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An Israeli Perspective on the Popular Uprisings in the Arab Middle East

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The World Community and the Arab Spring

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Abstract

The recent Arab uprisings constitute a formative event in the history of the modern Arab world. The popular uprisings that broke out in Tunisia and Egypt surprised political, military and academic institutions in Israel. The latter’s reaction to the popular uprisings examines the Arab Islamic milieu from a single, unchanging perspective, Israeli security interests constituting the value standard for the determination of moral judgment and political standing vis-à-vis the Arab world. While Islamists’ rise to power in Egypt was regarded as a serious threat in light of Egypt’s ideological and political affinities with the Gaza-based Hamas, the outbreak of the Syrian uprising marked a paradigmatic shift in the Israeli perspective of the “Arab Spring,” providing a real glimpse of hope that the Tehran-led “axis of evil” might be about to fall.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Elie Podeh, “Don’t Underestimate Tunisia,” Haaretz, 26 January 2011.

  2. 2.

    See Guy Bechor’s article in: http://www.gplanet.co.il/prodetailsamewin.asp?pro_id=1319.

  3. 3.

    “Udi Segal explains why Hosni Mubarak chosen as Man of the Year”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da_ctREElhM.

  4. 4.

    Member of Knesset (MK) Ben-Eliezer: “Israel offered political asylum to Mubarak,” Haaretz, 3 March 2011: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/mk-ben-eliezer-israel-offered-political-asylum-to-mubarak-1.376721.

  5. 5.

    Zvi Bar’el, “Ahmadinejad in Cairo: The first visit to Egypt by Iranian President since 1979,” Haaretz, 5 February 2013.

  6. 6.

    Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel, “Egypt steps up its rhetoric, but still seeks to maintain a ceasefire,” Haaretz, 16 November 2012.

  7. 7.

    See Ehud Yaari, “Morsi dismisses army commanders”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrzAU2E559k.

  8. 8.

    Interview with Prof. Yoram Meital, “Muslim Brotherhood’s failure to convince people that they were capable or worthy of governance,” al-Sunnara, 6 June 2014.

  9. 9.

    “Dawn of a new era: Egypt wakes up after the revolution”: http://www.mako.co.il/news-world/arab/Article-c71546c53b7af31004.htm.

  10. 10.

    Ehud Barak, “Challenges ahead of us,” Lecture delivered on the anniversary of Moshe Dayan’s death, Tel Aviv University, 11 November 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIbw9eNdshs.

  11. 11.

    Ehud Yaari, “Muslim Brotherhood and Israel,” Paper delivered at a conference held at the Institute for National Security Studies on the first anniversary of the outbreak of Arab revolutions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RQVcZAFdFY.

  12. 12.

    Yedioth Ahronot, 20 January 2011; Makor Rishon, 28 June 2012; Israel Hayom, 25 June 2012.

  13. 13.

    http://www.peaceindex.org.

  14. 14.

    Efraim Halevy, “Protest and Revolution in the Middle East,” Fifth Abir Conference, Hebrew University, March 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq8QAD4AUIc.

  15. 15.

    See Shlomo Nakdimon, “Grandpa Efrayim and his adventures in the Mossad,” Haaretz, 25 August 2011.

  16. 16.

    “Ehud Barak ponders: Assad to fall within weeks,” Haaretz, 11 December 2011.

  17. 17.

    “Ehud Barak: It’s better that Assad falls even if the price is chemical weapons leaked to Hezbollah,” Globus, 22 August 2011.

  18. 18.

    Interview with Amos Gilead, “El-Qaeda activists are waiting for a chance to take over Syria,” Walla News, 2 April 2013: http://news.walla.co.il/?w=/9/2629505.

  19. 19.

    Michael Hertzog, “Grabbing the Opportunity in Syria,” Haaretz, 18 June 2012.

  20. 20.

    Interview with Meir Dagan, Calcalist, 10 July 2012: http://www.calcalist.co.il/local/articles/0,7340,L-3576641,00.html.

  21. 21.

    “Ex-intel Chief: Israel should punish Assad for killing civilians,” The Times of Israel, 13 May 2014.

  22. 22.

    Elie Podeh, “Israel—No longer a people dwelling alone,” Jerusalem Post, 14 September 2016.

  23. 23.

    See Meir Dagan’s 2012 lecture as quoted in the documentary film “Khayar al-Darurah” aired on al-Mayadin channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4zVpsfdUc8.

  24. 24.

    Amos Harel, “Israel is changing its approach to Syria war amid Assad’s battleground advances,” Haaretz, 21 November 2016.

  25. 25.

    Amos Harel, “The arrangement in Syria is not necessarily good news for Israel,” Haaretz, 10 September 2016 (Hebrew).

  26. 26.

    Amos Yadlin, “Israel remains a stable island in an ocean of enmity and religious extremism,” Haaretz, 20 December 2012.

  27. 27.

    Netanyahu’s address to the Knesset during the reception of Canada’s Prime Minister, 20 January 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Q1Q93C6qU.

  28. 28.

    Dori Gold, “Will the Arab Spring become Autumn?”: http://jcpa.org.il/2011/05/.

  29. 29.

    Interview with Dan Schueftan, Shams Radio, 14 July 2014.

  30. 30.

    Avid Dichter, “The Arab world is ignoring the Syrian people”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rGhmcZu6Iw.

  31. 31.

    Benny Morris, “Committed to defeat Hamas in the next war,” Haaretz, 25 July 2014.

  32. 32.

    Interview with Minister of Economy Naftali Bennett, BBC Hard Talk, 25 February 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22GP-jR9OkA.

  33. 33.

    Ehud Barak, “Challenges ahead of us,” Paper delivered on the anniversary of Moshe Dayan’s death, Moshe Dayan Centre for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University, 11 November 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIbw9eNdshs.

  34. 34.

    Op-ed “Poverty, violence and hatred: The Arab world just failed,” The Marker, 8 July 2014.

  35. 35.

    Shimon Shamir, “Arab failure,” Haaretz, 26 November 2016.

  36. 36.

    Asher Susser, “The Arab-Israeli conflict in the shadow of the Arab Spring: Risks and prospects”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgoJS3vP8p8.

  37. 37.

    Michael Herzog, “Exploiting the opportunity in Syria,” Haaretz, 18 June 2102 (Hebrew).

  38. 38.

    Ehud Yaari, “Recent developments in the Middle East”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83jqLcOUf8M.

  39. 39.

    Shlomo Avineri, Keynote Address, Fifth Abeer Conference, Hebrew University, March 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbdA47TQJqk. Avineri is a lecturer in Political Science at the Hebrew University and former Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

  40. 40.

    Netanyahu’s address to the Knesset during the reception of Canada’s Prime Minister, 20 January 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Q1Q93C6qU.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shalem College, Jerusalem, Israel

    Yusri Hazran

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  1. Yusri Hazran
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Correspondence to Yusri Hazran .

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  1. Independent Researcher, Eskişehir, Turkey

    Cenap Çakmak

  2. Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Eskişehir, Turkey

    Ali Onur Özçelik

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Hazran, Y. (2019). An Israeli Perspective on the Popular Uprisings in the Arab Middle East. In: Çakmak, C., Özçelik, A.O. (eds) The World Community and the Arab Spring. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60985-0_14

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