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Analysis

Fathom | “Cooperation between rivals”: a new paradigm for understanding the Israeli-Palestinian system (2006-2016)

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In this article, first published in Fathom, Doron Matza proposes a new critical paradigm to understand the relationship between the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships: “cooperation between rivals” i.e. an informal “deal” between the political elites. He argues that the paradigm emerged as a response to the second intifada in 2000 and the Arab Spring in 2010 which led both Israeli and Palestinian societies frustrated, exhausted, disappointed with negotiations and sceptical about peace to turn inwards, and also towards a new and heightened level of collaboration between Israel and the Palestinian systems in order to preserve the status quo. Matza also explores the defining features of the new model, including turning the diplomatic arena into an ‘agreed conflict zone’, the multiple benefits this offers the leaderships and sectors of both societies, before turning his attention to the “losers” on both sides, and to what he sees as the immorality and unsustainability of “cooperation between rivals”.

In the broadest sense, people tend to think about society in the terms of one of two dichotomous theories. Some favour functionalist theory which views society as an organism, each part of the social structure fulfilling a specific role, enabling society to function smoothly. Some prefer to see society in terms of conflict theory, which regards society as an arena of conflict between different political groups, each seeking to organise society on the basis of their interests.

The transformation of the Israeli-Palestinian relationship over the last two decade suggests that a combination of these two theories is needed to understand it. On the one hand, the conflict-driven aspect of the relationship, based on national, religious and ethnic rivalry, remains. On the other hand, there are important dimensions of their relationship which reflect cooperation and symbiosis between the two sides.

Since 2005, the year in which Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) replaced Yasser Arafat as the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), a new dynamic has been created in the Israeli-Palestinian relationship, which I call “cooperation between rivals” – a dynamic that has effectively maintained the stability of both governments, amid a particularly tumultuous period in the post-Arab Spring Middle East. Even the latest wave of violence which began in October 2015 – referred to by a myriad of names including the “third Palestinian uprising” and “the lone-wolf intifada” – did not seriously damage this new dynamic. On the contrary, it only made more apparent some of its main characteristics, not least the high level of collaboration between Israeli and Palestinian systems.

Read the full article in Fathom.