Strategic Assessment
The Strategic
Assessment is a periodical report characterized by its dense and focused
material. It tries to investigate a certain event or issue, contemplates its
future course, while favoring the most likely scenario. It then offers
suggestions on how best to deal with it. Its subjects usually deal with the
Palestinian issue including its Arabic, Islamic and international
dimensions.
Editor in Chief: Dr. Mohsen Saleh;
Managing Editor: Wael Sa‘ad.
Strategic Assessment (56): The Strategic Implications of Energy Discoveries in the Mediterranean for Israel
SummaryIsraeli discoveries of energy reserves in the eastern Mediterranean represent a major strategic development, given these reserves’ size and characteristics, and their long-term impact on politics, the economy, security, and even social dynamics in Israel. Israel’s vision is based on the notion that energy reserves are more important than the energy resources themselves. Israel wants to avoid at all costs...
Strategic Assessment (55): The Impact of the Situation in Syria on Palestinian Refugees
Summary: Palestinian refugees in Syria are facing exceptional, stressful conditions, as a result of the revolution and the brutal reaction of the ruling regime, as well as the attempt of several actors to drag the Palestinians into the conflict. The devastation has not spared Palestinian refugee camps; about half of the Palestinian refugee population (around a quarter of a million...
Strategic Assessment (54): Obama’s Visit to the Middle East: The Possible and the Probable
Summary: The visit by US President Barack Obama to the region represents a strong indicator of the latter’s continued vital importance to US policy, despite the US pivot to the Asia Pacific region. It is likely that President Obama will seek to further entrench the American strategy based on avoiding direct military intervention in the region, while the Syrian crisis...
Strategic Assessment (53): Implications of Israeli Elections for the Composition and Policies of the Government
Summary:Despite wide expectations that the rightwing and religious parties would expand their influence in the Israeli Knesset, the outcome of the election was quite disappointing for these factions.Instead, the election ended up expressing a general sense of confusion and loss of direction and the Israeli public’s lack of trust in its political leaders.Netanyahu is expected to seek to form a...
Strategic Assessment #52: The Prospects of the 2012 Gaza Truce Understandings
Summary: The war on Gaza Strip (GS) ended on 21/11/2012 by virtue of the truce understandings developed by the Palestinian resistance, particularly Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).The Israeli government accepted these conditions since it was in dire need for declaring a cease-fire after the set goals have been exhausted while it was not ready for a ground invasion...
Strategic Assessment #51: The Dilemma of Political Elections in Light of Local Elections in the West Bank
Summary The municipal elections in the West Bank (WB) have not carried any positive indicators of free transparent political elections, representative of all Palestinian forces in the WB and the Gaza Strip (GS). Rather, they have embedded negative implications after being boycotted by Hamas and some other resistance forces. Local elections were held in the absence of genuine competition. It...
Strategic Assessment #50: The Future of the Blockade on the Gaza Strip in Light of the Crossings, the Tunnels and the Free Trade Zone
Summary: It is difficult to say for sure that the Gaza Strip (GS) will manage to break free from the blockade during the next phase. The people of GS felt very optimistic about their situation in the wake of Muhammad Mursi’s victory in the presidential election in Egypt. But the complexity of the circumstances and political realities locally, regionally and...
Strategic Assessment #49: Palestinian Protests: Analysis and Outlook
Summary: No viable solution is expected to be found for the protests that swept the West Bank (WB) in September 2012, against the backdrop of rising prices and the delayed payment of salaries, except as part of a comprehensive national solution. It seems that the future of these protests is linked, in one way or another, to the future course...
Strategic Assessment #48: The Palestinian Public Finance Crisis: Treating the Symptom and Keeping the Disease!
Summary: The rise in fuel prices and the delay of Salam Fayyad government in paying salaries were the fuse that sparked the street protests in the West Bank (WB), demanding that the government be dissolved and the Prime Minister dismissed. There were also other demands, among them the cancellation of the “Paris Protocol.” Yet the Palestinian financial crisis is deeper...
