EIRP Proceedings, Vol 13 (2018)

Abstract

It has been argued that president Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the ethernalcapital of Israel lead to a complete freezing of an Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Judging by the internaldynamics of both actors, the prospects of an agreement, established on mutual agreed land swaps, have longbeen diminished. The theory of neoclassical realism, based on the frame structure by Norrin Ripsman,Jeffrey Taliaferro and Steven Lobell, provides the mechanism for conceptualizing the factors influencingdecisions on this subject. In such a complex regional envinroment, the external stimuli, translated throughan intervening variable, has a causal effect on the dinamics of reconciliation. Thus, the range of domesticlevelarrangements can interweave responses to systemic and sub-systemic pressure and have a significantimpact on the strategic behavior of a decision factor. This study analyses the determinants of state-societyrelations, both in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, underlining the way they had conditioned domesticleaders’ foreign policy options before and after Trump’s decision. The paper aims to indicate which of theseinteractions have causal potential in order to include them inside an explanatory scheme that highlights thecurrent freezing status of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.