ABSTRACT
When you listen to participants in the policy process, you are always struck by the wide divergence in relevant beliefs, and the intensity of advocates’ efforts to establish their beliefs as predominant. To understand the policies as well as the rancor, it is necessary to identify the beliefs of important participants in the policy-making process, and to study how the competition among those beliefs is conducted. Most important are beliefs, both moral and strategic, about the identity and role of Israel. Also relevant are beliefs about Arabs and Palestinians, Islam and terrorism and (during the Cold War) Soviet communism.
