The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict From Conflict Resolution to Conflict Management

The violent confrontation that erupted in September 2000 between Israel and the Palestinians developed into a protracted low-intensity confrontation. The confrontation exacted a heavy human toll on both sides, inflicted severe economic damage, and raised the level of enmity, hostility, and mistrust to levels that are hampering dialogue, not only in regard to the resolution of the conflict but also about its very management. The book focused on the causes of the confrontation, the goals of the sides, the distinctive characteristics of the confrontation as a low intensity conflict, the management strategies adopted by the sides, the reasons for the failure of the efforts to end or moderate the confrontation, the outcomes of the confrontation, its impact on both societies in different domains, and the phenomenon of unilateral disengagement as a unique strategy of conflict management in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov is Giancarlo Elia Valori Professor of International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Director of the Swiss Center for Conflict Research, Management and  Resolution, and the Head of the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies. He is an expert of conflict management, resolution, negotiations and the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is  the author of many articles, and of five books: The Israeli-Egyptian War of Attrition 1969-1970: A Case Study of Limited Local War (1980), Linkage Politics in the Middle East: Syria Between Domestic and External Conflict, 1961-1970 (1983), Israel the Superpowers and the War in the Middle East (1987), Israel ant Peace Process, 1977-1982: In Search of Legitimacy for Peace (1994), The Shift from War to Peace: The Complexity of Decision-Making-The Israeli Case (1996). He is the editor and co-editor of five books.  Among them: Stable Peace Among Nations (2000), From Conflict Resolution to Reconciliation (2004).