Communications

When discussing the best plans of action for dealing with the wave of terrorism, a clear distinction must be made between the method of operation and the goal. In dealing with Palestinian terrorism, we are facing a serious strategic challenge and three major tactical challenges that typify the terrorism that Israel has been experiencing recently. The discussion on a wide-scale...

The reaction to the proposed reform has been unprecedented in Israeli history: massive protests took place across the country, with as many as 200,000 people flooding the streets in Tel Aviv and over 500,000 countrywide; a countrywide strike was called out by Israel’s Histadrut trade union; and as many as 750 reservists of the Israeli Defense Forces stopped answering their...

“The current law has resulted in the opposite situation than what was intended,” Dr. Idit Shafran Gittleman, a senior researcher at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, told The Media Line. “Instead of everyone going into the army, it’s the opposite. The ultra-Orthodox society is exempt from the harshest obligation a country can impose on its citizens.”

Meanwhile, Ofir Winter, a Middle East specialist at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, predicted in remarks to Trends that passage of the judicial overhaul would harm the Abraham Accords signed in September 2020 between Israel and the UAE and Israel and Bahrain. “One of the motivations of the Abraham Accords was economic cooperation,” Winter said. “If...

Last month, a number of Israeli reservists—including air-force pilots, elite commandos, and cyberwarfare specialists—announced that they would not appear for their mandatory training rotations to protest the judicial reforms being considered by the Knesset. Fellow opponents of reform praised them for standing up for democracy; proponents of reform condemned them as traitors...

Last month, a number of Israeli reservists—including air-force pilots, elite commandos, and cyberwarfare specialists—announced that they would not appear for their mandatory training rotations to protest the judicial reforms being considered by the Knesset. Fellow opponents of reform praised them for standing up for democracy; proponents of reform condemned them as traitors...

Israeli protesters have been demonstrating against the Netanyahu government’s controversial efforts to radically overhaul the judicial system for nearly three months. And while the protests regularly bring out more than 100,000 people to the streets across Israel, few Arab faces have appeared among the demonstrators.

Former military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman says he no longer trusts Benjamin Netanyahu’s judgment on matters of security after the prime minister’s attempt to fire Yoav Gallant as defense minister, and that some of the damage to Israel’s economy and social cohesion, and its ties with the US, inflicted by the government’s currently suspended push to...

“The public is always supportive when these things begin, there is always a rallying around the flag phenomenon,” said Chuck Freilich, a former deputy national security advisor in Israel and senior fellow at Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Israel, adding that while limited tension may divert attention away from the controversy over the judicial overhaul, any...

A country’s leader is tested in defining moments. In the last few weeks, there were at least two such moments in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be perceived as a balanced and responsible leader, one who sees the good of Israel and Israeli society. The first moment was a few weeks ago when President Isaac Herzog presented his compromise outline in a brave attempt...