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Cited by 4International Relations and Foreign PolicyJewish and Middle Eastern StudiesMiddle East Politics and Society

“Watching and waiting” and “much ado about nothing”? Making sense of the Israeli response to the Arab uprisings

Open access
Beck, Martin·2016·Palgrave Communications
DOI 10.1057/palcomms.2016.79
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Abstract

This article covers Israel’s response to the Arab uprisings. The analysis deals with the issue of both material and immaterial political actions of the Israeli political leadership. A theoretical approach based on “thin rationalism”—actors pursue strategies based on their preferences—encompassing orthodox and heterodox schools of thought of International Relations (Neo-Realism, Institutionalism, Liberalism and a Copenhagen School-inspired concept of international securitization) is developed and applied to the case. The article contributes to the solution of a research puzzle. On the one hand, Israel’s material political action followed a watching-and-waiting approach, as Israel refrained from actively interfering in the domestic affairs of Arab countries highly affected by the Arab uprisings. On the other hand, in terms of political communication, major executive branches of the Israeli state pursued a harsh policy: the “Arab Spring” was presented to the global public as a dangerous threat to Israel’s security. Major results at the empirical level are that Israel—seen through the spectacles of the three orthodox schools of thought—was never seriously threatened by the Arab uprisings, which contributes to explaining why Israel’s material policy was rather equanimous. At the same time, the harsh Israeli policy at the level of political communication is made sense of as a policy that added to Israel’s attempts to legitimize its occupation of Palestine toward the (Western-dominated) international community. At the theoretical level, further application of the securitization approach aimed at the international level is encouraged. This article is published as part of a collection on analyzing security complexes in a changing Middle East.

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  • In the 21st century, Israel and Iran have launched intensive securitization policies against each other.

    “In the 21st century, Israel and Iran have launched intensive securitization policies against each other (Beck, 2016, p. 7-8;Lupovici, 2019, p. 223).”

    From The Aggravated Struggle for Regional Power in the Middle East: American Allies Saudi Arabia and Israel versus Iran (2020) · cites this paper as Beck, 2016

    In “Much ado about nothing and/or securitization policy?” (page not available), Beck describes Israel’s securitization policy during the Arab uprisings as portraying Iran as a rising regional threat. The passage does not describe Iran launching securitization policies against Israel, so it supports only the Israeli side of the claimed reciprocal policy. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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2 of the 73 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 8

  1. Dickstein E (2014/15) A new role for Egypt: Sisi's government and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Harvard International Review; 36 (2).
  2. Goren N (2012) An unfulfilled opportunity for reconciliation: Israel and Turkey during the Arab spring. Insight Turkey; 14 (2): 121-135.
  3. Hamid S (2011) The rise of the Islamists: How Islamists will change politics, and vice versa. Foreign Affairs; 90 (3): 40-47.
  4. Klein M (2012) Is the Arab spring Israel's winter? The Israeli public does not see a link between the conflict with the Palestinians -together with the Arab spring -and the protest for socioeconomic justice. Palestine-Israel Journal; 18 (1).
  5. Machowski M (2011) Qatar-Israel Relations: A historical overview. MidEast Journal, http://www.matthewmachowski.com/2011/05/qatar-israel-relations. html, accessed 3 August 2016.
  6. Mearsheimer JJ and Walt SM (2007) The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. Penguin: Toronto, Canada.
  7. Prime Minister's Office. (2014) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks at the conference of presidents of major American Jewish organizations, http:// www.pmo.gov.il/English/MediaCenter/Speeches/Pages/speechpre170214.aspx, accessed 9 September 2016.
  8. Searle JR (1969) Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.

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Authors
Beck, M.
Venue
Palgrave Communications
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2016-11-29
Volume
2
Issue
1
ISSN
2055-1045 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1057/palcomms.2016.79
OpenAlex
W2559549425
Cited by
4
References
73
Citations by year
2023: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2016: 1
FWCI
1.69
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • University of Southern Denmark Research Portal (University of Southern Denmark) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › International Relations and Foreign Policy
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Middle East Politics and Society
Keywords
Israeli foreign policy, Arab Spring, political communication, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, security complex, Middle East security

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