The multiyear Tnufa (“momentum”) plan drawn up by IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi is meant to provide a response to changes affecting the IDF – those underway and those that are expected in the next five years – and to improve operational effectiveness. However, recently the situation assessment has been flooded with factors related to economic and political conditions that may delay and limit the plan’s launch. There can be no doubt regarding the multiyear plan’s importance to the IDF, both for force...
The INSS 12th annual international conference addressed the web of challenges and opportunities Israel faces at the start of 2019. As in previous years, we chose strategic issues from the different spheres – domestic, regional, and international – that make up Israel’s strategic reality, and examine these individually and in context of one another. Continuing a trend from our previous conferences, we approached Israel’s national security priorities critically from a variety of perspectives.
Toward the end of his tenure as IDF ombudsman, Maj. Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Brick charged that the ground forces were not ready for war. Countering this claim, an IDF-appointed committee contended that the ground forces were ready and prepared for war, but highlighted a host of significant lapses that require correction, and recommended a sizeable budget increase to strengthen the ground forces. Apparently, therefore, Brick’s criticism prompted a constructive review process that was in the public interest. Questions about military...
The goal of the research is to examine the phenomenon of societal resilience in the Israeli settlements in the western Negev, near the border with Gaza. All these settlements are exposed to similar security challenges; the period under review saw three rounds of intense fighting between 2008 and 2014 and a “routine of terror incidents” in the intervals between them. Ten years is a long enough time to develop the perspective required to gauge public efficacy and the organizational capacity of the communities during and following...
This special memorandum presents the report of the Committee for the Formulation of Israel’s National Security Doctrine (Meridor Committee, 2006) and examines the conclusions and recommendations of the committee’s report a decade later. The committee was asked by the minister of defense and the prime minister to assess the validity of the existing national security doctrine and to recommend a revised version, given the main security challenges of the coming decade. At the end of a long and comprehensive process, the committee...
An assessment of Israel’s national security situation in early 2019 indicates impressive military, political, technological, and economic strength. At the same time, however, there is the risk of a military conflagration on multiple fronts, and there are limits to Israel’s current policy, which focuses on military actions but lacks determination to exploit political opportunities. In most aspects of national security, with the exception of preventing Iran from consolidating its power and influence in Syria and transferring...
In recent weeks Israel has declared that it will continue its policy of attacks in Syrian territory and if necessary will step up such attacks, in order to prevent Iranian military entrenchment on Syrian soil and disrupt shipments of strategic weapons from Iran to Hezbollah. This public statement is designed to underscore that Iran’s presence and activity in Syria is a red line that Israel has no intention of ignoring, despite the restrictions Russia has imposed on Israel and the US withdrawal from the arena. This and similar...
The development of internet use raises serious questions about a person’s right to privacy and the duty of companies to safeguard the confidentiality of information they possess. In practice, too many events have occurred in which confidential information leaks out of the companies responsible for safeguarding it; such information is sometimes even sold to criminals. In the face of these abuses, the western legal system and regulatory agencies have been forced to deal extensively with this seemingly new issue in recent years. Yet, we...
Over the past decade, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has made the greatest strides in the field of cyberspace. During this period, cyberspace became a pertinent issue and in the IDF it became an extensive field of activity of developing and applying knowledge. The IDF perceives cyberspace and cyber regulation as significant for several reasons: First, they relate to the public discourse on knowledge development and the regulation of relations between the state and the economic system on the issue of national cyberspace and its...
The conditions for the campaign between wars, the strategy that Israel has pursued in the northern arena in recent years, have changed, and bring with them new risks that limit or even remove Israel’s freedom to continue operating in Syria. At the same time, the objectives of the strategy have changed, and some of the risks are also an opportunity. If the original campaign between wars objective was to remove threats without resorting to a use of force that might lead to broad hostilities, today it can be argued that the objective is...
Strategic Survey for Israel 2018-2019, the latest volume in the annual series published by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), reviews a period marked by distinct changes in Israel’s close strategic environment as well as events in its more distant circle that likewise have had a direct impact on the challenges and opportunities before it. The unfolding dynamics and trends that derive from these developments bring with them threats to Israel’s national security, which could spell military escalation or a standstill...
This chapter spans four subjects. The first is an assessment of the national security situation in late 2018, as formulated by the Institute for National Security Studies. The second section focuses on core issues for early 2019 that should be debated by Israel’s military and political decision makers. The third section examines black swan events, strategically significant turning points that are unlikely to occur, but if they do occur, would be of utmost significance for Israel’s political and security situation. It is recommended...
