Strategy, Not Tactics
Will Israel and Hamas agree to the current ceasefire proposal? Let's hope. In the long run, however, the current approach won't lead to lasting peace, so long as it leaves out women.
Congratulations Emily and Pin-Shan! They’ve just handed in their senior projects at Bard College and now can turn their focus to graduating at the end of the month!
The US secretary of state made his seventh trip to the Middle East since October 7 this past week. At the top of his agenda: getting Israel and Hamas to agree to the latest ceasefire agreement. It also included, as Sara Isabella Leykin writes, a focus on “bilateral cooperation between Washington and its regional allies, especially Riyadh.” Yeah, Joe Biden is still hoping to convince Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel — and getting Israel to work out a two-state solution with the Palestinians. 🤨
But there needs to be a ceasefire first. Each side has a different want. Israel wants the release of hostages. Hamas wants, as Julian Barnes points out, Israel to end the fighting, withdraw its troops, free Palestinian prisoners, and “allow Gazans to return to their homes — or what remains of them — in the north.” In the latest proposal, Israel has, as Antony Blinken has noted, made “very important” concessions — and that the “time is now” for Hamas to accept.
With the war going into its seventh month, and college campuses erupting in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, Blinken and Biden are eager, as the November election approaches, to stop the hostilities. They are especially eager to stave off the possibility of an Israeli invasion of Rafah, where a million Palestinians have fled to as a result of the war. That is most certainly a worthy goal. Yet, it is unlikely to be achieved.
It’s all tactics and no strategy.
Time is one reason why. It’s imperative to stop the indiscriminate killing in Gaza and for the hostages to go home.
Structure is another. Israel and Hamas are talking through third party negotiators, the US, Egypt, and Qatar. They’re not talking to one another, which makes true progress difficult. Too much is lost in translation and to politics. Both Israel and Hamas react to each proposal not in the moment, but in the purview of public reaction.
A third is the absence of women. That is especially clear to me as I write this from the Women Moving Millions conference, where I moderated a discussion between Ambassador Melanne Verveer and Lyric Thompson about women, peace building, and foreign policy.
“In 2015, an analysis of 40 peace processes since the end of the Cold War showed that where women were able to have a strong influence on the peace negotiations, there was a much higher chance of an agreement. Where women had significant influence, an agreement was almost always reached.”
And the agreements last. Data show that an agreement where women have been involved or had influence increased its longevity. Women’s participation in peace making “increases the probability of a peace agreement lasting at least two years by 20 percent, and by 35 percent the probability of a peace agreement lasting 15 years.”
Northern Ireland, Colombia, and Liberia show that to be true. Women influenced the end of hostilities in each and the subsequent peace agreement. Fighting has not re-emerged in any.
So why are women missing from the negotiating table? In the NYT, Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini explains:
Traditionally, peace processes tend to be like a football game where there are just two sides taking part. It’s a flawed model, because so much of society is affected but not represented. The U.N. system and our diplomatic structures are still constrained in how they recognize civil society, and peace builders, who are majority women, are still not widely recognized. You can get individual bureaucrats or envoys in these processes who, despite all the research showing that women have a positive impact, think their involvement is of secondary importance or say things like, “Women will rock the boat.” They question and dismiss what the women in these societies know, and prefer to go down a traditional path, even though the exclusive peace processes don’t work. So there’s this triple whammy of sexism, racism and systemic flaws in how peace processes are designed, how mediation teams play politics and how they are pressured by states and armed groups.
Sure, a ceasefire negotiation is not a peace agreement — two very different things. You need to stop the madness in order to get to a lasting peace. Yet current or past efforts between Israel and Hamas do not involve women — even though there are both Israeli and Palestinian women actively working, through civil society organizations, for peace.
In February, Xanthe Scharff wrote a piece entitled, “Men Alone Cannot Build a Durable Peace in the Middle East” She writes about two groups, Israeli women from Women Wage Peace and Palestinian women from Women of the Sun that came together on October 4, 2023. They put out a Mother’s Call, a campaign that is “determined to stop the vicious cycle of bloodshed.”
Here is a podcast that she did with the Peace Research Institute of Oslo.
Scharff goes on to write:
If the political will for participation exists, both Israelis and Palestinians have a robust list of women advocates from which to draw for official and nonofficial negotiations and discussions. A diverse list of 12 Israeli and Palestinian women who are qualified to participate in negotiations was provided by the 1325 Project run by members of Women Lawyers for Social Justice—known in Israel as Itach Ma’aki—to the U.S. Embassy and other embassies and international bodies.
1325 is the UN resolution that “urges all actors to increase the participation of women and incorporate gender perspectives in all United Nations peace and security efforts.” Israel and the US have adopted it. So has the Palestinian Authority. It’s time to put those commitments to the test — and put aside the expedient political factors pushing, particularly the US — and get Israelis and Palestinians to a serious negotiating table, where women have a seat at the table. It won’t be easy or quick. But it will be worthwhile. — Elmira
I’m opening up my column to others. Please pitch me your op-ed idea/perspective. Let’s get more female perspectives. Email me on endeavoringe@gmail.com or respond to this post.
Elsewhere in the World.....
On our radar...
May 3 is World Press Freedom Day!
On this World Press Freedom Day, check out this interview with Miriam Jemio, an environmental journalist from Bolivia, on the importance of environmental journalism. (UN Women)
Burkina Faso’s increasingly restricted media environment has taken another step into the darkness. The leading military junta suspends even more international news sources with the latest media ban. Kate Hairsine explains why. (DW)
Israel-Gaza
This has made its way back to the top… as we watch the ceasefire negotiations and an impending Israeli invasion of Rafah.
On ceasefire talks, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has hit Middle Eastern capitals this week, hoping to bring the war in Gaza to an end. Success or stalemate? Sara Isabella Leykin takes a look. (ISPI)
Can Beijing help unify Palestinian leadership? China hosted senior representatives from Fatah and Hamas in Beijing this week for what it is calling “unity talks.” Laurie Chen and Nidal Al-Mughrabi have the details. (Reuters)
Deal or no deal, I’m gonna invade Rafah, says Netanyahu. Šejla Ahmatović reports. (Politico)
Hamas-Israeli mediation has yet to see much success past a temporary humanitarian pause in November. Randa Slim explains how regional tensions make this process harder. (Middle East Institute)
Rumors surfaced this week that the International Criminal Court would issue arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant. It hasn’t, yet. Any attempt to interfere with Israeli self-defense will not be accepted, said Netanyahu. Israel is not a signatory to the ICC. And the US, which is also not a signatory, said it would not retaliate against the court, which is just….
What is the ICC and what is Israel being accused of? And does Netanhayu have something to fear? Sarah Dadouch dives in. (Washington Post)
Sexual violence
Azadeh Moaveni dived into the issue of sexual violence, both what happened to Israeli women on October 7 and what has happened and is happening to Palestinian women. (LRB)
Israel’s government has promoted misinformation around October 7. That shouldn’t mean we ignore victims of sexual violence, writes Eetta Prince-Gibson. (Foreign Policy)
US
What’s the real beef with TikTok? US lawmakers want to ban the social media site, unless it changes ownership, so that it’s no longer China-owned. They’re uncomfortable with China having user information. Sanaa Ansari Khan brings up a good point: why isn’t the government concerned with other organizations, like Meta, who reported sharing user information with the Israeli government in the past? 🤔 (Middle East Eye)
Columbia University has a long history of protest on campus. Solcyré Burga discusses protests in the 1960s, 1980s, and now with Aniko Bodroghkozy. (Time)
Africa
Without more support, Sudan faces famine. Ellie Sennett reports. (The National)
Asia
It was always going to be a tricky tightrope for Antony Blinken in China. The US secretary of state met with top officials from Beijing last week to both seek rapprochement and deliver a stern message. It has only yielded mistrust, says Anushka Saxena. (The Diplomat)
China’s military budget has almost become as big as the US’ — should we be concerned? Mackenzie Eaglen discusses. (The Hill)
Academic freedom is declining in India and has been for a while, with certain legislation often standing in the way. Yamini Aiyar urges us to remember this when considering the ongoing Indian elections. (Nature)
The Americas
As we noted last week, Haiti’s transitional council was sworn in. It came together this week to name a president, Edgard Leblanc. Now the hard work begins to bring security to the country and turn things around. Novelist Edwidge Danticat considers a different narrative for her country. What if we didn’t look at Haiti only through the lens of disaster? (New Yorker)
Panama heads to the polls this weekend to elect a new president. Cristina Guevara clues us in on the controversies surrounding the election, including the economy. (WPR)
Europe
Georgians have been protesting a proposed “foreign agents” bill. It would require an organization receiving more than 20 percent of its funding outside of the country to register as a foreign agent. Lili Bayer explains why people are upset — and why it jeopardizing Georgia’s relations with Europe. 👀 (The Guardian)
Listen: Russia doesn’t just meddle in elections. In Poland, the Kremlin has used abortion as a wedge issue to divide the country. Laicie Heeley talks to Rebecca Gomperts, Hanna Muellenhoff, Wiktoria Szymcza, and Klementyna Suchanow about Russia’s role in Poland’s reproductive rights. (Inkstick Media)
Is it us or is Rishi Sunak just really annoying? We digress….
This week, the British prime minister pledged to increase the country’s defense spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2030, which isn’t really enough, write Olivia O’Sullivan and Samir Puri. (Chatham House)
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez debated resigning amid corruption accusations against his wife. In the end, he decided to stay in the role of PM. Rachel Chaundler and Jason Horowitz have the details. (NYT)
Middle East
Despite Turkish President Reçep Tayyip Erdoğan’s recent turn towards authoritarianism and systemic misogyny, the opposition’s recent wins in Turkey’s local elections prove that Turkey is still a democracy. Still, Sebnem Gümüsçü says, what happens over the next four years before the next general election will be critical. (Wilson Center)
Science & Climate Change
Climate change-related flooding over the last six months in Burundi has caused devastation. As one of the poorest and lowest carbon-emitting countries in the world, the government struggles to handle the destruction. Lorraine Josiane Manishatse calls on the international community to help. (African Arguments)
A dangerous heat wave is causing schools to close and threatening public health in South and Southeast Asia. Rebecca Ratcliffe has the details on this devastating heat. (The Guardian)
Technology
International AI governance efforts must account for the harm AI causes in all parts of the world. Aubra Anthony, Lakshmee Sharma, and Elina Noor discuss the different ways AI impacts the Global North and the Global South in their in-depth report. (Carnegie Endowment of International Peace)
Under the Radar
How does a collection of 100-year-old magazines about Palestine remind people that Palestine exists? Elena Dudum and her family have kept documents and news magazines for generations. The collection is an act of hope – to remind them of their Palestinian heritage. (The Atlantic)
Iraq’s parliament passed a law that criminalizes same sex relations. Kathryn Armstrong has more. (BBC) Sigh.
Opportunities
The WK Kellogg Foundation is hiring for a Director of International Programs and a VP of Strategy.
In DC, JP Morgan is on the hunt for a Deputy Head of the JP Morgan Chase Institute.
Editorial Team
Elmira Bayrasli - Editor-in-Chief
Editors:
Pin-Shan Lai
Catherine Lovizio
Emily Smith