HU Credits: 2

Degree/Cycle: 2nd degree (Master)

Responsible Department: Conflict Management & Resolution

Semester: 2nd Semester

Teaching Languages: English

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Lior Lehrs

Coordinator Email: lior.lehrs@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours:

Teaching Staff:
Dr. Lior Lehrs

Course/Module description:
The course explores the practical aspects of the diplomatic arena within the context of conflict and peace in the Middle East, with the goal of equipping students with knowledge and skills and simulating role-playing of a diplomatic conference. Throughout the course, we will discuss key issues, central terms, common diplomatic practices, and significant documents (UN resolutions, initiatives, agreements) related to the diplomatic landscape surrounding the Israeli-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. The course examines the main players in the arena (domestic, regional, and international), their interests, and positions, while also addressing real-time developments. At the heart of the course, a simulation exercise will take place, replicating a diplomatic conference in the Middle East. During this simulation, students will play different roles, allowing them to closely engage with the dynamics and practices of Middle Eastern diplomacy and to apply the acquired tools from the course.

Course/Module aims:

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
1.Be familiar with the central issues, terminology, and documents relevant to the diplomatic landscape surrounding the conflict and peace process in the Middle East.
2.Understand the key practices and dynamics within the realm of diplomacy at large and specifically in the Middle East.
3.Be familiar with the interests and positions of the various parties and stakeholders involved in the diplomatic processes in the Middle East (domestic, regional, international).
4.Analyze diplomatic policy issues and processes, and simulate role-playing within an international conference setting.

Attendance requirements(%):
Compulsory attendance

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:

Course/Module Content:
Introduction
The Israeli-Arab Peace Process
The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
Key Issues in the Arena:
Jerusalem and Holy Sites
Settlements and Borders
Gaza Strip
Refugees
Normalization with the Arab World
Security
Palestinian Statehood
Sides and Players in the Arena: Mapping Positions and Interests (including Israeli and Palestinian actors, Egypt, Jordan, USA, European Union, United Nations, Gulf States)
Key Documents in the Process: Decisions, Declarations, Agreements
Diplomacy in the Middle East: Language, Tools, and Institutions
Guest Lecturer/Film
Simulation – Diplomatic Conference in the Middle East

Required Reading:
Class topics and Readings

1. Introduction
* Stover, William James. "Teaching and learning empathy: An interactive, online diplomatic simulation of Middle East conflict." Journal of Political Science Education 1.2 (2005): 207-219.‏

Dannreuther, Roland. "Understanding the Middle East peace process: A historical institutionalist approach." European Journal of International Relations 17.2 (2011): 187-208.‏

Cooper, Andrew F., Jorge Heine, and Ramesh Thakur, eds. The Oxford handbook of modern diplomacy. OUP, 2013., chapter 14.

2. The Israeli-Arab Peace Process
* Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov, “The Arab-Israeli Conflict: Learning Conflict Resolution,” Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 31, No. 1, 1994, pp. 75-92.
Laura Zittrain Eisenberg and Neil Caplan, Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998, Chapter 1.
Jerome Slater, “Lost Opportunities for Peace in the Arab-Israeli Conflict: Israel and Syria, 1948-2001,” International Security, Vol. 27, No. 1, Summer 2002, pp. 79-106.
Eisenberg, Laura Zittrain, and Neil Caplan. "The Israel-Jordan peace treaty: patterns of negotiation, problems of implementation." Israel Affairs 9.3 (2003): 87-110.‏
Avraham Sela, The Decline of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: Middle East Politics and the Quest for Regional Order (SUNY Press, 2012), chapter 2.

3. The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
* Arie M. Kacowicz, “Rashomon in the Middle East: Clashing Narratives of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” Cooperation and Conflict, Vol. 40, No. 3, 2005: 343-360.
Muslih, Muhammad. "Towards coexistence: An analysis of the resolutions of the Palestine National Council." Journal of Palestine Studies 19.4 (1990): 3-29.
Avraham Sela. "The PLO at Fifty: A Historical Perspective, Contemporary Review of the Middle East, 1: 3 (September 2014), pp. 269-333.
Galia Golan, Israel and Palestine (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2007), chapter 2.
Laura Zittrain Eisenberg and Neil Caplan, Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998, Chapter 4.
Pressman, Jeremy. “Visions in Collision: What Happened at Camp David and Taba?”, International Security, Vol. 28, No. 2, Fall 2003, pp. 5-43.
Pundak, Ron. "From Oslo to Taba: What Went Wrong?." Survival 43.3 (2001): 31-45.‏
Kurtzer, Daniel C., et al. The peace puzzle (Cornell University Press, 2012), Ch. 5.
Bernard Avishai, “A Plan for Peace That Still Could Be,” New York Times, 7 February 2011.
Udi Dekel, Lia Moran-Gilad. On verso of title page: Annapolis process 2007-2008: a missed opportunity for two-state solution? INSS, 2021.
Birnbaum, Ben, and Amir Tibon. "The explosive, inside story of how John Kerry built an Israel-Palestine peace plan—and watched it crumble." New Republic 21 (2014).‏

4. Key Issues I
Jerusalem and Holy Sites
Lior Lehrs, “Jerusalem on the Negotiating Table: Analyzing the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks on Jerusalem (1993–2015),” Israel Studies, 21:3 (2016), 179-205.
Hassner, Ron E. "“To halve and to hold”: Conflicts over sacred space and the problem of indivisibility." Security Studies 12.4 (2003): 1-33
Reiter, Yitzhak. The eroding status-quo: power struggles on The Temple Mount. Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, 2017.‏
Settlements and Borders
Michael Herzog, Minding the Gaps: Territorial Issues in Israeli-Palestinian Peacemaking, The Washington. Institute for Near East Policy, Policy Focus #116
Shaul Arieli, Deceptive Appearances: Do the Jewish Settlements in the West Bank Negate the Feasibility of the Two-State Solution?, Dfus SefiDagan Ltd. (2020)
Dan Rotem, An Unsettled Question: Recalibrating U.S. Policy on Israeli Settlements, IPF, 2023.
Refugees
Goldstein, Rami. "The Palestinian Refugee Problem: Theory and Practice in Light of Back-Channel Negotiations." International Negotiation 1.aop (2022): 1-29.‏
Bar-Siman-Tov, Yaacov, Justice and Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Routledge, 2014), chapters 6-7.
Brynen, Rex. The past as prelude? Negotiating the Palestinian refugee issue. London, England: Chatham House, 2008.‏
Zargari, Joseph D. "The Forgotten Story of the Mizrachi Jews: Will the Jews of the Middle East Ever Be Compensated for Their Expulsion from the Arab World." Buff. Pub. Int. LJ 23 (2004).
Security
Goldenberg, Ilan, et al. "A Security System for the Two-State Solution." Center for a New American Security, May 31 (2016).‏
Zilber, Neri, and Ghaith Al-Omari. "State with No Army, Army with No State." Policy Focus 154 (2018).‏
Arthur Hughes, Security Challenges in a Two-State Solution: Is an International Role the Key? June 4, 2013, MEI.

5. Key Issues II
Normalization with the Arab World
Podeh, Elie. "Israel and the Arab Peace initiative, 2002–2014: A plausible missed opportunity." The Middle East Journal 68.4 (2014): 584-603.‏

Michael Koplow, Shira Efron, and Evan Gottesman, The New Normal Arab-Israeli Normalization and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, IPF, October 2021.

Quamar, Md Muddassir. "Changing regional geopolitics and the foundations of a rapprochement between Arab Gulf and Israel." Global Affairs 6.4-5 (2020): 593-608.‏
Gaza and Hamas Rule
Amr, Hady, et al. "Ending Gaza's perpetual crisis: A new US approach." CNAS 2018.
Rebuilding the Gaza Ceasefire. ICG Report No. 191, November 2018.
Shikaki, K. The Power Struggle Between Fatah and Hamas Prevents Palestinian Reconciliation and Reunification, PCPSR Critical Policy Brief, Number 4/2019.
The Palestinian Authority
Husseini, Hiba I. "Challenges and reforms in the Palestinian authority." Fordham Int'l LJ 26 (2002): 500.‏
Iqtait, Anas. "The Palestinian Authority political economy: The architecture of fiscal control." Political economy of Palestine: Critical, interdisciplinary, and decolonial perspectives. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021. 249-270.‏
Ludsin, Hallie. "Putting the Cart Before the Horse: the Palestinian Constitutional Drafting Process." UCLA J. Int'l L. & Foreign Aff. 10 (2005): 443.‏
Palestinian Statehood
Pressman, Jeremy. "Assessing One-State and Two-State Proposals to Solve the Israel-Palestine Conflict." (2021).‏
Barnett, Michael, et al. "Israel's One-State Reality: It's Time to Give up on the Two-State Solution." Foreign Aff. 102 (2023).
Imseis, Ardi. "On membership of the United Nations and the State of Palestine: A critical account." Leiden Journal of International Law 34.4 (2021): 855-878.‏
Noam, Gilad, “The Palestinian Petition to the United Nations for Recognition of a Palestinian State. A Legal/Political Analysis. JIIS, 2012.
Scheindlin, Dahlia, and Dov Waxman. "Confederalism: A third way for Israel–Palestine." The Washington Quarterly 39.1 (2016): 83-94.
‏
6. Preparing for Simulation I – The practices
* Bercovitch, Jacob and Richard Jackson, “International Negotiation,” in Jacob Bercovitch and Richard Jackson, Conflict resolution in the twenty-first century (University of Michigan Press, 2009), pp. 19-31.

Bramsen, Isabel. The Micro-sociology of Peace and Conflict. Cambridge University Press, 2023, chapter 6. ‏

Tocci, Nathalie. "The Middle East Quartet and (in) effective multilateralism." The Middle East Journal 67.1 (2013): 28-43.‏

Holmes, Marcus, and Keren Yarhi-Milo. "The psychological logic of peace summits: How empathy shapes outcomes of diplomatic negotiations." International Studies Quarterly 61.1 (2017): 107-122.‏

7. Preparing for Simulation II – The actors
Podeh, Elie. "Saudi Arabia and Israel: From secret to public engagement, 1948–2018." The Middle East Journal 72.4 (2018): 563-586.‏
Pressman, Jeremy. "American engagement and the pathways to Arab–Israeli peace." Cooperation and Conflict 49.4 (2014): 536-553.‏

Del Sarto, Raffaella A. "Stuck in the Logic of Oslo: Europe and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict." The Middle East Journal 73.3 (2019): 376-396.‏

Nasur, Nader Ibrahim M. Bani, Abdulrahman A. Al-Fawwaz, and Ahmad Kh Al-Afif. "Jordanian Foreign Policy toward The Palestine Issue." British Journal of Arts and Social Sciences 8.1 (2012): 1-16.
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8-9. Simulation: Middle East Peace Conference

10. Post-Simulation Analysis

Additional Reading Material:

Grading Scheme :
Essay / Project / Final Assignment / Referat 50 %
Active Participation / Team Assignment 10 %
Submission assignments during the semester: Exercises / Essays / Audits / Reports / Forum / Simulation / others 20 %
Presentation / Poster Presentation / Lecture 20 %

Additional information: