Middle East Notes and Comment: Three Political Crises Drove the Gaza Violence

Three Political Crises Drove the Gaza Violence

While the explosions, air raid sirens, and images of rubble led many to interpret the recent violence between Israelis and Palestinians as a military crisis, it was really the product of three simultaneous political crises. If Secretary of State Tony Blinken is to achieve any lasting results during his swing through the region, he must seek not just to cement a ceasefire but to revive cross-border discussion.

Read Jon Alterman's commentary on Defense One.

From the Middle East Program

New Report

Jon, Natasha Hall, and Will Todman released a new report titled "Sustainable States: Environment, Governance, and the Future of the Middle East." The work explores how environmentally sustainable approaches to the provision of power, water, and sanitation do more than merely build more reliable services. Smart developments of environmentally sustainable public utilities in the Middle East could help bridge the trust deficit between citizens and their governments and have an outsized impact on all areas of public life. Jon gives a brief overview of the report and its findings in this video.

In each section of the report, we zoom in on individual initiatives geared toward the provision of sustainable services in Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia. We’ve also released a collection of all nine of these vignettes, titled "On the Ground," as well as four pieces of timely and thoughtful commentary from our Working Group members in our "Notes from the Field" series.

As part of the roll-out of the report over the next few weeks, we will be releasing several additional commentaries and hosting a public event.

Babel: Translating the Middle East

In our most recent episode of Babel, McKinley interviews Jon, Natasha, and Will about their new report and why think tanks and policymakers should care about seemingly mundane topics, like public utilities and local governance.

In another episode, Jon spoke with Khaled Dawoud about his recent release from prison and his experiences as a journalist and politician in Egypt.

We also released three new mezze episodes: one on the liver market in Egypt, one on the legacy of Tunisia's first president, and one on the annual debate in the Middle East over the beginning and end of Ramadan.

New Analysis

Jon wrote a brief Critical Questions breaking down the drivers of the recent violence in Jerusalem and the renewed conflict in the Gaza strip.

As part of the "Notes from the Field" series, Dr.-Eng. Wassim Chaabane wrote a commentary arguing that Tunisia’s experiment with decentralized solid waste management holds promise for other countries in the region.

Other

Jon joined Andrew Schwartz on his podcast to discuss the escalation of violence in Jerusalem and the Gaza strip. Jon sat down with Andrew Parasiliti's "On the Middle East" podcast to talk about the conflict, U.S.-Israeli relations under the Biden administration, and the role of think tanks in public policy. Jon also spoke with Vago Muradian for the DefAero Report Daily Podcast about the conflict's implications on the region's stability and the future of the two-state solution.

Jon spoke on a panel at the Doha Forum to discuss the future of China's foreign policy in the Middle East.

In the News

Jon told the Wall Street Journal that the dispatch of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Hady Amr to Israel was "intended to send a signal that the clock is ticking" but hadn't run out. President Biden, Jon said, "remains deeply sympathetic to Israeli security concerns." (05/19/21).

On the conflict in Gaza and Israel, Jon told USA Today, "I’m not sure the White House is spending a lot of energy looking for leverage right now." He added, "There’s a certain willingness to sit back for a few days while Israel responds to attacks on civilians and defends itself." (05/14/21)