The Road Back From HellDaniel Levy - Daniel Levy | The New York Times | November 8th 2023

Each day the Israel-Gaza war continues, the risks of a cataclysm intensify. After Israel’s horrific loss of over 1,400 civilians and soldiers on Oct. 7, the civilian death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is now nothing short of staggering. More than 10,300 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, including over 4,100 children. Conditions are deteriorating fast in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with at least 155 Palestinians killed, over 2,150 arrested and threats of ethnic cleansing being voiced by Israeli political and ...

The outside world must walk Israel back from the abyss. It cannot be part of the choir of incitementDaniel Levy - Daniel Levy | Irish Times | October 14th 2023

These are painful and dangerous times. Following Hamas’s launch on October 7th of an attack on Israel that has resulted in the confirmed killing of 1,300 Israelis so far, Israel on Friday gave 24 hours for half of the Palestinian population of Gaza – 1.1 million people – to move south to make way for what they warned would be the entry of a large ground force, having called up 300,000 reservists. Last Monday, Israel cut food, fuel, water and electricity to Gaza.

Archetype of a FailureDaniel Levy - Daniel Levy | Orient XXI | September 13th 2023

September 13, 2023, marks the 30-year anniversary of the signing of the Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles (DOP) on the White House South Lawn. What seemed like an auspicious moment in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and indeed in moving beyond conflict, followed months of intense Norwegian-hosted back-channel diplomacy. The DOP led to a series of agreements known as the Oslo Accords which included the establishment of an interim Palestinian self-governing authority (the PA or PNA) in parts of the Occupied Palestinian territories and the redesig...

Recycling Old Ideas Won’t Avoid Another JeninDaniel Levy - Daniel Levy | Foreign Policy | July 7th 2023

Israel has apparently concluded its latest reinvasion of the Jenin refugee camp and the surrounding city in the occupied West Bank. Those watching the situation from the United States or elsewhere in the global north will have been told by policymakers and experts that these military operations are an unfortunate necessity to keep Palestinian violence in check and Israelis safe. With a few confidence-building measures and economic initiatives offered to the Palestinian Authority (PA), some policymakers may still erroneously believe that the corner can be turned on violent escalations in the...

Israel's judicial crisis and the 'boomerang effect' of colonisation Daniel Levy - Daniel Levy | Middle East Eye | March 30th 2023

As Israel’s economy was shuttered and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became convinced of the need to temporarily suspend his judicial reform legislation this week, one final deal was necessary to hold together his governing coalition.  Itamar Ben Gvir, a serial racist who leads the Jewish Power party and serves as national security minister, was promised by Netanyahu that the state would move forward with creating a national guard under Ben Gvir’s authority - dubbed by some commentators as his “private militia”. 

Ireland can help Palestinians and Israelis by being a more robust voice in EuropeDaniel Levy - Daniel Levy | Irish Times | May 22nd 2023

Gaza is again, perhaps fleetingly, in the headlines. An Israeli assassination strike, inevitably inflicting civilian casualties, led to rockets being launched towards Israel and waves of Israeli bombings. Palestinians in Gaza have been under an Israeli land and sea blockade for 16 years. A very simple fact about Gaza that is rarely mentioned is that it is overwhelmingly a community of refugees; 70 per cent of its population live in refugee camps. Many were expelled from areas in today’s Israel just on the other side of the electrified, highly surveilled and fiercely guarded prison-like f...

Implications of Israel's new governing coalitionDaniel Levy - Briefing memo | January 19th 2023

In reacting to this new Israeli governing coalition, there is a challenge of not ignoring / underplaying its radicalism and in-your-face extremism but also not to pretend things were going swimmingly prior to this new coalition taking office (they were not). This note will focus only on those aspects which impact the Palestinian and regional (+geo-political) questions (there are obviously other implications). Even at this early stage some initial impressions can be sketched out.