The Relationship between Size and Performance of Palestinian Water Service Providers

Studies investigating the relationship between size and performance of water service providers are abundant. Yet, this relationship has not been fully addressed in Palestinian water sector, particularly, after the issuance of water law 2014 which calls for merging water providers into large regional utilities. This research evaluates the significant effect of the size of Palestinian water service providers on non-revenue water, staff productivity, collection efficiency, average consumption, average price, operating and maintenance cost, working ratio, and gross profit. The multivariate analysis shows that there are significant differences in working ratio, non-revenue water, staff productivity, average price, and gross profit based on the size. On the other side, no significant differences have been found in average daily consumption, operating and maintenance cost per unit, and collection efficiency based on those providers’ size. The small service providers perform better in non-revenue water, staff productivity, and collection efficiency;wherein, large service providers are more profitable than small service providers. Implications of these findings by conducting further studies will add the value for better merging of the Palestinian water providers and the reforming process.

The Impact of Water Price on the Financial Sustainability of the Palestinian Water Service Providers

The impactof water sales price on the performance of water service providers is typically something of a mystery. High prices mean more revenue and profit;but it may lead to less bills collection and encourage the illegal connections. Yet, this argument has not been fully addressed in the Palestinian water sector;this research evaluates the effect of average water prices on the financial sustainability key indicators as collection efficiency, profit or loss percentage, non-revenue water, staff productivity, daily consumption, operating, and maintenance cost. The average price of cubic meter sold is segmented into low, medium, and high categories. Multivariate analysis shows that there are significant differences in profit or working ratio, daily consumption, and operating cost based on the different price categories. Further significant differences have been found in non-revenue water, collection efficiency, and water production based on low and high price categories. On the other hand, no significant difference has been found in staff productivity. The results show high price set by Palestinian water providers, leads to an increase in the bill collection rate and profit margin. However, negative relationship has been found between the price on one hand, and non-revenue water, average daily consumption, and water production on the other hand. The implication of these findings reveal that the Palestinian water providers should increase water prices gradually to cover operating and maintenance cost for better financial performance and sustainability.

Resiliency Process and Political Socialization among Palestinian Children Exposed to Political Traumatic Experience: An Integrative Review

Background: Political conflicts and wars all over the world are global concerns which directly influence the lives of people including children. Over one billion children worldwide inhabit countries or territories torn apart by armed conflict, war, or terrorism. Purpose: The purpose of this review was to identify the best evidence on the Resiliency Process and Political Socialization among Palestinian Children Exposed to Political Traumatic Experience. Methods: An integrative review was used to assess the resiliency process and political socialization among Palestinian Children Exposed to Political Traumatic Experience. Data search was between 2009 and 2019 using ProQuest, Nursing Journal Publications, EBSCO, Jordanian Database for Nursing Research, WHO online library, scholar Google scholar, science direct, and PubMed. A total of 8 articles met the eligibility criteria. Results: The eight reviewed articles adopted descriptive analytic and cross-sectional studies. Themes were: Impact of psychological trauma on children, Political socialization process and Resiliency among children. Conclusion: Reviewed articles regarding children reaction to trauma and resiliency process showed that children varied in their responses. The studies showed that children were vulnerable to psychological harms and consequences of trauma that might include PTSD and others behavioral problems. At the same time, the studies confirmed that despite the harmful consequences they had positive adaptation and abilities to resist.

Future Prospects for Funding Strategies in Palestinian National Economy

On the international levels, funding has a wide importance in the sense that it is vehemently regarded as something that attracts both the developed countries and the developing countries. This is considered as the focal point of economy and economic activities. This is because of the fact that any economy can not continue without funding. This leads to a great care by institutions and governments as well as any social, political, and economic activity. The funding policy is regarded as one of the most important and active methods in having and preparing strategies that aim at having total control on private and public f＇mancial resources throughout financial activities to refresh the Palestinian economy. Due to the sensitivity of the current conditions, funding has a very important position and role. The deprivation stages the Palestirtian people have witnessed led to lack of Palestinian rights to build national institutions and bodies that are able to adopt social and economic policies that aim at having development as well as enabling the Palestinian entire society members to face both internal and external challenges and vice versa. There is vacuum of having an independent Palestinian state after 1967. There is a strict political s~,stem of lawful individuals and political domination, imposing by an Israeli military occupation to control and rule, controlling all Palestinian life to destroy the Palestinian economy and to distort the system without any lawful and constitutional independence. During the occupation period, the Palestinians lived under a lawful and managerial military power that destroys productivity paving the way to expel Palestinians out of their home which did not enable Palestinians to have their own social policies. The Palestinian national authority, ever since its rule, started to have a rehabilitation of its economic policies within a strategic plan that ensures economic development, stability, and geographical continuation amongst Palestinian resources control in a way that supports the Palestinian economy. That builds Palestinian policies to have economic development and improvement of general performance to develop, complete, and unify law and constitution. This also aims at Palestinian society development in terms of economy giving future hopes for Palestinians to have international development projects in the sense that any Palestinian strategy quickly faces lack of fund and therefore consequently everything is put to an end. The possibility of this study is to strengthen and stimulat the direct foreign investment as an alternative of the internal funding. Moreover, this study will investigate how to achieve an increase efficiency of investment and the national funding resources that generate income. The study＇s methodology is, descriptive analytical approach which has been applied because it matches the nature of this study. To answer study questions ＂What is the funding strategy followed by the Palestinian authority to develop the national economy？＂, confirmation is made that there are no funding strategies applied by the Palestinian authority to create funding mechanisms for development of national economy. This is not helpful for the national economy.

Yom Kippur War Influence at the PLO Recognition and the Palestinian Problem

On November 1973, about one month after the cease-fire at the end of the Yom Kippur War, the Arab League decided that the Palestine Liberation Organization （PLO） was the sole representative of the Palestinian people. This article examines the contribution of the PLO to the war effort of the Arab countries during the Yom Kippur War, the influence of the war upon the Palestinian problem, the Palestinian military contribution to the Arab war effort, Jordan＇s non-participation in the Yom Kippur War and the Egyptian attempt to include the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people in future negotiations with Israel and the U.S. which enabled the PLO recognition as the Palestinians sole representative for 30 years.

Palestinian Culture of Identity： 1948 Palestinians

Write down： I am an Arab! This powerful proclamation is an extract from a poem composed by the eminent and late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. His instructive and proud words were the initial spark that challenged to respond to the question of the suppressed identity of Palestinian Arabs in Israel. This study will attempt to explore the cultural representation of identity for generations of Palestinian young men and women who were born and lived in Israel but remain culturally repressed and silenced by the hegemonic forces. Identity has been a controversial issue in the mind of every Palestinian ever since the 1948 ＂Al-Nakbah＂.2 This study will attempt to comprehend and analyze the multiple ways in which different generations of 1948 Palestinians identified themselves within their societies. While studying the Arabs of Israel3 one notices that their cultural and intellectual productions （poetry and literature） reflect aspects of the conflicts they endured. Confusion and contradictory feelings permeate their psyches as they attended Israeli schools and spoke Hebrew as their official language. This paper will explore the literary heritage of two generations of 1948 Palestinians： the writings of Palestinians of 1948 who were born before Al-Nakbah （living within the borders of Israel today）. Those include poems, plays and novels. It will also explore the writings of the younger generation of 1948 Palestinians （born and raised after the Al-Nakbah and considered to be the new generation of Israeli Arabs）. A critical analysis will identify how these two generations of Palestinian writers dealt with the contradictions of living inside Israeli society that did not acknowledge them as the indigenous inhabitants of the land. Their translation of their sense of belonging within their literary works will be evident and how they dealt with the conflict of being simultaneously Israeli Arab as well as Palestinian. How can cultural production reconcile the homeland carried in the memory nostalgically and the real society they lived in within the Israeli borders？

Comparison of the Policies of Israel＇s Labor Party and the Likud on Palestinian Refugee

Since its origin in the first Middle East War in 1948, the Palestinian refugee problem has not been properly resolved. Over the years, the key stakeholder Israel has put forward a variety of plans and countermeasures on refugee issues in multilateral and bilateral diplomatic stages. Researches on these policies of Israel on Palestinian refugees are crucial for solving this problem. The right wing and the left wing of political parties in Israel--lsrael＇s Likud and Labor Party had the longest and most influential rulings in the country. The refugee policies they have taken during their administrations have an impact on the development of the peace process in the Middle East, and also play a direct role in solving the problem of refugees. Through the analysis on refugee policies of the ruling party in various stages of the evolvement of the Arab-Israeli conflict, we can compare the Labor Party＇s and the Likud Party＇s policies for Palestinian refugees, and found that the policies of these two parties are consistent and similar on the issue of refugees, for example, neither of them recognize the responsibility of Israel on refugees, and they both denied the ＂right to return＂ of refugees, etc. In terms of the specific implementation of the policies, there are differences between them： the Likud Party was significantly tougher than the Labor Party. Both Labor and Likud is being affected by domestic and international factors, such as homeland security, the Jewish state property, political system, Jewish mentality and the support of the United States and other factors, so their policies are consistent; however, due to different historical factions, different voter groups, and national interests as well as the interests of the parties in different periods, the two parties have different refugee policies.

Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs of Palestinian Elementary Education Students

To assess elementary education students’self-efficacy beliefs in science teaching,the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument developed by Enochs and Riggs was used.The instrument consisted of two scales,Personal Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Scale and the Outcome Expectancy Scale.It was administered to 90 undergraduate university students majoring in elementary education at a large public Palestinian university.Results indicated that students’self-efficacy beliefs in science teaching were comparable to those reported in the original study by Enochs and Riggs.Overall,the participants presented moderate to high self-efficacy in science teaching.

Psychometrics of the SDQ-I for Palestinian Adolescent Students

The Self-description Questionnaire-I(SDQ-I)is a multidimensional instrument that measures eight self-concept facets hypothesized in Shavelson’s hierarchical model.This study investigated self-concept in a sample of Palestinian adolescent students using an Arabic version of the SDQ-I.Three-hundred sixty adolescents(163 girls and 197 boys)aged 13 to 16 years(M=14.3,SD=.87)participated.The 72-item SDQ-I was administered in four Palestinian schools to assess the psychometric properties of the SDQ-I.This included the factor structure and the internal consistency reliability of the SDQ-I subscales and mean score responses of Palestinian self-concept.Factor analysis results,which accounted for the majority of the variance,supported an underlying general self-concept factor structure that demonstrated the eight factors that the SDQ-I is designed to measure.This is consistent with previous studies in similar age groups and the SDQ-I reliabilities were similar to those reported in the literature.Students perceived total self-concept positively(mean=3.71).Three facets of self-concept(parent relations,reading,and general self-concept)indicated high positive self-concept.Correlations among the different dimensions were consistent with the hierarchical structure in Shavelson’s model.Overall,the findings provided compelling support for Shavelson’s model,and the structure validity of Western self-concept measure.Interpretations were provided for the discrepancies regarding the Palestinian-Arab culture.

Challenges of Palestinian Security Sector Reform:Blame Israeli Occupation or Internal Political Fragmentation?

The debate on Security Sector Reform(SSR)in Palestine has emerged within the context of the peace process between Israel and Palestinians,in particular following the Oslo agreement in 1993.There are different perceptions of the significance and relevance of SSR in the Palestinian context,and these depend on ideological,political allegiances and interests of domestic,regional and international actors talking about SSR.Some blame the Israeli occupation and military activities and also the governance of the Palestinian security sector for the deterioration of internal security.Others consider that the SSR is an integral element of the process of state-building to allow the Palestinians to establish an effective authority over their territories.However,Israel and external actors like the United States and the European Union still look at Palestinian SSR as a means to confront“terror and violence”and to prevent the emergence of any dangers to Israel.Israeli occupation and internal political divisions described and analyzed in this article as major challenges for Palestinian SSR.In addition,this article argues that this reform is not an end in itself,but is a necessary and a fundamental element to achieve the Palestinian national project in terms of liberation and state-building.

United States Foreign Policy in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict and Its Implication on the Two States Solution

Prior American administrations were more balanced in their relations with Israel and the Arab world.During the Cold War Israel was an important strategic asset in the containment of Communist influence in the middle eastern region,Washington structured its arms sales to Israel,controlled Israeli military preeminence during the wars with its Arab neighbors,and sought to arbitrate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to balance US relations with moderate Arab regimes.Today,the opposite seems to be true.It is considering the above forlorn situation that this essay attempts to analytically x-ray the Palestinian–Israeli conflict and US foreign policy.The major objective of the study was among others to establish that the current US foreign policy of the Trump administration will only further escalate the conflict by exacerbating tensions;it establishes the onion model as a framework upon which the study was built theoretically.The study resulted from the increasing trend of violence and killings in the region and how the people living in the region have been further devastated all because US foreign policy summersault.It also makes useful insights and recommendations on how to broker peace in the region.

Palestinian Refugees in Arab Countries and Their Impacts

Apart from West Bank and Gaza Strip,it is the Arab countries that most Palestinian refugees seek shelter in.These Palestinian refugees not only live a hard life,but also are put into an awkward situation.The denial of Palestinian refugees’right of return from the Israeli government,the economic weakness of Palestine and interest consideration of Arab countries contributed to the suspense of the solution to the Palestinian refugee problem.The presence and continuation of the problem have great impacts on the nation and state-building of Palestine and those Arab countries sheltering the Palestinian refugees.The final solution depends on the support from Arab countries.

两场局部冲突中黑客群落行为与动因研究

随着信息化的发展,网络空间与社会空间深度交融,黑客攻击呈现出频次高、破坏强、覆盖广和链条长的趋势。在俄乌冲突、巴以冲突的两场混合战争中,黑客组织的结构与行为更加多元、复杂并在时间、空间维度出现了新模式、新特征。黑客群体的组织严密、协同行动、媒介传播和精神干预等特征,对网络空间的安全保障、网络空间的有序治理构成了全新的威胁与挑战。通过分析网络空间价值冲突场域中不同黑客群落现象和行为动因,形成黑客团体的特征画像,进而探讨黑客群落的分化、实践与变迁动力学机制,并在黑客分化“选边站队”的历史实践中,研提对黑客风险控制与引导治理的启示建议。

2023年巴以冲突中以色列情报失误问题研究

[研究目的]在2023年哈马斯突袭以色列的行动中,以色列情报部门出现了严重失误。研究情报失误问题,能够为情报预警工作提供经验和启示。[研究方法]通过分析媒体报道、智库文章和学术成果,总结以色列在哈马斯突袭事件中失误的情报战略和情报战术原因。[研究结论]研究认为,以色列在情报战略方面未能将哈马斯作为首要战略威胁,错误估计了哈马斯能力和意图;在情报战术上过度依赖技术情报而轻人力情报,突袭发生后战场情报未能及时传递。以色列情报失误启示我们,应当均衡人力情报和技术情报能力,强化混合战争背景下的信息识别能力,避免情报政治化。

武器化攻击背景下的生成式虚假信息威胁情报发现研究

[研究目的]对相关威胁情报发现工作进行实证研究,探索生成式虚假信息的武器化作用机理以及防范措施,为相关个体提供参考。[研究方法]首先,设计生成式虚假信息的武器化攻击活动识别方案,集中于三个部分,分别是生成式虚假信息判断、武器化攻击活动特点解析、识别标准建立及总体流程确定;其次,建构威胁情报发现模型,论述其建构基础并从威胁态势、威胁规模及威胁程度三个方面予以落实;最后,为检验识别方案及情报发现模型有效性,以“巴以冲突”下的Telegram群组空间为例进行实证分析。[研究结论]识别方案及情报发现模型均能取得预期结果,相关个体及部门在今后的生成式虚假信息的防范工作中应当做到细化识别方案、优化情报模型、量化关联指标以及深化洞察方略。

巴以冲突对中东和国际能源安全的影响

巴勒斯坦和以色列以及其所在的中东地区因丰富的油气资源和独特的地理位置占据全球能源地缘的枢纽地位。目前爆发的巴以冲突备受全球瞩目,文章分析了巴以冲突引发的油气价格不稳定、供给不确定和运输不安全等因素对中东和国际能源安全造成的影响。面对巴以冲突爆发后中东和国际能源安全的新局面,中国积极推动巴以停火和中东和平进程,重视提升中国能源安全保障意识和能力,加速中国能源绿色低碳转型的步伐。

私有信息、突然袭击与战争爆发--以巴以冲突和乌克兰危机为例

借助战争研究中的议价理论和突然袭击理论,以博弈中的信息和情报因素为焦点,系统分析巴以冲突和乌克兰危机爆发的原因,有助于在理论和现实层面加深对战争爆发问题的理解。战争的议价理论认为,与行为体自身军事实力和作战意愿相关的信息是私有信息,而行为体存在错误呈现私有信息的动机,这导致各行为体在互动中始终怀疑对方会错误呈现私有信息,这是导致战争爆发的原因之一。在巴以冲突和乌克兰危机中,哈马斯和俄罗斯都曾试图展示自己的军事实力和作战意愿,希望迫使以色列和乌克兰改变立场,但并未奏效。两场危机同时显示出私有信息并不完全“私有”,以色列和乌克兰在冲突爆发前获取的信息足以预示冲突即将发生,但这并未阻止冲突的最终爆发。国际环境中的噪声、情报机制的内在缺陷、错误认知和防御方的反制行动困境等因素,是造成行为体信息和情报分析错误的重要原因。研究结果显示,冲突双方在研判对手的能力和意图时会面临信息和情报分析能力不足的问题,这一约束因素对于理解冲突爆发具有重要意义。

中东海上通道与国际能源安全

中东被誉为“世界油库”,是全球能源经济和地缘政治叠加的热点地区。中东海上通道在全球能源产销连接和供需平衡中处于枢纽环节和核心地位,具有无法替代的重要作用。然而,持续升级的巴以冲突导致中东海上通道不畅、航船受阻,全球能源连接的中东通道岌岌可危,国际能源安全受到了极大的负面影响。为此,国际社会必须团结协作,共同努力,推动巴以冲突停火和中东和平进程,维护中东海上通道安全,确保中东地区和全球能源通道安全。