Professor Shaul Mishal, Head of the Middle East program in the School of Government at IDC, and Brian Mulroney Professor of Government, Department of Political Science, Tel Aviv University, spoke at JPC about Israel and Hamas: A New Paradigm?
Prof. Mishal reminded the JPC press members that it was Israel who had encouraged the establishment of Hamas, as a counter-force to the PLO, which, in the mid 1970′, was considered the worst enemy of Israel. He explained that Hamas started as a social-religious organization, and gradually acquired military capabilities. Prof. Mishal predicted that there was an opportunity for a Hudna (ceasefire, in Arabic) between Hamas and Israel, and that Hamas will find a religious excuse for this. At the same time, Hamas will not drop its military option, using it to placate potential opponents of the Hudna.
About the speaker:
Professor Shaul Mishal is the Head of the Middle East program in the School of Government at IDC, Brain Mulroney Professor of Government, Department of Political Science,Tel Aviv University. Mishal’s research focuses on societies and politics in the Middle East; political strategies; Palestinian politics; Hamas and Islamic non state organizations. He earned his PhD at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; has been a visiting Professor of Political Science at Yale University, a Visiting Scholar at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard; and a Senior Fellow at the Harvard School of Public health. He has published several books on topics relating to the Palestinian national movement, the Palestinian Islam, The political economy of Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), Israeli-Arab political culture and the Shiite leadership. These include: West Bank/East Bank: The Palestinians in Jordan, 1949-1967 (Yale University Press), The PLO under Arafat: Between Gun and Olive Branch (Yale University Press), Speaking Stones: Communiques from the Intifada Underground (with Reuven Aharoni) (Syracuse University Press), The Palestinian Hamas: Vision, Violence and Coexistence (with Avraham Sela)(Columbia University Press), Investment in Peace: The Politics of Economic Cooperation Between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians (with R. Kuperman, D. Boas)(Sussex Academic Press) and Understanding Shiite Leadership: The Art of Middle Ground in Iran and Lebanon (with Ori Goldberg) (Cambridge University Press). In addition, Professor Mishal founded and directed the Center for Israeli Arab Studies, which focuses on Arab society and culture in Israel and serving as an academic consultant to the Department of Political Planning at the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Defense Ministry on issues of terrorism, the Israel- Palestinian dispute and Arab regional politics.
Professor Mishal’s research activities include participations in International conferences took place in leading American universities: Yale, Harvard and MIT; commentary on Hamas, Israel and Middle East current events on TV’s leading stations and newspapers in the U.S., Europe, South America, Japan and Australia, and Co-Principal Investigator on Palestinian Suicide Bomber’s research initiated and financed by Homeland Security Center of Excellence for Behavioral and Social Research on Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism.
