As most of us should know as good IR scholars, the long standing conflict between the established state of Israel and the quassi state of Palestine is about to come to a head this month when the matter of Palestinian statehood goes to the floor of the United Nations General Assembly. After years of protest from the international community of Israeli war crimes and the general mistreatment of state of Palestine is finally being recognized with a high pressure vote on the General Assembly floor later this month. Currently, Palestine is recognized by the United Nations as a territory occupied by Israel, not a fully sovereign state (UN Resolution). Also, the fact that it is not a continuous land mass further complicates the issue. Then just add on the point that one section, the West Bank, is ruled by more democratic Palestinian Authority and the other section, the Gaza Strip, is ruled by Hamas, which is labeled as a terrorist organization in several nations, and a very messy situation is created (Australian National Security). In anticipation of this contentious vote, the Israeli Defense Forces have sent an additional 1,500 soldiers to Israel’s border with the West Bank of Palestine (
This is not nearly the first Israeli security measure on their border with the West Bank. One of the most notorious is the Israeli-West Bank Security Barrier. Construction first started in 2002, and has been sprawling thought out the West Bank territory ever since (Makovsky). In my view, this is a clear sign of Israel embracing the realist view of state security being paramount. Through Israel establishing this barrier, they effectively cut off the West Bank of Palestine’s access to their country, which in theory would then cut back on attacks that they would face from attacks from the more militant Palestinians. This whole concept was brought up after the second intifada and other violent attacks in 1994 when many militants from Palestine would cross over and engage in guerilla warfare and suicide bombing attacks across Israel (Makovsky). After those incidents, the Israeli government would adopt a doctrine of separation which then gave birth to the idea of the barrier. This barrier was too made over the 1948 Israeli war of Independence truth lines, which caused many relocations and loss of farm lands for many Palestinians (Makovsky). However, as in the case of the security dilemma, this increased the security of Israel, but made the Palestinian people more distrustful and insecure. Since this barrier uprooted so many Palestinians, quite a few joined the ranks of the activists against Israel’s activities. Ever since their inception, there have been ever present protests along the barrier’s checkpoint sites which have led to many arrests and in increase of distrust among Palestinians towards their neighbors (Makovsky).
Which leads to the issue of the present day, the bulking up of forces on the border region as the General Assembly vote draws near. I believe in doing this, Israel is attempting to further protect its security by stationing troops ready to quell any sort of uprising they see could be coming in anticipation of the vote. Yet once again, the Security Dilemma is being played out again by this increase in Israeli troop presence is giving the Palestinian people to be insecure about. And since they still have yet achieved official statehood, they have no real official recourse other than to protest and hope the international community chooses their side and comes to their aid.
This situation also shows how the realist idea of a unilateral system would fit best for this situation. As this question will soon be brought it front of the General Assembly, it will then be subjected to the pitfalls a multilateral polarity system. Since every nation in the GA has their own goals, agendas, believes, and prejudices that will affect their decision on the future of Palestine’s statehood. This will most likely cause large disagreements amongst the member nations and will definitely delay any final decision that will be made by the United Nations. Now if this was a system of unilateral polarity, the hegemonic nation could simply use their massive amounts of power and influence to recognize the nation or not, and that would be the end of the issue. This would happen due to the fact that since the hegemonic nation holds the power, then the smaller nations would simply just follow its decision.
Now if the General Assembly votes later in the month in favor of Palestinian state hood, how will this affect Israeli security? Will they still see Palestine as larger threat or a smaller one? In my opinion, I believe it will end up making Israel more secure in the long run. Since a majority of Palestinians in living in the West Bank, just desire that recognition, so that might even prompt cooperation between the two nations. However, I believe it will take more than just recognition to ease the pain and years of warfare brought about in the Gaza Strip. Especially, the more hard lined Palestinians live there, especially the members of the militant wing of Hamas, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (Australian National Security). This may call for the Israeli forces to continue their Realist Security policies, and expanding existing ones such as their rocket defense network until they can diplomatically resolve their differences with Hamas. But will the Realist way of thinking really end this conflict? So far, no. The increased use of force in Gaza as just caused more resentment for the Israel, and has drawn more to join the cause of the militant members of Hamas. To secure peace for both nations, more than just force has to be used; both nations will have to have talks to resolve this problem. But none of this can happen until the United Nations General Assembly makes its decision.
Works Cited:
Makovsky, David. "How To Build a Fence." Foreign Affairs 83.2 Mar/Apr 2004. 50-64. Ebscohost. Web. 19 Sep 2011.
AFP, . "Israel ups West Bank forces before Palestinian UN bid ." Breitbart. AFP, 09 Sep 2011. Web. 19 Sep 2011.
United Nations. Status of Occupied Palestinian Territory and Eastern Jerusalem . 2004. Web.
"Hamas's Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades."Australian Government. Australian Government, 22 Feb 2010. Web. 19 Sep 2011.
Dear Patrick,
ReplyDeleteYou do a great job of showing tension that exists in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The forces that you discuss have created an intractable conflict that has yet to be resolved.
Your briefing paper raises some very interesting points. In particular, I wanted to highlight your belief that Israel would be more secure if Palestine was a state. If this is true, and realism dictates that above all else states seek security, then why has Israel protested the creation of a Palestinian state?
Realism would say that they must think that their security would be even more threatened by a Palestinian state. If as you say, they are mistaken, can you tell me why they might be mistaken? Why haven't they, as supposedly good realists, assessed Palestine's capabilities, and realized that it would not be a military threat.
This may be an arena that Realism chooses to ignore...or maybe there is another way to frame this with realism that would make the Palestinian state a threat.
Thank you so much for your comment Ellie. As for your remarks about Israel fearing Palestine more as a recognized state, I see the last part of your comment as being correct. I feel Israel's problem with the creation of Palestine as an official state does lie outside the arena of Realism. The issue Israel with Palestinian statehood created via the United Nations is that they get to circumvent direct negotiations with Israel. And in doing so, they feel that Palestine will continue to deny the existence of the Jewish state of Israel. This could then open Palestine to a wider variety of International funding that will help strengthen Palestinian infrastructure and make Palestine an overall stronger country. This is what Israel fears, a stronger Palestine that still does not recognize their existence. However, they are just jumping to conclusions, for all Palestine has wanted was just to be officially recognized as a state. But Israel feels that will just reward Palestine's years of fighting and embolden them to continue on.
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