The Israeli—Palestinian Conflict in Israeli Elections

Abstract

The Israeli—Palestinian conflict is one of the most intractable conflicts in the world today. During the period of the 1990s and early 2000s, its salience was especially high. In this article, we explore the role of elections in the conflict, focusing on deliberation, legitimation, and representation. We analyze the five Israeli elections between 1992 and 2003. Our findings raise significant doubts as to the quality of deliberation on the conflict in these five election campaigns, and suggest that the campaigns and election interpretations did not contribute to legitimation of policy in this area beyond procedural legitimacy. Nevertheless, the elections had a major impact in molding the conflict through their role in transferring power and in producing dynamic representation. Although our focus is on a single case, this article falls within the body of empirical research about elections as instruments of democracy and their role in shaping the course of international conflicts.