Policy Analysis

Palestinian public opinion clearly distinguishes between perceived rights and realities. Results from a new poll conducted June 27-July 15 show very mixed views on long-term peace issues among Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. The “two-state solution” has lost majority support. Yet if that option were available

The latest survey conducted by the Palestine Center for Public Opinion, June 27-July 15, 2019, indisputably confirms this highly counter-intuitive finding from other recent polls: on many issues related to Israel, the two million Palestinians in Gaza actually voice significantly more moderate opinions than do the roughly equal Palestinian population

A new poll by the Palestine Center for Public Opinion, taken June 27-July 19, indicates that the majority of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza oppose their leaderships’ preemptive rejection of the Trump administration’s peace plan—despite widespread popular disapproval of the current U.S. president. The survey also shows a

In his work The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, (1895) French sociologist and social psychologist Gustave Le Bon writes, “The great upheavals which precede changes of civilisations… seem at first sight determined more especially by political transformations.” However, he argues, “A more attentive study of these events shows

Former U.S. President George Bush Sr. acted prudently when he convinced Israel’s leaders not to respond when Saddam Hussein’s missiles rained down on Tel Aviv in January of 1991 following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. At the time, Saddam was trying to draw the region into an Arab-Israeli confrontation. An

Following Trump’s announcement that Washington would acknowledge Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, the question of this area, occupied since 1967, has reemerged and captured the attention of the Syrian public. However, the Golan question is far from a new issue among Syrian circles. But while numerous Syrians—both pro-regime and

Israel is holding its elections for the Knesset on April 9, the 21st parliamentary poll in the country’s history. Of an estimated 5.8 million citizens with voting rights, 16 percent are from Israel’s Arab minority, which makes up around a fifth of Israel’s total population. During the previous Knesset elections

The Gaza Strip has long been suffering from internal pressures resulting from its limited resources—including a lack of water and arable land, weak infrastructure, and many internal and external barriers due to the twelve-year long Israeli siege and blockade.This blockade has turned the Gaza strip into the largest open-air prison

An October 2018 poll of Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem confirms a sharp shift against integration with Israel in the past two years. This surprising result was first reported based on our May 2017 survey, with the trend continuing towards Palestinian nationalism. In stark contrast to previous polls conducted as

Just as President Trump’s announced decision to withdraw troops from Syria has garnered intense analysis from American media, the media outlets of regional actors involved in Syria are similarly occupied discussing likely scenarios for the country's future. In surveying the media responses of Iran and Israel—countries who have indirectly clashed

Roy Kays, from the Israeli channel KAN 11 TV, wasn't the first Israeli journalist to contact me about Middle Eastern politics. However, he was the first to use a Twitter account to do so. After several exchanges of "How are you?" and "I'm fine Roy Kays, how are you?" it

Recently, the mayor of Jerusalem commended the U.S. plan to cut UNRWA funding and claimed that the agency is teaching children terrorism in its schools. To illustrate his statement, he referred to the fact that Dalal al-Mughrabi—a PLO operative who conducted a terrorist attack in 1978 during which 35 Israeli

In recent years, social media has provided a digital bridge across the short but physically uncrossable geographic distance separating Palestinian populations. Arab citizens of Israel consume a constant flow of social media content from the occupied territories; these connections strengthen the population’s Palestinian identity. Within an already-divided Israeli society, social

Two fresh public opinion polls taken in October paint a strikingly mixed picture of popular attitudes among the roughly 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The biggest surprise is that on many peace process issues, these Palestinians voice a harder political line than do their

As the Assad-Iran-Russian axis prepares for the "last battle in Idlib," the question arises: what does the ‘day after’ look like for the region when events in Syria finally come to a conclusion? It is clear that Iran’s proxy forces would prefer to create a new Syria in accordance with

Introduction It is sometimes hard to imagine in 2018 that a different vision existed for Gaza than the one that currently exists in the news, and that Gazans live daily. Yet, I was a member of a hopeful group of technocrats who developed a clear roadmap for Gaza after Israel

About seven years ago, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched a Facebook page titled “Israel Speaks Arabic,” which aims to expose the Arab world to information about Israel that is not frequently reported in traditional Arab media outlets. Surprisingly enough, the page, which has over 1.5 million Arabic-speaking followers

Several weeks ago, I related some general observations from my July trip to Saudi Arabia, in a post titled “Seeing Saudi Changes Up Close: A Week’s Worth of Surprises.” In this post, I will focus more sharply on specific shifts in the attitudes of at least some influential Saudis toward

August 26, 2018 — Regional turmoil has forced the generally secretive Druze minority into the limelight. With its leaders losing the influence that has so far protected the community, the Druze must take seriously the threat of disappearing altogether.

On the night of August 11, tens of thousands of Arab-Israelis and Jewish-Israelis marched from Rabin Square to the plaza of the Tel Aviv Museum in central Tel Aviv, protesting the recently passed Nation State Law. The demonstrators held up placards demanding equality, justice, a repeal of the law, and