Jonathan Rynhold
Bar-Ilan University, Political Studies, Faculty Member
- Israel/Palestine, Israel Studies, Arab-Israeli conflict, US - Israeli Relations, American Foreign Policy, International Relations, and 11 moreIsrael, United States, Political Culture, Peace and Conflict Studies, International Security, Security Studies, Constructivism, Strategic Culture, International Politics, Foreign Policy Analysis, and U.S. Foreign Policyedit
- I am a Professor of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University. I specialize in US-Israeli relations, Israeli politics and foreign policyedit
Since 2015, there has been a sharp turnaround in Democrats' sympathies for Israel and the Palestinians. The percentage of Democrats with a preference for Israel is more or less tied with those preferring the Palestinians, wiping out... more
Since 2015, there has been a sharp turnaround in Democrats' sympathies for Israel and the Palestinians. The percentage of Democrats with a preference for Israel is more or less tied with those preferring the Palestinians, wiping out Israel's historic advantage. Long-term processes of liberalization and secularization have generated a more difficult environment for Israel and a more favorable one for the Palestinians, but they alone do not account for the shift. Rather, the
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This article addresses the influence of diaspora lobbies on US foreign policy by analyzing the failure of the paradigmatic lobby-AIPAC-to block the 2015 Iran deal. The literature on the efficacy of diaspora lobbies focuses on structural... more
This article addresses the influence of diaspora lobbies on US foreign policy by analyzing the failure of the paradigmatic lobby-AIPAC-to block the 2015 Iran deal. The literature on the efficacy of diaspora lobbies focuses on structural material factors. In contrast, this study introduces an agency-orientated constructivist approach focused on ideational factors. While the material institutional setting contributed to AIPAC's defeat by establishing a high bar to overcome, this was not insurmountable. Consequently, such material factors must be combined with ideational factors to fully explain AIPAC's defeat. In this vein, the prevalence of negative affective partisanship generated a "cultural opportunity structure" for the President to wield party loyalty to obtain the support of Congressional Democrats. Yet, this too was not insurmountable for AIPAC, had opposition to the deal not become tainted by partisanship. However, the "Republican first" strategy pursued by the public face of the campaign, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, undermined AIPAC's "discursive authority." This generated "identity dissonance" within the American Jewish community and for other Democratic supporters of Israel, by casting their identification with Israel against their identification with the Democratic Party. In contrast, President Obama successfully framed the issue to minimize identity dissonance. AIPAC's great success derives from its capacity to define what it means to be pro-Israel.
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This article charts the development of a quiet revolution in Israeli-Saudi relations , based on a wide variety of sources including interviews with senior Israeli and American officials and background conversations with Arab diplomats.... more
This article charts the development of a quiet revolution in Israeli-Saudi relations , based on a wide variety of sources including interviews with senior Israeli and American officials and background conversations with Arab diplomats. The underlying cause of this revolution has been the dramatic increase in the threat posed by Iran, which has led to unprecedented strategic cooperation. For the first time, the Saudi regime has sanctioned steps towards normalizing relations with Israel prior to a comprehensive peace agreement. Of primary importance has been Israel's willingness and ability to assist in countering Iran, and the lack of reliable and effective alternative means available to Saudi Arabia in this regard. At the same time, domestic politics in Israel-combined with the Saudi regime's sensitivity to the transnational resonance of the Palestinian issue-continue to constrain the relationship. Consequently, without major progress towards a resolution of the conflict and Palestinian statehood, the full normalization of Saudi-Israeli relations is highly unlikely.
This book examines US foreign policy and global standing in the 21st Century. The United States is the most powerful actor in world politics today. Against this backdrop, the present volume examines how the foreign policies pursued by... more
This book examines US foreign policy and global standing in the 21st Century.
The United States is the most powerful actor in world politics today. Against this backdrop, the present volume examines how the foreign policies pursued by Presidents’ George W. Bush and Barack Obama have affected elite and public perceptions of the United States. By examining America’s standing from the perspective of different actors from across various regions, including China, Russia, Latin America and the Middle East, while also assessing how these perceptions interact with America’s own policies, this books presents a fresh interpretation of America’s global standing. In doing so, the volume evaluates how these perceptions affect the realities of US power, and what impact this has on moulding US foreign policy and the policies of other global powers. A number of books address the question of which grand strategy the United States should adopt and the issue of whether or not America is in relative decline as a world power. However, the debate on these issues has largely been set against the policies of the Bush administration. By contrast, this volume argues that while Obama has raised the popularity of America since the low reached by Bush, America’s credibility and overall standing have actually been damaged further under President Obama.
This book will be of much interest to students of US foreign policy, US national security, strategic studies, Middle Eastern politics, international relations and security studies generally.
The United States is the most powerful actor in world politics today. Against this backdrop, the present volume examines how the foreign policies pursued by Presidents’ George W. Bush and Barack Obama have affected elite and public perceptions of the United States. By examining America’s standing from the perspective of different actors from across various regions, including China, Russia, Latin America and the Middle East, while also assessing how these perceptions interact with America’s own policies, this books presents a fresh interpretation of America’s global standing. In doing so, the volume evaluates how these perceptions affect the realities of US power, and what impact this has on moulding US foreign policy and the policies of other global powers. A number of books address the question of which grand strategy the United States should adopt and the issue of whether or not America is in relative decline as a world power. However, the debate on these issues has largely been set against the policies of the Bush administration. By contrast, this volume argues that while Obama has raised the popularity of America since the low reached by Bush, America’s credibility and overall standing have actually been damaged further under President Obama.
This book will be of much interest to students of US foreign policy, US national security, strategic studies, Middle Eastern politics, international relations and security studies generally.
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This chapter examines Israeli public opinion towards the US and the Obama Administration 2009-2014' in J, Rynhold and E. Inbar eds., US Foreign Policy & Global Standing in the 21st Century: Realities & Perceptions
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This book surveys discourse and opinion in the United States toward the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1991. Contrary to popular myth, it demonstrates that U.S. support for Israel is not based on the pro-Israel lobby, but rather is deeply... more
This book surveys discourse and opinion in the United States toward the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1991. Contrary to popular myth, it demonstrates that U.S. support for Israel is not based on the pro-Israel lobby, but rather is deeply rooted in American political culture. That support has increased since 9/11. However, the bulk of this increase has been among Republicans, conservatives, evangelicals, and Orthodox Jews. Meanwhile, among Democrats, liberals, the Mainline Protestant Church, and non-Orthodox Jews, criticism of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians has become more vociferous. This book works to explain this paradox.
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In order to garner the necessary legitimacy to enact a future final status peace agreement with Syria or the Palestinians, Israeli politicians from the Left and the Right have endorsed the concept of a peace referendum. This article... more
In order to garner the necessary legitimacy to enact a future final status peace agreement with Syria or the Palestinians, Israeli politicians from the Left and the Right have endorsed the concept of a peace referendum. This article examines the potential consequences of a peace referendum in Israel by drawing on the referendum experience in Northern Ireland regarding the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. In the case of Northern Ireland, the legitimisation of the agreement required not only a clear majority of votes cast but also a clear majority among Protestants: an ‘ethnic majority’. Given the similarity of the discourse surrounding a peace referendum in Northern Ireland and in Israel, it is clear that a referendum in Israel would similarly require an ethnic Jewish majority to legitimise a peace agreement. Under these circumstances, rather than legitimising peace between Israel and its neighbours, a referendum would be more likely to result in a broad legitimation crisis for Israeli democracy by deepening the ethnic tensions between Israel's Jewish majority and its Arab minority. Hence, in contradistinction to the conventional wisdom, Israel would be well advised to avoid the use of a peace referendum.
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This article analyzes the relationship between religion and Israeli approaches to the conflict with the Palestinians. It seeks to explain why religion has become closely correlated with hawkishness since 1967. While the Jewish religion... more
This article analyzes the relationship between religion and Israeli approaches to the conflict with the Palestinians. It seeks to explain why religion has become closely correlated with hawkishness since 1967. While the Jewish religion advocates no single approach to the conflict with the Palestinians, the religious have been significantly more hawkish than the nonreligious in Israel. This is because religion in Israel has reinforced ethnocentricity among the Jewish public, which in turn is highly correlated with hawkishness. Yet the correlation between religion and hawkishness only became politically prominent after 1967. This prominence is a function of the way religion has interacted with changes in Israeli political culture that were driven by the process of postmodernization. Whereas mainstream Israeli political culture has become less ethnocentric and more liberal, and consequently more dovish, the religious community has moved in the opposite direction. In this vein, religion has served to shield its adherents from most of the effects of postmodernization while simultaneously encouraging countervailing trends, which accounts for the polarization referred to above. In other words, it is the way religion has interacted with postmodernization that has made it the most effective incubator for hawkishness in Israel since 1967.
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The paper considers the future of European Union policies towards Israel. Tensions between the EU and Israel have grown as a result of declining conndence in the possibility of reaching a two state solution – a keystone of EU policy – in... more
The paper considers the future of European Union policies towards Israel. Tensions between the EU and Israel have grown as a result of declining conndence in the possibility of reaching a two state solution – a keystone of EU policy – in part because of the rightward shift in Israeli policies. This tension in Europe's relations with Israel is exacerbated by attitudinal trends: younger people in Western Europe tend to be more critical of Israel, whilst growing Muslim minorities identify with the Palestinians. Yet EU measures to pressure Israel have remained limited. Drawing on interviews with oocials from the EU, its member states, and Israel, this paper explains this in terms of four interrelated factors. First is underlying diierences of interpretation of the Israeli-Palestinian connict within and between EU members shaped by political culture and ideology. Second is turmoil in the Middle East, which has triggered security and migration spill-overs into Europe; catalysed closer cooperation between Israel and Arab states; and changed European perceptions of Jihadist violence. Third is economic and political instability within Europe itself, focusing EU priorities on its own citizens' welfare, and fuelling populist nationalism which identiies with Israel in the face of Islamism. Fourth is Israel's growing strength as an economic and strategic power, and potential gas exporter. We conclude that these geopolitical trends have opened an opportunity for deeper cooperation between Israel and Europe, but this could be squandered as draining conndence in a Palestinian state and Israeli democracy further alienates key EU members.
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... 519, January 1992, p. 90. 7 Yitzhak Shichor, 'China and the Gulf Crisis', Problems of Communism, vol. 40, no. ... 182-86; on its approval of international involvement, see Yitzhak Shichor, 'China and the Role of the UN... more
... 519, January 1992, p. 90. 7 Yitzhak Shichor, 'China and the Gulf Crisis', Problems of Communism, vol. 40, no. ... 182-86; on its approval of international involvement, see Yitzhak Shichor, 'China and the Role of the UN in the Middle East', Asian Survey, vol. 31, no. ...
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Page 1. Journal of Political Ideologies (2002), 7(2), 199220 In search of Israeli conservatism JONATHAN RYNHOLD Department of Political Studies, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 52900, Israel ABSTRACT The major political ...
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... Subsequently, a bill sponsored by Republican senator Jesse Helms, who had his own contacts direct with Likud party operatives, sought to prevent the administration speaking to any PLO official who had been previously involved either... more
... Subsequently, a bill sponsored by Republican senator Jesse Helms, who had his own contacts direct with Likud party operatives, sought to prevent the administration speaking to any PLO official who had been previously involved either directly or indirectly, in terror. ...