The Impact of Third-Party Communications on the Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations

Abstract

This research studies the effect of news coverage on third-party interventions in negotiations. In the political context of the post-Oslo era in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, it examines the influence of U.S. appeals, reported in the local Israeli press, that called on the Israelis to make concessions. Previous research regarding the reactive devaluation bias (Ross 1995) led to the hypothesis that a positive effect of the third-party communicator will occur: An appeal for Israeli concessions from an American source should elicit more favorable attitudes among Israeli Jews compared to the same appeal from a Palestinian communicator. In addition, I hypothesized that in line with tendencies found in regard to the reactive devaluation bias (l. Maoz et al. in preparation), the magnitude of the positive effect of the third-party communicator will depend on the recipients' political affiliation and will vary for hawks and for doves. These hypotheses are examined, using an experimental design of the communicator's identity (American versus Palestinian) by the recipient's political affiliation (hawks versus doves). The findings support the research hypotheses.