In the 2019 Israeli elections, both everything and nothing was at stake. Benny Gantz and his supporters were staging the most serious challenge, since 2009, to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who, in addition, is under investigation in several corruption cases. But neither the new Blue & White Party’s nor the Likud’s political vision seem compatible with a lasting solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This Lunch Briefing will dissect the election results and their possible upshots for the conflict. 

Riccardo Bocco is Professor of Political Anthropology. His main geographical area of fieldwork for the last 35 years has been the Near East with a particular focus on Jordan, Israel/Palestine and Lebanon, where he has been living for several years. He has successively worked on issues of development policies and state-building, on humanitarian aid and refugees, on peacebuilding and the role of art.

Cyrus Schayegh is Professor of International History. Before joining the Graduate Institute, he was Associate Professor at Princeton University and, from 2005-2008, Assistant Professor at the American University of Beirut. His publications include The Middle East and the Making of the Modern World (2017) and the edited volume, Globalizing the U.S. Presidency: Postcolonial Views of John F. Kennedy (forthcoming).