The Transformation of the Israel-Palestine Conflict and the Erosion of the Two-State Paradigm w/ Amb. Karim Haggag

On this edition of Parallax Views, Amb. Karim Haggag, Amb. Karim Haggag joins us to offer his thoughts and commentary on Israel/Palestine and the Gaza War with a particular focus on the transformation of the Israel-Palestine conflict over the past three decades, the dangers of the current moment, the divisions in the Palestinian national movement, the Israeli settlement project and the influence of the far-right in Israel, the existential narratives at work in both Israeli and Palestinian political and social life, and the erosion of the two-state solution paradigm. Karim Haggag served for twenty-five years in Egypt’s diplomatic corps, is a former Egyptian Press & Information Office Director, a professor of practice at the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the American University in Cairo, and co-managing editor of the Cairo Review of Global Affairs and director of Masters of Global Affairs.

Other topics covered in the course of our conversation:

- Israel's 2018 Jewish State Law, the rise of the messianic Jewish far-right in Israel and the mainstreaming of expulsioninist rhetoric in Israel, and Palestinians fears of a new Nakba (referring to the 1948 expulsion of Palestinians)

- The Israeli intelligence ministry concept paper that lays out a program for pushing Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and how Egypt & President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's objections to this plan

- El-Sisi's core considerations: 1.) not wanting Egypt to be party to another expulsion of Palestinians (we discuss this in relation to criticisms arguing that Egypt simply doesn't want to accept refugees), 2.) the security threat potentially posed by such an expulsion (ie: if Gazans are pushed into the Sinai so too will Hamas)

- Criticism of Israel's lack of clearly stated strategic goals in the current war beyond "the destruction of Hamas", the logic of Israel's previous "mowing the grass" military approach to the conflict in the past and its failure, and the maximalist approach Netanyahu is taking to the Gaza War

- The failure Western diplomatic approach to the conflict and the assumption that there will be a "Day After" scenario where Hamas is destroyed

- Entrenched divisions in the Palestinian national movement between Hamas and Fatah

-  The Camp David 2000 Summit that brought together Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak, and Yasser Arafat in peace talks; the narrative that Arafat passed up a "generous offer" from Israel

- And much, much more!