Suchergebnisse

The elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council had a foreseeable result, but one that was a bucket of cold water for Israel & for the international community. The election of Hamas generated a predicament, difficult to surpass. The President of the Palestinian Authority then threw a challenge to the Hamas government: the calling of a referendum on the creation of the Palestinian State, should Hamas not accept to the establishment of political negotiations between the Government & the Presidency. However, in the meantime, the abduction of an Israeli soldier brought radical change to Israel-Palestinian setting. Further abduction of two other Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, resulted in Israel deploying military operations in Gaza & in Southern Lebanon. Adapted from the source document.

As a new open war unfolds in the Middle East, in defiance of an internationally, UN recognized border between Israel & Lebanon, the fact remains that for almost 60 years now, Israel, like no other country, has seen its existence as an independent, sovereign state, hotly & widely called into question. Drawing mainly from Portuguese diplomatic documents, this article brings to light the policy & attitudes adopted by Portugal towards Israel from the proclamation of the State through the reluctant path to formal recognition, & the somewhat vague rapport the two states on the west's periphery established in the period between 1948 & 1977, when Portugal finally extended full de jure recognition to Israel. Adapted from the source document.

The geopolitical tension motivated by the Iranian challenge, the Lebanon and the Palestine will be crucial questions to test the Portuguese political ability within the Security Council. This article analyses the way the UN has been managing the Lebanese and Palestine questions, as well as the strategies implemented by the EU and the US in the context of the Middle East peace process, concluding with the evaluation of the Middle East's place in Portuguese foreign policy. Adapted from the source document.