Publications

An analysis of Israel’s strategic environment and security challenges in 2016 prompts the question whether Israel’s political-security response suits the anticipated strategic framework of the coming years. The IDF strategy document, published in August 2015 (in a shortened and unclassified version), makes it possible to consider whether the IDF is preparing for the right challenges.  The strategy document emphasizes, inter alia, the main extreme scenarios facing the IDF: a war in Lebanon, a war in the Gaza Strip, and military operations in a country having no border with Israel (i.e., Iran). In addition, until those extremes come to pass, the IDF is preparing for operations in the framework of the “campaign between wars,” and is running a “current security routine,” including border security, counter-terrorism, curtailment of enemy force buildup, and the impeding of terrorist infrastructure and capability development, while accumulating legitimacy.