The Political Economy of Attitudes toward Peace among Palestinians and Israelis

Abstract

This study evaluates the degree to which economic evaluations help to explain attitudes toward peace among Palestinians and Israelis in the years following the 1993 Oslo accords. It first applies insights from political science and economics to the Israeli-Palestinian context, deriving hypotheses that are then tested using survey data from Israel and Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) collected between 1996 and 2001. Findings show that economic orientations have both a direct and indirect impact on attitudes toward negotiations and compromise. On one hand, economic evaluations are directly related to foreign policy attitudes through what appear to be cost-benefit calculations regarding the expected economic consequences of peace. Economic judgments also influence attitudes toward peace indirectly by contributing to levels of confidence in political leaders, which in turn influence the way that citizens assess the peace negotiations in which their leaders are engaged.