Brandeis University
Fall 2014
POL164A: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East
Prof. Shai Feldman, Dr. Abdel Monem Said Aly, Dr. Khalil Shikaki
Class time: Mondays 2 pm-4:50 pm
Location: Olin Sang 201
Contact information for Prof. Feldman.
Office: Crown Center for Middle East Studies
Until September 30: Heller Brown 357, Phone: x 65321
After October 1: Lemberg 2nd floor
Fall Office Hours: Mondays 12:30 pm-1:30 pm and by appointment
Email:
Contact information for Dr. Said Aly
Office: Crown Center for Middle East Studies
Until September 30: Heller Brown 356
After October 1: Lemberg 2nd floor
Fall Office Hours: Mondays 12:30 pm-1:30 pm and by appointment
Contact information for Dr. Shikaki
Office: Crown Center for Middle East Studies
Until September 30: Heller Brown 357
After October 1: Lemberg 2nd floor
Fall Office Hours: Mondays 12:30 pm-1:30 pm and by appointment
Email:
Course Description:
Pol. 164A, Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East offers students a unique opportunity to familiarize themselves with different perspectives on the evolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the efforts to resolve it. The class is taught by threescholars of Middle East Politics. Prof. Shai Feldman, director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, is a former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University in Israel. Dr. Abdel Monem Said Aly, director of the Regional Center for Security Studies in Cairo, and Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) in Ramallah.
Enrollment in this class will be limited to 30, with preference to juniors, seniors, and graduate students.
Course Requirements
All students are required to attend every class, barring illness, and to complete the assigned readings listed below in advance of each class. Students will be called upon to initiate discussion of the readings in class. This means that everyone must come to class prepared to discuss the readings. Well-informed classroom discussion is required of each student. It is highly recommended that students annotate personal copies of, or make notes from the readings.
The writing requirements listed below are intended to encourage students to approach reading materials critically, to foster improved research and writing skills, and to serve as a basis for contributing to class discussion. Students are expected to devote careful attention to the technical quality of their written work, as well as its substance.
Students are expected to be honest in all academic work. All written work for this course must include appropriate citation of the sources used. See section 56c (“Avoid Plagiarism”) of the Concise English Handbook for guidance. The university policy on academic honesty is distributed annually as section 5 of the Rights and Responsibilities handbook. Instances of alleged dishonesty will be forwarded to the Office of Campus Life for possible referral to the Student Judicial System. Potential sanctions include failure in the course and suspension from the university. If you have any questions about this, please ask.
Individual Written Assignments
All written assignments must be typewritten, double-spaced in 12-point font (this syllabus is in 12-point), and submitted electronically via email to s a Microsoft Word attachment (if you are not using Word, you may format your file in Rich Text Format [RTF]). Please use “Compatibility Mode” in Word to ensure that it can be read on any computer with Microsoft Office and not just those with the most recent version.
Midterm paper
10 pages. Topic to be distributed
Final paper
15 pages. Topic to be distributed
If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see Prof. Feldman about this.
Evaluation
Students will be evaluated on the basis of the two written assigned essays (35 percent for the midterm paper and50 percent for the final paper) and on class participation (15%). Students enjoy complete academic freedom in the classroom, within the limits defined by the standards of mutual respect. Attendance is required.
Readings
The basic reading for the class is Abdel Monem Said Aly, Shai Feldman, and Khalil Shikaki: Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
A second book to be read in its entirety is: Eugene L. Rogan and Avi Shlaim, The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
All other readings listed on the syllabus will be available on the Brandeis Latte server.
If there are any issues with the readings on LATTE, please contact Prof. Shai Feldman immediately for assistance.
For students who wish to expand their knowledge of the details of the Arab-Israeli conflict, we recommend:
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: The History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001(New York: Vintage Books, 2001).
Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (New York: W.W. Norton and London: Penguin Books, 2000).
Schedule of Classes, Readings, and Discussion Topics
September 8:Introduction: Zionism and the First Arab Awakening
Abdel Monem Said Aly et als., Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Chapter 1.
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: The History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 (New York: Vintage Books, 2001), pp. 3-160.
Rashid Khalidi, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), pp. 119-176.
Optional reading:
Adeed Dawisha,Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century: From Triumph to Despair (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008), Chapter 4: Arab Nationalism and Competing Loyalties: from the 1920s to the Arab Revolt in Palestine, pp. 75-106.
September 15: The 1948 War: The Regional Dimension
Abdel Monem Said Aly et als., Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Chapter 2.
Eugene L. Rogan and Avi Shlaim, The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 79-205.
Optional reading:
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: The History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 (New York: Vintage Books, 2001), pp. 161-258.
September 22: The 1948 War: The Israeli-Palestinian Dimension
Abdel Monem Said Aly et als., Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East(London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Chapter 2.
Rashid Khalidi, “The Palestinians and 1948: The Underlying Causes of Failure.” In Eugene L. Rogan and Avi Shlaim, The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 12-36.
Benny Morris, “Revisiting the Palestinian Exodus of 1948.” In Eugene L. Rogan and Avi Shlaim, The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948, pp. 37-59.
Optional reading:
Anita Shapira, Land and Power:The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881-1948 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999), pp. 277-370.
Baruch Kimmerling and Joel Migdal, Palestinians: The Making of a People (New York: Free Press, 1993), pp. 127-156.
Yezid Sayigh, Armed Struggle and the Search for State:
The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 1-23.
Rashid Khalidi, The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood (Beacon Press. 2007), Chapter 3: the failure of leadership, pp. 66-104.
September 29: The 1956 War
Abdel Monem Said Aly et als., Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Chapter 3.
Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (New York: W.W. Norton and London: Penguin Books, 2000), pp. 95-185.
Optional reading:
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: The History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 (New York: Vintage Books, 2001), pp. 259-301.
October 6:The 1967 War
Abdel Monem Said Aly et als., Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Chapter 4.
Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (New York: W.W. Norton and London: Penguin Books, 2000), pp. 218-264.
Optional reading:
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: The History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 (New York: Vintage Books, 2001), pp. 302-346.
October 20: The War of Attrition and the 1973 War
Abdel Monem Said Aly et als., Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Chapter 5.
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: The History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 (New York: Vintage Books, 2001), pp. 347-443.
Optional reading:
Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, pp. 283-324.
October 27: Camp David andthe Lebanon War
Abdel Monem Said Aly et als., Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Chapter6.
William Quandt, Peace Process: American Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict Since1967, pp. 290-318.
Optional readings:
Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egypt’s Road to Jerusalem (New York: Random House, 1997), pp. 3-55; 132-178, 291-320.
Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, pp. 325-423; 461-501.
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: The History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 (New York: Vintage Books, 2001), pp. 444-560.
Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land (New York: Bantam Dell, 2008), pp. 127-234.
November 3:The First Intifada, Madrid, Oslo, and the Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty
Abdel Monem Said Aly et als., Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Chapter 7.
Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, September 13, 1993. In Itamar Rabinovich and Jehuda Reinharz (eds), Israel in the Middle East, 2nd ed. (Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2008), pp. 490-493.
Hussein Agha et als., Track-II Diplomacy: Lessons from the Middle East (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003), pp. 1-56.
November 10:Israeli-Syrian Negotiations and the Failure of the Madrid Peace Process
Abdel Monem Said Aly et als., Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Chapter8.
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: The History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 (New York: Vintage Books, 2001), pp. 629-634.
Dennis Ross, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004), pp. 164-187.
Shai Feldman, Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control in the Middle East (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997), pp. 7-15.
Abdel Monem Said Aly, “In the Shadow of the Israeli Nuclear Bombs: Egyptian Threat Perceptions,” Brown Journal ofWorld Affairs 151 (1996).
Optional readings:
Laura Zittrain Eisenberg and Neil Caplan, “The Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty: Patterns of Negotiation, Problems of Implementation.” Israel Affairs, Vol. 9, no. 3, 2003. pp. 87-110.
Itamar Rabinovich, The Brink of Peace: The Israeli-Syrian Negotiations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), especially pp. 3-53; 196-264.
“Fresh Light on the Syrian-Israeli Peace Negotiations. An Interview with Ambassador Walid al-Moualem,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 26, no. 2 (Winter 1997), pp. 81-94. Database: JSTOR
Patrick Seale and Linda Butler, “Asad’s Regional Strategy and the Challenge from Netanyahu.” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. XXVI, no. 1 (Autumn 1996), pp. 27-41. Database: JSTOR
Patrick Seale, “The Syria-Israel Negotiations: Who is Telling the Truth?” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. XXIX, no. 2 (Winter 2000), pp. 65-77. Database: JSTOR
November 17:Oslo Implementation
Abdel Monem Said Aly et als., Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Chapter9.
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: The History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 (New York: Vintage Books, 2001), pp. 561-629; 634-651.
Optional reading:
Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, pp. 461-595.
Itamar Rabonivich, Waging Peace: Israel and the Arabs at the End of the Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), pp. 38-122.
Yezid Sayigh and Khalil Shikaki, Reforming the Palestinian Authority: Concluding Report 2006
Nathan J. Brown, “Evaluating Palestinian Reform,”
Carnegie Papers, Middle East Series, Democracy and Rule of Law Series, no. 59, June 2005 (Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace).
November 24:The Failure of Permanent Status
Abdel Monem Said Aly et als., Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Chapter 10.
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: The History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 (New York: Vintage Books, 2001), pp. 652-675.
Itamar Rabonivich, Waging Peace: Israel and the Arabs at the End of the Century, pp. 123-180.
Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land (New York: Bantam Dell, 2008), pp. 278-315.
Optional readings:
Robert Malley and Hussein Agha, “The Palestinian-Israeli Camp David Negotiations and Beyond.” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Autumn, 2001), pp. 62-85.
Khalil Shikaki, “Palestinian Perspectives on the Failure of Permanent Status Negotiations.” Palestine Center for Survey Research, Ramallah, (January, 2004).
Yaacov Shamir and Khalil Shikaki, “Chapter 5: Camp David 2000: Tied Hands and Closed Lips,” in Palestinian and Israeli Public Opinion: the Public Imperative in the Second Intifada (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2010), pp. 50-63.
Jeffrey Michels, “National Vision and the Negotiation
Of Narratives: The Oslo Agreement,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 24, no. 1 (Autumn 1994), pp. 28-38. Database: JSTOR
December 1:The Second Intifada and Its Consequences
Abdel Monem Said Aly et als., Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Chapter 11.
The Clinton Parameters (available at:
Abdel Monem Said Aly and Shai Feldman, Ecopolitics: The Regional Dimension of Palestinian-Israeli Peacemaking, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (2003), pp. 16-56.
Khalil Shikaki, “Palestinians Divided,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 81, no. 1 (January-February, 2002), pp. 89-105. Database: Academic Search Premier
Khalil Shikaki, “The Future of Palestine”Foreign Affairs, Vol. 83, Issue 6 (Nov/Dec 2004). Database: Academic Search Premier
Khalil Shikaki,The Palestinian Elections:Sweeping Victory,
Uncertain Mandate.” Journal of Democracy Vol. 17, no. 3 (July 2006). Database: Project Muse
The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement, August 18,1988. In Itamar Rabinovich and Jehuda Reinharz (eds), Israel in the Middle East, 2nd ed. (Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2008), pp. 430-437.
Optional readings:
Itamar Rabonivich, Waging Peace: Israel and the Arabs at the End of the Century, pp. 181-219.
Ami Ayalon and Sari Nusseibeh, The Ayalon-Nusseiba Document, August 6, 2002. ayalon_initiative.htm
Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abbed Rabbo, Geneva Document, October, 2003.
Yaacov Shamir and Khalil Shikaki, Palestinian and Israeli Public Opinion: the Public Imperative in the Second Intifada (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2010), pp. 64-150.
Yehuda Ben Meir, “The Post-Disengagement Anguish” Strategic Assessment Vol. 8 no. 3 (Jaffee Center For Strategic Studies November 2005)
David Makovsky, A Defensible Fence, Fighting Terror and Enabling a Two-State Solution. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy, April, 2004).
Khalil Shikaki, “The Geneva Accord and the Palestinian Response,” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, 2004. Vol.11, Issue 1, pp. 52-63. Database: Business Source Premier
Mamoun Fandy et. als., “The Abdullah Peace Plan: Offer or Ultimatum,” Middle East Policy, Vol. IX, no. 3 (September 2002), pp. 1-21. Database: Academic Search Premier
Graham Fuller, “The Saudi Peace Plan: How Serious?” Middle East Policy, Vol. IX, no. 2 (June 2002), pp. 27-30. Database: Academic Search Premier
December 8:From the Second Lebanon War to the Arab Awakening
Abdel Monem Said Aly et als., Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Chapter 12.
The Annapolis Statement (available at:
Abdel Monem Said Aly, “The Sixth Arab-Israeli War: An Arab Perspective,” Middle East Brief, no. 11, October 2006.
Khalil Shikaki, “With Hamas in Power,” Middle East Brief No. 1, (February 2007) Crown Center for Middle East Studies, (Available at:
Abdel Monem Said Aly and Shai Feldman, “Testing the Resilience of Egyptian-Israeli Peace,” Middle East Brief, no. 56, November 2011.
Khalil Shikaki, “Coping with the Arab Spring: Palestinian Domestic and Regional Ramifications,” Middle East Brief, no. 58, December, 2011.
Optional reading:
Asher Susser, “Tradition and Modernity in the “Arab Spring.” Strategic Assessment, Vol. 15, No. 1, April 2012, pp. 29-41.
Abdel Monem Said Aly, “The Paradox of the Egyptian Revolution,” Middle East Brief, no. 55, September 2011.
Abdel Monem Said Aly, “State and Revolution in Egypt, the Paradox of Change and Politics,” Crown Essay, no. 2 (January 2012).
Khalil Shikaki, The Palestinian “Reconciliation Maza,”
Khalil Shikaki, “Demystifying Palestinian Unity,” The National Interest,” May 18, 2011
President Obama, “Remarks by the President on a New Beginning”(Speech in Cairo, June 4, 2009). Available at:
Speech delivered by Khaled Mashal, Hamas Political Bureau Chief, June 25, 2009.
Shlomo Brom, “Khaled Mashal’s Response Speech,”INSS Insight no. 117, Institute for National Security Studies, July 1, 2009.
Isabel Kershner, “Palestinian Leader Maps Out Plan for Workings of Independent State,” New York Times, August 26, 2009.
Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech to the Joint Session of Congress, May 2011:
Shai Feldman, “Beyond September: Lessons from Failed Mideast Diplomacy,” Middle East Brief no. 54, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, August 2011 (available at:
BrandeisNOW interview with Prof. Asher Susser on the viability of the Two State Solution with Charlie Radin, March 30, 2012.
Khalil Shikaki, “The Future of Israel-Palestine: a one state reality in the making,”Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre (NOREF), May 2012.
Letter of PA President Mahmoud Abbas to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
“The Emperor Has No Clothes: Palestinians and the End of the Peace Process,” International Crisis Group, Middle East Report no. 122, May 2012.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Full Text of Foreign Policy Speech delivered at Bar Ilan University, Ha’aretz.com, June 14, 2009. Available at:
Obama's speech on the Arab Spring in the State Department, May 2011:
President Obama's speech to AIPAC, May 2011:
Nathan Thrall, "What Future for Israel," in the New York Review of Books, July 2013.
Appendix:Key Issues: Jerusalem, Refugees, Settlements Borders and Security.
Zeev Schiff, “Israeli Preconditions for Palestinian Statehood,” Policy Focus no. 39 (Washington DC: Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1999).