status quo

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a Likud Party election rally in Jerusalem, on February 26, 2020. Photo by Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90

The transformative legacy of Mr. Status Quo

Benjamin Netanyahu made everybody believe there could never be an alternative to the so-called 'status quo.' His departure should serve as a reminder that one always exists.

By Noam Sheizaf June 13, 2021

Illustrative photo of Palestinian women standing in line as they try to pass through Qalandiya checkpoint, which separates the West Bank city of Ramallah from Jerusalem. (Issam Rimawi/Flash90)

We are all one staters now

The ideological argument over the future of Israel-Palestine disguises the fact that for the past decade we have been living in a one-state reality.

By Noam Sheizaf December 27, 2019

Supreme Court President Esther Hayut (C) and Judges of the Supreme Court arrive for a court hearing at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, March 14, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The right’s plan to get rid of Israel’s High Court

The far right wants to defang Israel’s highest court to fulfill its annexationist dreams. Netanyahu wants to overpower it to ensure he remains on the throne. For Palestinians, annexation has long been a fact on the ground. By Meron Rapoport The attacks on Israel’s High Court by the right would not have gained traction without Prime Minister Netanyahu’s personal support. These…

By +972 Magazine May 24, 2019

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A partly constructed portion of Israel's separation wall, in Walaja, December 7, 2010 (Anne Paq/Activestills.org)

+972 poll: Israelis reject the status quo, fear int’l isolation

Over 70 percent of Israelis are worried about international isolation. Half believe settlements strengthen Israeli security and over half support a breakthrough vision for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – roughly the same rate of support for the traditional two-state paradigm. But one-quarter support an apartheid vision for the future. Half the population supports anchoring Jewish…

By Dahlia Scheindlin December 24, 2014

Jewish Home party chairman Naftali Bennett (Photo by Activestills.org)

Bennett is not the problem

American administrations have a tendency to blame the ‘radical’ settlers for torpedoing peace missions. The real problem, however, is with the ‘moderates’ who are complicit in maintaining the status quo. There is a lot of talk in some circles about Naftali Bennett’s appearance at the Saban Forum last weekend (video below). Bennett, who heads the…

By Noam Sheizaf December 9, 2014

Israeli ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor (UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras

Israel’s UN ambassador puts another nail in the two-state coffin

‘Imagine the type of state [Palestinian] society would produce. Does the Middle East really need another terror-ocracy?’ Prosor said in a speech on Monday. In recent years Israeli government officials have learned that rejecting the rights of Palestinians should always go hand-in-hand with a verbal commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state. But the…

By Noam Sheizaf November 25, 2014

An Israeli police officer stands outside the Jerusalem synagogue where two Palestinians killed four worshippers and seriously wounded seven others, November 18, 2014. (Photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Welcome to Netanyahu’s ‘resolution’ to the conflict

Netanyahu, Bennett and Lieberman all promised Israelis quiet and prosperity without having to end the occupation. This is what we got instead. Following this morning’s horrifying terror attack, it’s not so difficult to imagine how Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Liberman or Benjamin Netanyahu might describe the current government if they weren’t its leaders. You can almost…

By Noam Sheizaf November 18, 2014

Israeli soldiers inspect their tanks on the Gaza border during Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012. (Photo by Activestills.org)

A siege of inertia: Israel’s non-policy on Gaza

One government inherits the siege from another, the prime minister admits it’s more harmful than helpful, the cabinet never formulates or even discusses a policy, and one minister goes as far as admitting that the only driving force behind Israel’s Gaza policy is inertia. By Itamar Sha’altiel There is something tempting about trying to connect all…

By +972 Magazine October 13, 2014

A Palestinian Bedouin family after their Jordan Valley home was demolished by Israeli army forces. (File photo by Anne Paq/Activestills.org)

There’s nothing static about the West Bank ‘status quo’

Israel is already carrying out Bennett’s annexation plan, only without the formal annexation part. The West Bank is a very different place than it was 10 years ago. It will be even more different five or 10 years from now. The indispensable Amira Hass reported this morning about an Israeli plan to push thousands of Palestinian-Bedouin into…

By Noam Sheizaf September 16, 2014

Palestinians from the West Bank with permits to enter Israel wait at the Israeli military checkpoint in the separation wall controlling movement between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, June 12, 2014. (Photo: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

Replacing the peace process with a civil rights struggle

What would happen if Israeli progressives and their supporters demanded an end to the military court system, or called for freedom of movement for Palestinians? The answer: a lot. The two-state solution has long been transformed from a means (to solving the problem of the occupation) to an end. As I wrote here in the…

By Noam Sheizaf September 9, 2014

A child surveys the destruction in Beit Lahiya, Gaza. (photo: Anne Paq/Activestills.org)

This is Netanyahu’s final status solution

The Gaza war should be seen as part of Israel’s overall strategy, which aims to maintain the current status quo in the Palestinian Territories. One of the Israeli Right’s greatest political achievements was convincing the public that “we tried the Left’s ideas, and they failed.” Some even say that the current reality is the outcome…

By Noam Sheizaf August 4, 2014

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, and Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat address reporters on the Middle East Peace Process Talks at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on July 30, 2013. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

Halfway through timeframe, Palestinian-Israeli talks are going nowhere

The two parties haven’t met in almost a month, and Israeli politicians are now openly discussing the success of maintaining the status quo. Even the crisis with the European Union is over. Roughly halfway through the current round of negotiations, the talks between Israeli and Palestinians negotiators have hit a new low point. Palestinian chief…

By Noam Sheizaf November 28, 2013

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in the cabinet, Nov. 18, 2012 (Photo: Kobi Gideon / GPO)

The secret to Netanyahu’s success

A few days ago, Haaretz’s West Bank correspondence Chaim Levinson used his Facebook page to ask about the reasons for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s success. Here is an excerpt from Levinson’s post: What is in this man that Israelis cannot imagine life without him? […] In my opinion, [Netanyahu] does nothing. A coward pretending to be a leader…

By Noam Sheizaf November 17, 2013