In the News: Miriam F. Elman

Sound scholarship helps us understand what sometimes seems unknowable: North Africa and the Middle East.

Israel recently published a list of 20 mainly European and U.S.-based pro-BDS organizations whose senior members will be automatically barred from entering Israel, a move that Miriam Elman, associate professor of political science, says is long overdue.

"What Trump is trying to get the Palestinian authority to realize is that if they want an independent state and peace, then they are going to have to do it within Israel, whose capital happens to be in Jerusalem," says Miriam Elman, associate professor of political science.

Miriam Elman, associate professor of political science, says panelists at a recent anti-Semitism forum downplayed escalating anti-Jewish bigotry on U.S. college campuses, "where the problem is not coming from Trump or the alt-Right but from the progressive Left." 

Miriam Elman, associate professor of political science, says that "the current hostility to the Balfour Declaration Centennial tells us a lot about why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains so intractable. It isn’t really about post-1967 settlements or post-1967 borders, but about a very basic and visceral intolerance to Jewish sovereign legitimacy anywhere in the Jewish people’s ancestral homeland.”

"The amended Entry Law shouldn’t make it difficult for the vast majority of people who criticize Israel to get tourist visas," writes Miriam Elman, associate professor of political science. "To meet the criteria, you have to hold a senior-level position in certain targeted organizations, be key activists in the boycott movement, be an establishment figure who openly supports the boycott, or operate on behalf of the targeted organizations."

Miriam Elman, associate professor of political science, commented on the Israeli academic ethics code and how it compares to that of the American Association of University Professors.

Miriam Elman, associate professor of political science, says President Trump “really values uncertainty as a matter of strategy and policy,” leading to questions about the U.S. Israel alliance.

“Many aspects of the speech and the points that Secretary Kerry was trying to give as a framework for peace contradict what was stated in the U.N. Security Council resolution. There’s quite a bit of discrepancy in these two documents when you look at them,” says Miriam Elman, associate professor of political science.

"A careful look at conflict-resolution theory suggests that moving the embassy could be a constructive move, pushing Israelis and Palestinians back to negotiations," writes Miriam Elman, associate professor of political science, on President Trump's proposal to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.

Using the contested theory of "democratic peace" as a foundational framework, the contributors explore the effects of a variety of internal influences on Israeli government practices related to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking: electoral systems; political parties; identity; leadership; and social movements.