ben-Yehuda and Shmuel Sandler argue that despite the recent upswing in violence, particularly over the Palestinian issue, conflict has gradually been giving way, since the 1970s, to a more orderly regime of conflict management. By integrating ethnonational theoretical literature into their analysis, the authors move beyond the current International Relations debate over the relative merits of realist/neo-realist approaches versus neo-liberal-institutional approaches. Ethnic-state disputes are the primary source for failing to terminate the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Hemda Ben-Yehuda is a Research Associate at the International Crisis Behavior Project and teaches in the Department of Political Studies, Bar-Ilan University. Shmuel Sandler is the Sara and Simha Lainer Professor of Democracy and Civility and Chair of the Department of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University. He is the author of The State of Israel, The Land of Israel: The Statist and Ethnonational Dimensions of Foreign Policy.