Academic Year 2011-2012

Israel: Social Revolution and Regional Isolation
Thursday, November 17, 2011, 5:30 PM
Mugar 200, The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Speaker: Joel S. Migdal, Director, Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Near & Middle East Studies; Robert F. Philip Professor of International Studies, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington

Speaker Biography

Joel S. Migdal is the Robert F. Philip Professor of International Studies in the University of Washington's Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and Director of the Near and Middle East Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program. He was the founding chair of the University of Washington's International Studies Program. Migdal was formerly Associate Professor of Government at Harvard University and Senior Lecturer at Tel-Aviv University.

Summary

In a lecture on November 17, 2011, Professor of International Relations Joel Migdal addressed ongoing trends in Israel that he said are threatening the country's social stability. Migdal posited that the recent protest movement in Israel was the "first middle class revolt against neo-liberalism." Migdal described two crises that faced Israel in the summer. First, increasing regional isolation undermined "slow but significant" gains towards integration nurtured by the government. Second, a carefully cultivated Israeli national society confronted protest and upheaval.

At its founding, Israel faced a security challenge stemming from "almost universal antipathy" in the world and a demographic challenge because of the ethnic and linguistic diversity of the new state. Migdal argued that militarism, a "policy in which the military is deeply involved in the development of social and foreign policy," served to address both challenges.

Israel's militarism as both foreign and social policy was affected by a number of events in the 1980s, including the results of the 1979 Egyptian peace treaty, public awareness of possible Israeli complicity in massacres during the 1982 Lebanon War, the 1987 intifada, the declaration of the State of Palestine in 1988, the end of the Cold War and an economic crisis. The effects of these events reached into the 1990s and 2000s. Along with an open questioning of the policy of militarism, Israel moved to a neo-liberal state with a less involved military. Integration into the Middle East began after the peace declaration with Egypt, which led to a general opening on behalf of Arab states that helped Israel with regional recognition.

But Migdal pointed to a number of trends pushing against progress towards stability. He noted a new nationalist movement developing as a counter-effect to the positive steps towards regional integration for which negotiations are anathema. He associates their rise as a major social force with the al-Aqsa intifada. Some Israelis also reacted to the portion of the Palestinian population against negotiations. Finally, "new wars" were difficult for the military and for the public to accept.

To conclude, Migdal noted two effects that the Arab Spring had on Israel. First, the social mobilization and protest took hold among Israeli youth. Second, it served to increase Israel's increasing regional isolation because its integration had relied heavily on alliances with autocrats. Israel is now less regionally secure and does not have the social cohesion which contributed to its security.

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