15000 words Dissertation The writer must have a solid background in middle east politics and especially the Arab-Israeli Conflict. I need a draft of every chapter like every week, Please guarantee all of my instructions are strictly followed and please make sure that plagiarism is not tolerated. The order must be handled by one writer only, so who ever starts the work must finish it until the end. Further instructions will be uploaded.
Dissertation Proposal
Full title: Jordan’s role in Future Palestinian-Israeli Peace Plans.
Chosen topic
The scope of the research will be Jordan-related peace initiatives for Palestine and Israel with
focus on the theme of confederation/federation. Its interest is to assess and determine
achievement of sustainable peace between Palestine and Israel through
confederation/federation.
Aims and Objectives of the Dissertation
The aim of the research shall be to determine the role of Jordan in achieving Palestinian-
Israeli conflict resolution through a federation/confederation model. The objectives will be:
1) To assess feasibility of Palestinian-Israeli one-state and two-state resolution options.
2) To weigh the role and commitment of other Arab countries and the West in the peace
process.
3) To analyse the interests of Jordan in Palestinian-Israeli peace deal.
4) To determine the options Jordan has in brokering sustainable peace deal between
Palestine and Israel through confederation/federation.
Relevance:
The peace process is the utmost necessity of the overall peace in Middle East Region. As the
existing models of the conflict resolution failed due to incapability of both sides to reach a
consensus, there must be some other options or methods to bring forward and take the
initiative of durable peace; however the federation model is not the new way of resolving the
conflict, but it is a forgotten method since 1988. The current peace process is not gaining the
momentum and seeing two different stances from Palestine and Israel. The proposed research
Dissertation Proposal 4
is relevant in a way that it will evaluate the significance of the confederation model once
presented by the King of Jordan and how this model can be applied to the resolution of
conflict, as well as the feasibility of the model in terms of the ground realities of strength of
Israel and weaker Palestinian nation.
Novelty:
Being a neighbour of Palestine and having a clear stake to have peace in the region. Jordan
actively remained a part of the peace process between Palestine and Israel and time and again
it proposed solutions to the conflict and represented Palestine in the United Nations. Jordan is
one of the Arab states, having better relations with Israel, so the proposed research will see
the options of revival of the effort of Jordan to kick start the negotiations again about the
confederation model it once proposed in the past and played a key role. The dissertation will
discuss this model for the conflict resolution of Palestine-Israel, considering the rational actor
model of the foreign policy analysis and what role the individual actors can play in the
redundant peace talks.
Research Questions
Main question: What could be the role of Jordan in achieving Palestinian-Israeli conflict
resolution through a federation/confederation system?
Secondary Research Questions
What are the chances of success of Palestinian-Israeli one-state and two-state resolution
options?
What are the interests of Jordan in Palestinian-Israeli peace deal?
Dissertation Proposal 5
What options does Jordan have in brokering sustainable peace deal between Palestine and
Israel through confederation/federation?
Hypotheses
This research is based on the following hypotheses:
1) The Palestinian-Israeli one-state option cannot be revived.
2) The two-state option between Palestine and Israel is not feasible.
3) Both Palestinian-Israeli and Jordanian-Palestinian confederation frameworks are
feasible.
4) Wait for the future to reveal what it obscures regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
5) Re-examining the solution of Confederation system and Federation system.
Literature review
In the view of Barari (2014) and Smith (2010), the Jordanian-Israeli relationship dates back
to the period of British Mandate when the French and British were involved in the region
following the First World War and the establishment of Israeli State in 1948 (Laqueur and
Schueftan, 2016). The relationship between the two sides was founded on their overlapping
strategic interests. Even though Jordan and Israel have been involved in conflict a number of
times and maintained a seemingly hostile interaction, Barari (2014) documents that their
relationship has never completely dwindled, full of turmoil, but a necessary union.
Jordanian and Palestinian people have been obliged to interact with one another given their
social, geographic, demographic and economic interaction. According to Gelvin (2014),
evolution of Jordan-Palestine relationship following the 1950 decision to unite Transjordan
and West Bank in making up the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has been full of conflicts. In
the view of Shlaim (2008), King Hussein might have been fighting to retain Palestinian
Dissertation Proposal 6
homeland, rather than maintaining Jordanian territory in his pursuit of taking West Bank from
Israel. The role of King Hussein in his forty-six years of being a monarch of Jordan played a
significant role in keeping Palestinian homelands at a time of administrative, political and
military weakness, but the curve of relations show the pace of the Jordan-Israel accord, owing
to the rational actor model theory of foreign policy, contending the importance of role of
individuals in the foreign policy making. In 1970’s Israel (liberal govt.) helped the Hussain’s
government in the civil war between PLO and King Hussain to protect the control of Jordan.
The diplomatic peace process based on dual track existed between Israel and Jordan during
1967-88 (Lukacs, 1997: 94). In 1972, the United Kingdom Plan of King Hussain was
revealed, offering to incorporate the Palestinian territory with Jordan making a confederation
state (Lukacs, 1997), to divide the Palestinians into factions and protect Israel. King Hussain,
who already predicted the advantages of aligning Jordan’s interests with the Zionist state
(Barari, 2014: 125), held more than 800 hours of meetings with the Israelite leaders during
the government of Labour Party. During Likud term in office, 1977-84, only one meeting was
held with the Israel’s leadership, and afterwards during the government of national unity,
several secret and open meetings were held during 1984-88 leading to April 1987 London
Agreement (Lukacs, 1997: 94). Afterwards Jordan helped the Israel-PLO accord and a series
of meetings took place between both countries. In 1993, they made a joint economic
committee. The second track was the indirect public dialogues carried out through good
offices. The dialogue focussed on the formal peace process and a possible withdrawal of
Israel from the occupied territories of Palestine (Zogby, 2018).
There were two main plans that are presented as a solution to the problem of the conflict
between Palestine and Israel.
“The One State Solution” offered creating a single state out of the two nations. The move
will let the Muslim population outnumber the Jewish population and the democratic
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government will allow the Muslims to gain power in the country and that would mean the end
of a Jewish state, so the Israelis are not in favour of such a solution. On the other hand, there
is a version of this solution that is favoured by some Israelis where the single state will have a
system of governance where the Palestinians will be forced out or marginalized in some way
to create a larger Jewish state (Brenner, 2018).
The classic concept of two-state solution mandated by the United Nations to end the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been viewed as the only sustainable solution for decades.
Throughout evolution of the two-state model, a number of political conditions had to be met.
These include the need for a legitimate and capable Palestinian leadership with ability to
implement a coherent authority and law (Barari, 2014: 26); an Israeli leadership with full
commitment to end Israel’s control of the West Bank and Gaza (most difficult part of the
solution); a wide-ranging support from Arab states (financially and politically) (Hilal, 2007).
The model assumes that separation is the key to bringing peace (Nicholas, 1998) and that the
people of Palestine and Israel will follow their leaders during the formation and after the
formation of the two states (Tagliabue, 2014) and could actually gain traction and become a
reason for peace in a conflict that some find the roots of in ancient times (Gerner, 2018). Post
(2015) reiterates that Palestinian institutions and leadership have lost legitimacy, credibility
and functionality both locally and regionally. On the other hand the Israeli quest for settling
the conflict died away with an aggressive behaviour after the Olympic of Munich killings of
11 Israeli athletes. The statement to the Knesset by the Prime Minister Golda Meir reflected
the unyielding behaviour of Israel towards the Palestinians and their strikes against Israel, out
of anger and frustration.
Dissertation Proposal 8
Confederation and Federation Model for Solution of Arab-Israel Conflict
A number of Jewish thinkers proposed the concept of confederation as the only way of
having a Jewish entity in Palestine as early as 1940s. Dr. Hanna Arendt and Dr. Yehuda
Magnes were the first to put forward the possibility of a Jewish-Arab confederation in 1940s
(Jacobson, 2013; Magnes, 1982). Additionally, Zee’v Jabotinsky’s political thinking also
pointed towards the creation of confederative arrangement. Resolution 181 of the United
Nations passed in 1947 presented propositions that envisaged a confederation-based
collaboration between the Palestine and Israel.
The Jordanian Palestinian federation was given by King Abdullah and it proposed an idea of
a United Arab Kingdom, incorporating the West bank into the federal system, merging West
Bank into Jordan rejected by PLO (Lukacs, 1995: 95). In 1982, the Reagan plan was
proposed; giving the Palestine an opportunity again to associate with Jordan and King also
suggested the PLO a confederation (Barari, 2014). This was approved by the Palestinian
National Council, but with a condition of sovereignty, and in 1985 a joint proposal was
presented to settle the issue of confederation based on the United Nations resolutions. The
confederation proposal was processed and presented in the United Nations Security Council,
rejected by Israel and US. This was given up in February 1986, during the Madrid conference
talks. The talks could not accomplish due to several oppositions within and the bid for Arafat
to gain some control and individuality in the whole peace process.
The Jordan option was revived in 2007 after an initial proposal in 1936 in response to the
Great Arab Revolt to the British Mandate (Hughes, 2009; Haiduc-Dale, 2013; Norris; 2008;
Swedenburg, 1988). For ages, the Jordanian confederation has been used as a punitive tool
for Palestine by the West and a tool for rewarding Israel for its loyalty. This option would
lead to transfer of roughly 225,000 Palestinians out of the territory allotment for Jewish state,
Dissertation Proposal 9
a fact that was rejected by Palestinian Arab leadership (Abu-Ghazaleh, 1972). Hundreds of
thousands of Palestinian refugees arrived in Jordan more than six decades ago as well, and
were granted Jordanian citizenship (Hassouna, 1975).
Forsyth (1981) defines confederation as the union of political units for purposes of common
action relating to other units. Beaud (2009) seeks to explain the concept of federation as a
separate entity from the state, and is a form of political entity, and not a state in itself distinct
from states but equal in status. Federation is a set of sovereign states with destroyed and
divided sovereignty and member states are not the states, but a part of higher authority (56).
Using the idea of Montesquieu in generating the idea of a union of freely consenting states he
argues that the federal pact is a form of birth certificate of a federation. The
federation/confederation has an independent and interdependent relationship depending on
empirical degree of federation, and the one state/two state resolution in this case was that of a
state model. The main drivers of federation are security and prosperity and the maintenance
of internal order, a suitable objective in case of Palestine-Israel context. Duality, parity and
plurality are the characteristics of a federation, not found in the states and cover the political
interests (423-424).
Theoretical Framework:
The theory of foreign policy analysis provides the theoretical correlation of the empirical
ground of the international relations theories, and it is character specific study of the foreign
relations between the nations arguing that the human decision makings are the sole reason of
the changes in the foreign policy decisions and their outcomes (Hudson, 2005:1). Thus a
unitary rational actor is equivalent to a state, and this is sometimes referred to as the black
boxing of a state or a billiard ball model of the state interaction. This theory provides an
opportunity to analyse the process and the results of a particular decision making, having
Dissertation Proposal 10
particular consequences as well (Carlsnaes, 1992). Usually the lists of decisions are examined
to analyse a particular situation, but sometimes the focus is on the inquisition of the problem
and framing the problem in a particular way. The secondary or the unimportant decisions are
excluded from the analysis in order to make the analysis comprehensive and concrete
(Hudson, 2005:2). Laswell explained the insecurity as a factor of international policy making
(Telo, 2009: 125).
King Abdullah believed in the advantage of having good ties with Israel back in 1948, to
promote the peace process among the two and during his 46 years rule he remained adamant
to have peace talks. In case of Israel, it is the far right (the Likud party) that is more
restrictive in sorting out the solution to the lingering problem of Palestinian-Israeli lands. As
we can see in the past that Jordan’s efforts for negotiations were only successful in the time
period of liberal party. Palestinian disunity is the most prominent cause of the lack of
consensus (Barari, 2014). Hence the individual characters (i.e. the leader) have a significant
effect on the decision making process throughout the years.
Methodology
The thesis will use the theory of foreign policy, rational actor model to systemically analyse
the possibilities and positions of different states. The monarchy of Jordan, having ruled by a
King for 46 years, remained the same in its stance towards resolving the conflict, while both
Palestine and Israel showed distinctive behaviours due to changing leaderships. This explains
the rational actor model theory of foreign policy in that the decision making process is
dependent upon the individual actors responsible for the policy making.
Method and Design
This is a fundamental research using qualitative method and its purpose is to re-examine and
explore the feasibility of a confederation/federation model for the conflict resolution of
Dissertation Proposal 11
Palestine and Israel. The research will be carried out by using a variety of tools including
surveys, interviews, historical archives, analysis of national and international data. The study
is objective in nature and an epistemological perspective will be used to clarify the issues of
fundamental research. The evidence and interpretation is important in the epistemological
approach according to Bryman (2012: 27).
Bryman (2015) notes that systematic literature review is based on information that other
people have gathered through earlier primary researches. Desk-based research on different
academic and reputable sources, such as government publications and databases, journals,
books and newspapers will be used in conducting the systematic literature review.
Reasons for Systematic Literature Review
Data relating to the stand of Jordan government as well as opinions of administrations of
Palestine and Israel, secondary data may be the only available data presenting true
institutional positions.
Design Limitations and Solutions
The greatest limitation to this design would be review of out-dated sources whose stated facts
do not reflect the thoughts of the day. Additionally, there exists the possible limitation of
information lacking specificity and not addressing the exact research concern.
Structure for the proposed research:
Chapter Introduction: It will draw upon an overall picture of the dissertation and explain
the phenomenon of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Chapter Literature review: The relevant literature will be reviewed to provide an overview
of the existing literature to know about the extensive matters.
Dissertation Proposal 12
Chapter Background: The History of the Confederation system and the Federation system
of 1972 will be explained in detail, also why the one state and two state models failed and
what are the implications of failures of those models?
Chapter Confederation: This chapter will assess the importance of the confederation model
for the solution of the conflict and draw upon the differences between the already established
solutions and the proposed solution of confederation model and its advantages and
disadvantages for both states.
Chapter Federation: This chapter will focus on the current situation and the relevance of the
federation model for the states involved in the conflict and why it is important to resolve the
conflict rendering new opportunities.
Chapter Discussion: This chapter will summarize all the work and finally discuss the
findings and propose the customized model for the resolution of conflict
Chapter Conclusion: It will conclude the thesis.
Research Schedule
Collection of Literature 1 Month
Collection of Relevant Literature Two Weeks
Study of the Literature Two Weeks
Analysis of Literature One Month
Formulation of Results Two Weeks
Drafting of the Report Three Weeks
Final Compilation & Thesis Submission Two Weeks
Dissertation Proposal 13
List of References
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Beaud, O. 2009. Théorie de la Fédération, Paris, PUF
Bickerton, I.J. and Klausner, C.L., 2005. A concise history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Prentice Hall.
Bryman, A. 2012. Social Research Methods. Ed.4th. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
_________, 2015. Social research methods. Oxford: Oxford university press.
Barari, H.A., 2014. Jordan and Israel: a troubled relationship in a volatile region. Friedrich
Ebert Stiftung.
Brenner, M., 2018. Searching for Israel: The Idea of a Jewish State from TheodoreHerzl to
the Present. Princeton University Press.
Canetti, D., Elad-Strenger, J., Lavi, I., Guy, D. and Bar-Tal, D., 2017. Exposure to violence,
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Carlsnaes., W. 1st Sep, 1992, International Studies Quarterly, 36(3), 1. 245–270,
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Gerner, D.J., 2018. One land, two peoples: The conflict over Palestine. Routledge.
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Haiduc-Dale, N., 2013. Arab Christians in British Mandate Palestine: Communalism and
Nationalism, 1917-1948: Communalism and Nationalism, 1917-1948. Edinburgh
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Jensen, M., 1981. The New Nation: A History of the United States During the Confederation,
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Lukacs. Y., 1997. Israel, Jordan and the Peace process, New York, Syracuse University
Press.
Magnes, J.L., 1982. Dissenter in Zion: from the writings of Judah L. Magnes. Harvard
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