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Ontological dissonance, clashing identities, and Israel's unilateral steps towards the Palestinians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2011

AMIR LUPOVICI
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Abstract

This article further conceptualises and empirically tests the concept of ontological security. This concept, which refers to an actor's need to have a secure identity, has been used in International Relations (IR) mainly to study situations in which states face a threat to one of their identities. However, my focus here is on situations in which states are facing threats to a number of identities they hold, situations that result in what I term ontological dissonance. In such cases, not only are various distinct identities threatened, but the solutions to ease these threats are contradictory, forcing the state to choose between different cherished values. I contend that in such situations avoidance can become an attractive option for states in dealing with the difficulties arising from this dilemma. This theoretical framework is used to explain Israel's unilateral steps toward the Palestinians in recent years. I argue that the terror attacks of the Second Intifada (2000–2005) represented more than a physical security threat to Israel. The attacks and Israel's initial response to them aggravated threats to a number of Israel's identities and, more importantly, emphasised existing and potential future clashes among these identities. As a result, Israeli policy makers advanced unilateral steps to reduce these threats and to ease the accompanying ontological dissonance. These unilateral measures can thus be understood as measures of avoidance, and as such they complicated further cooperation between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , October 2012 , pp. 809 - 833
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 2011

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References

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4 In my discussion of Israeli identity I am referring to the Israeli-Jewish identity. Therefore, when I suggest that there is a dissonance or a dilemma among Israeli identities, I mean a dilemma for Israeli-Jews. I'm taking this position since I'm focusing on the dominant Israeli discourse. As Israeli-Arab citizens are de facto excluded from governmental decision-making processes and Israeli governments mainly represent the Jewish population, such an approach is crucial.

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23 Nonetheless, it should be noted, that in fact, ontological dissonance and cognitive dissonance affect each other. In this respect, the dissonance an enunciator experiences may become an additional source for narrating ontological dissonance at the state level. Likewise, a dissonance at the state level may trigger a dissonance in individuals.

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35 On the characteristics of enunciators who may successfully narrate a threat, see Buzan et al., Security: A New Framework for Analysis, p. 33.

36 For example, it was even suggested that key foreign policy decisions may result from the way policymakers interpret the state's identity, E. C Jacques Hymans, The psychology of Nuclear Proliferation: Identity, Emotions, and Foreign Policy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

37 Cerulo, Karen A., Never Saw It Coming. Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), p. 13CrossRefGoogle Scholar . For a similar discussion on the ability to make a certain object an existential threat, Buzan, et al. , Security: A New Framework for Analysis, p. 33Google Scholar .

38 On the connections between identity and discourse, see Hopf, , Social Construction of International Politics, p. 13Google Scholar . On discourse analysis as a key element in tracing an actor's identity, see Milliken, Jennifer, ‘The Study of Discourse in International Relations: A Critique of Research and Methods’, European Journal of International Relations, 5 (1999), pp. 225–254CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

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40 Saurette, ‘You Dissin Me’, p. 513, passim.

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71 Although these unilateral steps preserve the Israeli control over the West Bank, it was not necessarily the initial motivation for taking these steps in the first place. Thus, for example, the route of the separation barrier demonstrates not only Sharon's will, but also domestic pressure from right, see in Arieli, and Sfarad, , The Wall of Folly, pp. 92, 100–101, 163, 196, 202Google Scholar ; Rynhold, ‘Israel's Fence’, pp. 61, 68; Gavrilis, ‘Sharon's Endgame for the West Bank Barrier’, pp. 9–10.

72 Frisch, , (the) Fence or Offense, p. 12Google Scholar ; Rynhold, ‘Israel's Fence’, p. 59; Sucharov, The International Self, pp. 145, 149; Arieli and Sfard, The Wall of Folly, pp. 83–4. For a review of various proposals through the years to disengage from the Palestinians on the one hand and integrate with the Palestinians on the other, see Schueftan, Dan, Disengagement: Israel and the Palestinian Entity [in Hebrew] (Haifa: Haifa University Press, 1999), pp. 35–52Google Scholar .

73 Between May 2001–August 2005 the level of support of a unilateral separation varied between 54 per cent–68 per cent, see War and Peace Index, Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research, Tel-Aviv University. All reports can be downloaded at: {http://www.spirit.tau.ac.il/xeddexcms008/index.asp?siteid=5&lang=2} accessed on 5 August 2010. Since 2005 the level of support has decreased, Meir, Yehuda Ben and Shaked, Dafna, The People Speak. Israeli Public Opinion on National Security 2005–2007 (Tel-Aviv: Institute for National Security Studies, 2007), pp. 61–65Google Scholar . For additional discussion of public opinion surveys in Israel, see Meir, Ben and Shaked, , The People Speak, pp. 19–20, 62–64Google Scholar ; and in Rynhold, ‘Israel's Fence’, p. 60. In this respect, the assertion according to which Israeli policymakers could not resist the public demands to implement the barrier, see Gavrilis, ‘Sharon's Endgame’, p. 9, is limited. Although it is impossible to refute this assertion, there is no full correlation between the magnitude of support (which had lasted for years) and the implementation of this plan, nor is it completely clear that politicians were not involved in shaping this public mood.

74 Folman, , The Story of the Security Fence, pp. 216, 242–243Google Scholar , passim; Schueftan, , Disengagement, pp. 173, 192Google Scholar .

75 Bar-Siman-Tov, Yaacov, ‘The Disengagement Plan as an Identity Crisis’, in Bar-Siman-Tov, Yaacov (ed.), The Rise and Fall of the Disengagement Plan [in Hebrew] (Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, 2009), p. 24Google Scholar .

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77 Liebman, Charles and Susser, Bernard, ‘Judaism and Jewishess in the Jewish State’, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 555 (1998), pp. 19–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

78 Northrup, ‘The Dynamic of Identity’, pp. 68–9.

79 Waxman, , The Pursuit of Peace, pp. 36–37Google Scholar ; see also, Kimmerling, Baruch. The Invention and Decline of Israeliness: State, Society, and the Military (Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2001), pp. 82, 111, 113Google Scholar .

80 Liebman and Susser, ‘Judaism and Jewishess’, pp. 22–3.

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82 Waxman, , The Pursuit of Peace, p. 185Google Scholar ; Waxman, Dov, ‘From Controversy to Consensus: Cultural Conflict and the Israeli Debate over Territorial Withdrawal’, Israel Studies, 13 (2008), pp. 83–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

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84 Benn Aluf, ‘Israel's Identity Crisis’, Salon (16 May 2005), {http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/05/16/identity} accessed on 5 August 2010. On the Israeli fear of the demographic threat, and its exaggeration, see, for example, Paul Morland, ‘Defusing the Demographic Scare’, Haaretz (8 May 2009), {http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/defusing-the-demographic-scare-by-paul-morland-1.275657} accessed on 5 August 2010. On social construction of threats that influenced the establishment of the separation barrier, see also Newman, David, ‘The Lines That Continue to Separate Us: Borders in Our “Borderless” World’, Progress in Human Geography, 30 (2006), p. 149CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

85 On the demographic debate in Israel in recent years, see Shahar Ilan, ‘Demographically Correct’, Haaretz (7 June 2005). Available at: {http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/demographically-correct-1.160632} accessed on 5 August 2010. It is interesting to note that demographers from the right contend that ‘Israeli concerns about demographic pressure from the West Bank and Gaza have evidently been exaggerated. The demographic threat to Israeli society has not quantitatively changed since 1967’, Zimmerman, , Bennett, , Seid, Roberta and Wise, Michael L., The Million Person Gap: The Arab Population in the West Bank and Gaza, Mideast Security and Policy Studies no. 65 (Ramat-Gan: Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University), p. 54Google Scholar . However, as Prof. Arnon Sofer, an Israeli demographer who supports the separation plan, argues, ‘the Israeli right has begun to discover that the use of demography is a two-edged sword and is now working to its detriment’, quoted in Ilan Shahar ‘Demographically Correct’.

86 Ariel Sharon, Excerpt from Speech by PM Sharon after Government Approval of Disengagement Plan (6 June 2004). Available at: {http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Speeches+by+Israeli+leaders/2004/Statement+by+PM+Sharon+6-June-2004.htm} accessed on 5 August 2010; see also, Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Address at the Herzliya Conference (16 December 2004), available at: {http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Archive/Speeches/2004/12/speech161204.htm} accessed on 5 August 2010); Ehud Olmert, Address by Acting PM Ehud Olmert to the 6th Herzliya Conference (24 January 2006), available at: {http://www.herzliyaconference.org/Eng/_Uploads/1401olmert.doc} accessed on 5 August 2010. Although Olmert's speech is taken from a later period of time, it clearly demonstrates the above-mentioned assertion. Furthermore, it not only exemplifies the discourse but shows its prevalence.

87 See Meir, Ben and Shaked, , The People Speak, p. 62Google Scholar ; Waxman, , ‘From Controversy to Consensus’, p. 88Google Scholar .

88 Newman, ‘The Lines That Continue to Separate Us’, p. 147.

89 See Sucharov, , The International Self, p. 50Google Scholar ; but see in Feige, Michael, One Space, Two Places: Gush Emunim, Peace Now and the Construction of Israeli Space [in Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Magnes, 2002), p. 34Google Scholar .

90 See in Smooha, Sammy, ‘Ethnic Democracy: Israel as an Archetype’, Israel Studies, 2 (1997), pp. 201–205CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Gavison, Ruth, ‘Jewish and Democratic? A Rejoinder to the “Ethnic Democracy” Debate’, Israel Studies, 4 (1999), pp. 44–47Google Scholar .

91 Barnett ‘Culture, Strategy and Foreign Policy Change’, pp. 11–12. For further discussion of the tension and clashes between the Jewish and democratic characteristics of the state, see also Gavison, ‘Jewish and Democratic’, pp. 64–5.

92 Smooha, ‘Ethnic Democracy’, pp. 201, 205, 208, 233.

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98 Amir Lupovici, ‘Identity, Discourse and Deterrence in Israel's Ongoing Battle with Hizbollah’ paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, New York (February 2009).

99 Bar-Tal, Daniel and Sharvit, Keren, ‘The influence of the threatening transitional context on Israeli Jews' reactions to Al Aqsa Intifada’, in Esses, V. M. & Vernon, R. A. (eds), Explaining the breakdown of ethnic relations: Why neighbors kill (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008), pp. 147–170CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Kurtz, Anat N., The Palestinian Uprisings: War with Israel, War at Home (Tel- Aviv: The Institute for National Security Studies, 2009), p. 77Google Scholar . See also Grinberg, , Politics and Violence, pp. 174–175Google Scholar .

100 See, for example, Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Spoke at the Caesaria Conference (30 June 2005), {http://www.sela.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Archive/Speeches/2005/06/speech3006.htm} accessed on 5 August 2010; Alon Gideon, Arnon Regular and Nadav Shragai, ‘Sharon, Abbas to Meet as Cabinet Approves Road Map’, Haaretz (26 May 2003), available at: {http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=296839&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y} accessed on 11 January 2011.

101 Sucharov, , The International Self, p. 114Google Scholar ; See also, Trottier, ‘A Wall, Water and Power’, p. 111; Waxman, ‘From Controversy to Consensus’, p. 85.

102 Tessler, , A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, p. 835Google Scholar .

103 Barnett ‘Culture, Strategy and Foreign Policy Change’, pp. 10–12.

104 Barnett, ‘Culture, Strategy and Foreign Policy Change’; ‘Sucharov, The International Self; Waxman, The Pursuit of Peace.

105 Meir, Ben and Shaked, , The People Speak, pp. 70–71Google Scholar ; Waxman, ‘From Controversy to Consensus’, p. 85.

106 Barnett, ‘Culture, Strategy and Foreign Policy Change’, p. 27.

107 In fact, many in the political arena and in the security establishment warned that concessions – and even unilateral steps – would be interpreted as a ‘prize for terror’. See, for example, Silvan Shalom, Address by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom at the Fourth Herzliya Conference, (17 December 2003), available at: {http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Speeches+by+Israeli+leaders/2003/Address+by+FM+Silvan+Shalom+at+the+Fourth+Herzliya.htm} accessed on 5 August 2010.

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111 Alex Fishman and Sima Kadmon, ‘We Are Seriously Concerned about the Fate of the State of Israel’, Yediot Ahronot (14 November 2003).

112 For some similar arguments, see Yuval Yoaz, ‘Barak: Coming Years Will Determine the Identity of Israel’, Haaretz (19 May 2005); and Israel Harel Israel, ‘Israel Containment Forces’, Haaretz (17 March 2005), available at:{http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=553114} accessed on 5 August 2010.

113 Quoted in Benn Aluf, ‘The Shin Bet Chiefs Did It’, Haaretz (13 October 2004), available at: {www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=487921} accessed on 5 August 2010.

114 Waxman, ‘From Controversy to Consensus’, p. 90; See also in Bar-Tal, Daniel, Living with the Conflict. Socio-Psychological Analysis of the Jewish Society in Israel [in Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Carmel, 2007), p. 295Google Scholar .

115 Ibid., p. 87.

116 Olmert, Address by Acting PM Ehud Olmert to the 6th Herzliya Conference; and see in Nahum Barnea ‘Olmert Calls for a Unilateral Withdrawal from Most Territories’ [in Hebrew], Yedioth Ahronoth, weekend supplementary (5 December 2004).

117 Waxman, ‘From Controversy to Consensus’, p. 87.

118 See in Schueftan, , Disengagement, p. 58Google Scholar ; and A. B. Yehoshua, ‘Eleven Degrees of Separation’ [in Hebrew], Haaretz (2 August 2002).

119 Benvenisti, Son of the Cypresses, p. 189; see also, War and Peace Index, December 2003, pp. 1, 3Google Scholar .

120 Meir, Ben and Shaked, , The People Speak, pp. 18, 36Google Scholar . See also, Waxman, ‘From Controversy to Consensus’, p. 81.

121 Olmert, Address to the 6th Herzliya Conference.

122 Sharon, Ariel Sharon Spoke at the Caesaria Conference. See also, Benn Aluf, and Yossi Verter, ‘PM: I Can Withstand Pressure for Another Disengagement Plan [in Hebrew]’, Haaretz (22 April 2005); Grinber, , Politics and Violence, p. 182Google Scholar .

123 Quoted in Sucharov, , The International Self, p. 164Google Scholar .

124 Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Spoke at the Caesaria Conference, emphasis added; see also, Ben Meir and Shaked, The People Speak, pp. 59–60.

125 Sharon, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Spoke at the Caesaria Conference.

126 See in Zaki Shalom, ‘Underlying the Disengagement Plan’, Strategic Assessment, 8 (2005), p. 3. This assertion should also be understood in the context of criticism of the disengagement plan, which allegedly erodes the Israeli deterrent posture, and is a sign of defeatism, see above p. 13.

127 Sharon, Address at the Herzliya Conference; Olmert, Address to the 6th Herzliya Conference. See also in Shaked, Ben Meir, The People Speak, p. 36Google Scholar ; Evron, Yair, ‘Disengagement and Israeli Deterrence’, Strategic Assessment, 8 (2005), p. 13Google Scholar ; Rynhold, ‘Israel's Fence’, p. 60.

128 Quoted in James Bennet, ‘Sharon's Wars’, The New York Time Magazine Online (15 August 2004), emphasis added; See also, Waxman, , The Pursuit of Peace, p. 181Google Scholar ; Del-Sarto, ‘Region-Building, EU Normative Power, and Contested Identities’, p. 321.

129 Although there were some opponents who criticised this solution, most of the debates, including the appealing for the supreme court, was regarding the route and not the basic question of the establishment of the separation barrier, Trottier, ‘A Wall, Water and Power, pp. 107–8, 111; and see also, for example, in Arieli, and Sfard, , The Wall of Folly, pp. 361–363Google Scholar ; and in Slater, ‘Muting the Alarm over the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’.

130 Arieli, and Sfard, , The Wall of Folly, p. 136Google Scholar , author's translation; see also, War and Peace Index, December 2003, pp. 1, 3; Benvenisti, , Son of the Cypresse, p. 181Google Scholar .

131 Newman, ‘The Lines That Continue to Separate Us’, p. 152.

132 Shavit, quoted in Waxman, ‘From Controversy to Consensus’, p. 87.

133 Avi, Issacharoff, ‘The Bystanders’, Haaretz (15 June 2007).

134 Zvi Bar'el, ‘Let There Be Calm Already, Haaretz (15 June 2008), available at: {http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/992691.html} accessed on 5 August 2010.

135 On the importance of visual expressions concerning emotions, see Bleiker and Hutchison, ‘Fear No More’, p. 131.

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137 Olmert, Address by Acting PM Ehud Olmert to the 6th Herzliya.

138 Meir, Ben and Shaked, , The People Speak, p. 62Google Scholar .

139 Yoel Esteron, ‘Let's Dismantle the Fence’, Haaretz (7 July 2004), available at: {http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/let-s-dismantle-the-fence-1.127806} accessed on 5 January 2011.

140 Ari Shavit, ‘Listen to Me [in Hebrew]’, Haaretz (5 May 2005), available at: {http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArt.jhtml?contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&itemNo=577101} accessed on 6 January 2011.

141 See {http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=210H8wavqbc&feature=player_embedded} accessed on 5 August 2010.

142 Ziv Amitai, ‘Ahmed Tibi joins opposition to Cellcom commercial’, Haaretz (13 July 2009), available at: {http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1100030.html} accessed on 16 March 2010.

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147 Trottier, ‘A Wall, Water and Power’, p. 125. On Israeli role identity of enemy vis-à-vis the Palestinians, see Mitzen, ‘Ontological Security’; see also in Bar-Tal, , Living with the Conflict, p. 296Google Scholar .

148 See Meir, Ben and Shaked, , The People Speak, pp. 59–60Google Scholar .

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150 As Downs emphasises, ‘partition implemented poorly contributes to perpetuating conflict rather than resolving it’, Downes, Alexander B., ‘The Holy Land Divided: Defending Partition as a Solution to Ethnic Wars’, Security Studies, 10 (2001), p. 63CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

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