Israel under Siege: The Politics of Insecurity and the Rise of the Israeli Neo-Revisionist Right

November 13, 2017

Raffaella A. Del Sarto, Associate Professor of Middle East Studies  

Professor Del Sarto presented insights from her new book on Israeli politics. She began with an overview of recent developments in Israeli-Palestinian relations and past conflicts between the two sides and the impacts on domestic foreign policies.

Del Sarto commented on the demographic shift in Jewish Israeli population, an important development for territorial negotiations between Palestine and Israel. Furthermore, she commented on the change of rhetoric in domestic Israeli politics. An older narrative focused on withdrawal from occupied territories seems to have reached an impasse, and this is one of the reasons that Israel has found itself increasingly isolated in international affairs, Del Sarto said.

Professor Del Sarto also commented on the politics of insecurity. The effects have stifled public debate in Israel, but has united the population even while people remain divided on other issues. Del Sarto also discussed how people with lower socio-economic status in Israel are seeing the negative outcomes of the new security policies.