Non-Israelis often find it surprising or counter-intuitive that Israel’s top brass, its senior security officials are consistently more dovish than its political leadership. For years, Israeli security officials – retired officials publicly and serving ones privately -- have been the most solid proponents of the two-state solution. Anecdotally, this was a well-known fact.
Now there is a scientific study that shows just how true this truism is. This episode features Dr. Guy Ziv of the School of International Service at American University, and Benjamin L. Shaver, a master’s student at the University of Chicago’s Committee on International Relations. Their new study shows that some 85% of Israel’s leading retired generals, spymasters and other senior security officials support a peace agreement based on the establishment of an independent Palestinian state living side-by-side with Israel in peace and security.
A link to the study (behind a paywall): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00396338.2019.1614790
A link to a Q&A with Dr. Ziv about the study: https://www.american.edu/sis/news/20190524-a-near-consensus-israels-security-establishment-and-the-two-state-solution.cfm
Write to me at onir@peacenow.org
A speech I gave at the Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony in Washington on May 7th.
Dov Waxman is a Professor of Political Science, International Affairs, and Israel Studies and the Director of the Middle East Studies program at Northeastern University.
On the day of its official release, we spoke with Dov about his new book The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know.