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This paper examines what best explains political behavior in a deeply divided society. Despite the democratic nature of the Israeli political system, we suggest that Israel's society is characterized by social affiliations mainly defined by social identity that include race, ethnicity, and religion and amount to tribalism. Based on the results of the 2020 election, we examined whether these social affiliations or other socioeconomic characteristics better explain voting behavior. First, we found a significant correlation between tribalism and voting behavior in Israel and socioeconomic characteristics and voting behavior in Israel. When comparing tribalism's correlation versus other socioeconomic characteristics, we found that the correlation between tribalism and voting behavior in Israel trumps the correlation between socioeconomic characteristics and voting behavior in Israel, except for the Ashkenazi Jews. In other words, voting behavior is better explained by affiliation to the social group, that is, by kinship, race, ethnicity, and religion, than by other socioeconomic characteristics such as education level, economic status, or geographic location. This extends the idea of "in-group favoritism".

ABSTRACT
This article situates these two new books on the Palestinians in Israel in the broader evolution of the existing scholarship. Ghanem and Mustafa provide a comprehensive new model based on the concept of "politics of faith" in order to explain how the Palestinians have tried to advance their collective interests as a minority in Israel. Al-Atawneh and Ali trace the evolution of Islamic identity and practice among the Palestinian minority in Israel. They explain how Islam has affected social and political change within Palestinian society in Israel. While both books expand our knowledge of the Palestinians in Israel, using different approaches, they share an emphasis on synthesizing both internal and external factors in their analysis of the developments affecting the Palestinians.

This study applies the negative peace/positive peace approach to internal nation-state relations between the majority and ethnic minority. This approach focuses on the policies implemented by the state. In order to understand the social system from its formation, an important focus should be given to the period of establishment of a new state, whereas physical borders are defined along with the borders of society, which determines who is included in the new nation and who is excluded. The conclusions are based on the case of the Israeli Druze, an ethnic minority with whom the state of Israel and its Jewish majority have achieved positive peace. This study suggests that the positive peace with the Druze was achieved following their integration in the army—as a decision of the state of Israel—that lead to their integration in the Israeli society. Conversely to the Israeli Muslims, where a negative peace is maintained, following the early year's state policy to exclude them.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Urban Affairs on 17 Jan 2017, available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/07352166.2016.1262701. ; This study discusses the amalgamation of local governments as a method of creating larger and more effective local governments that place fewer burdens on central government budgets. Beyond economies of scale, our findings from a case study of Israel's 2003 amalgamation plan support the democracy claim. This study reveals that amalgamation reduces local democracy in terms of voter turnout and representation. The likelihood of having a greater level of local democracy increases in smaller local governments, in terms of population. The new efficiency and democracy approach suggests that a new amalgamated local government must be sufficiently small to maximize local democracy. At the same time, new amalgamated local governments need to be sufficiently large to maximize economies of scale. This study uses field research with in-depth interviews to enhance the findings of the empirical analysis.

This research focuses on the two most recent peace initiatives by U.S. presidents to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The examination of Obama's "Peace Vision" and Trump's "Peace to Prosperity" initiatives concern differences and similarities in vision and actions addressing the conflict's key issues, such as land and borders, Jerusalem, refugees, Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and security arrangements. The findings highlight the many differences between the two plans in detail and attitude, such as the view of the Trump administration on the legality of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and other issues where the Trump administration heavily favored Israel interests over Palestinians. However, a few similarities emerged in protecting the Israeli demands, such as regarding the Palestinian refugees and security arrangements. When examining conflict resolution methods and third-party intervention approaches, we conclude that Trump used the "Power Mediation" method and the "Win-Lose" approach for third-party intervention. This is conversely to Obama, who used the "Pure Mediation" method and the "Win-Win" approach.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge/CRC Press in "The British Mandate in Palestine" on 26 February 2020, available online: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429026034 ; This chapter discusses the various election cycles that the Palestinian Arabs went through during the period, and their effect on the formation of the Palestinian political parties, both at the national, and the local government levels. The Palestine mandate is considered a critical period for the emergence of Palestinian nationalism. The chapter focuses on local Arab self-governance during the period, political rivalry at the national level, and the competition between clans. The most important decision taken by the Palestinian Arab Congress was to boycott the 1923 elections to the Legislative Council. The 1936–1939 Arab revolt was the ideological and political implementation of Palestinian national demands when all the Palestinian political leaders joined forces. The involvement of the Arab league in 1946 sponsored the establishment of the Second Arab Higher Committee, support by the Palestinian parties. The relatively short period of 30 years of the British Mandate over Palestine was fraught with massive changes.

This study applies the negative peace/positive peace approach to internal nation-state relations between the majority and ethnic minority. This approach focuses on the policies implemented by the state. In order to understand the social system from its formation, an important focus should be given to the period of establishment of a new state, whereas physical borders are defined along with the borders of society, which determines who is included in the new nation and who is excluded. The conclusions are based on the case of the Israeli Druze, an ethnic minority with whom the state of Israel and its Jewish majority have achieved positive peace. This study suggests that the positive peace with the Druze was achieved following their integration in the army—as a decision of the state of Israel—that lead to their integration in the Israeli society. Conversely to the Israeli Muslims, where a negative peace is maintained, following the early year's state policy to exclude them.

This study extends our understanding about the interrelationship between taxation policy, democracy and financial performance in local governments. Every government, particularly local ones, would like to make their residents more willing to pay taxes. Based on the trend of making local authorities less reliant on national budgets and the ever-increasing expectations that they provide high quality services, we investigated how public perceptions about the local government's fairness, tax enforcement, governability and the outsourcing of local tax collection affect the percentage of local property taxes collected. We used a survey of 607 Israeli residents randomly sampled from municipalities that do and do not outsource, and independent data about tax collection rates. The results indicate that perceptions about tax enforcement and governability mediate the relationship between perceptions about fairness and tax collection rates. However, only within local authorities that outsourced tax collection was there a positive relationship between perceptions about tax enforcement and tax collection rates and a positive relationship between perceptions about governability and tax collection rates. Implications of the findings are discussed in the era of local democracy and local governance.

AbstractThis study extends our understanding about the interrelationship between taxation policy, democracy and financial performance in local governments. Every government, particularly local ones, would like to make their residents more willing to pay taxes. Based on the trend of making local authorities less reliant on national budgets and the ever‐increasing expectations that they provide high quality services, we investigated how public perceptions about the local government's fairness, tax enforcement, governability and the outsourcing of local tax collection affect the percentage of local property taxes collected. We used a survey of 607 Israeli residents randomly sampled from municipalities that do and do not outsource, and independent data about tax collection rates. The results indicate that perceptions about tax enforcement and governability mediate the relationship between perceptions about fairness and tax collection rates. However, only within local authorities that outsourced tax collection was there a positive relationship between perceptions about tax enforcement and tax collection rates and a positive relationship between perceptions about governability and tax collection rates. Implications of the findings are discussed in the era of local democracy and local governance.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by SAGE Publications in Administration and Society on November 21, 2014, available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399714556501. ; This article examines the relative impact of internal and external factors on the financial decline of local Arab municipalities in Israel. We employ a unique case study to demonstrate that the negative relationship between local management policies and local financial crises is stronger than any other relationship; in addition, this relationship is expected to hold for other local authorities in Israel and for local authorities in Western countries. The new theoretical approach developed in this study indicates that, with respect to local authorities, the "local management approach" more often explains a financial crisis than other approaches.

This article examines the relative impact of internal and external factors on the financial decline of local Arab municipalities in Israel. We employ a unique case study to demonstrate that the negative relationship between local management policies and local financial crises is stronger than any other relationship; in addition, this relationship is expected to hold for other local authorities in Israel and for local authorities in Western countries. The new theoretical approach developed in this study indicates that, with respect to local authorities, the "local management approach" more often explains a financial crisis than other approaches.