In mid-May 1967, massive Egyptian forces began entering the Sinai Peninsula, a blatant violation of the understandings reached under the auspices of the US administration after Operation Kadesh. The core of the understandings was that Sinai was to remain a demilitarized zone, in which UN forces would be stationed in order to separate between Israel and Egypt. President Gamal Abdel Nasser went even further than deploying his army in Sinai and at the same time ordered the UN forces to leave Sinai and Gaza. He claimed that Egypt was...
The Six Day War dramatically transformed the State of Israel’s strategic position in the Middle East. From a small country just able to protect itself and maintain its existence despite the dangers from all its neighbors—who enjoyed Soviet support and petroleum wealth—Israel became a regional superpower with undeniable military superiority. The war made it clear to the Arab world, although not always explicitly, that it was not capable of destroying the State of Israel. Even the difficulties Israel encountered in the Yom Kippur War...
The results of the Six Day War substantially changed Israel’s strategic situation. Prior to the war, Israel was a small democracy with Western values. The Israeli economy was in a recession due to the ideological positions of its socialist leadership, which was slow to adapt a modern economy to the rapid growth in the private sector. The country identified as part of the Western world, and its hostile Arab neighbors had not accepted its existence as a Jewish state in the heart of the Arab-Muslim region. Israel was secular in...
The aim of this article is to examine the way that leaders try to shape their society’s cognitive perceptions during war, with the assumption that society will not agree to unconditionally support a protracted war involving high casualties. Recognizing the necessity of large-scale public support of war, decision makers manipulate local public opinion so that it will justify the war and recognize the importance of the war’s objectives and the ostensible achievements that war could provide. This article demonstrates how this was...
The downing of the Russian Il-20 plane by the Syrians on the night of September 17, 2018 has become one of the most complex incidents in the framework of Russia-Israel relations, at least since the start of Russia’s intervention in Syria in October 2015. Following an Israeli attack in the Latakia region, a Syrian SA-5 anti-aircraft battery struck a Russian reconnaissance plane, which crashed into the sea, killing its crew of 15. Although it was Syria that failed to identify the Russian plane, Russia chose to blame Israel for the...
It is imperative that a multiyear budget for the Ministry of Defense and the IDF be prepared for the years 2021-2025, once the multiyear Gideon plan ends. This plan will also be the key for jumpstarting the procurement processes required within the framework of the new US aid program (2019-2028), which is a key to future IDF buildup. Defining a formula that links budgets to GDP or GDP per capita could be one of the most important elements in shaping the defense budgets in shekels for the next multiyear plan.
A new budget year (2019) begins in the United States in October 2018, and with it the multi-year aid program for Israel for the years 2019-2028, amounting to $38 billion. Of this, $33 billion comes from the State Department foreign aid program, and $5 billion from the Defense Department, to fund joint projects on missile defense (this was not included in the previous multi-year aid program). However, the terms of the new aid program are more stringent: Israel agrees that the aid is not intended to purchase fuels, and its ability to...
Israel successfully prevented Palestinians in the Gaza Strip from infiltrating the border into its territory during the Palestinian “Great March of Return” and the protest against relocating the US embassy to Jerusalem. However, from the cognitive perspective, Israel suffered a “strategic failure,” which resonated in the juxtaposition of photographs displayed on most of the broadcasting networks around the world —from one side, dozens of fatalities on the Gazan border and, on the other, the inauguration of the American Embassy in...
The Knesset has recently amended the “Basic Law: The Government,” with respect to “authority to declare war or conduct a significant military operation.” Under the previous legislation, this authority was given to the government, but the new law grants the authority to the Ministerial Committee for National Security (the Security Cabinet). However, the final version of the new law goes even further, and concludes: “Under extreme circumstances and for reasons that will be noted…the prime minister and the minister of...
In March 2018, with the approval of the military censor, Israel officially assumed responsibility for destroying the Syrian nuclear reactor on September 6, 2007, in an operation against what was considered an emerging existential threat. Before the public announcement, senior Israeli officials confirmed that for several years, the IDF has attacked strategic weapons in Syria meant for Hezbollah that were considered as posing an intolerable danger to Israel. These official statements have put an end to Israel’s long-standing policy of...
“Solid Stand,” the annual nation-wide exercise conducted by the Home Front Command, was held in the framework of the large IDF general staff exercise. Since the home front participation was part of a classified military exercise, the involvement of civilian parties and the general public became less relevant. As a result, the ability of the civilian organs, which play a key role in the management of any emergency, to take part in the drill was limited. This article presents a number of primary gaps in the realm of state...
Although the public discourse after Israel took official responsibility for the attack in Deir ez-Zor has primarily revolved around the issue of the reactor’s discovery, it is important to recognize that intelligence operations did not end with the collection breakthrough. Intelligence had to cope with two particular challenges. First, at the strategic level, it had to assess the type of reaction – or lack of reaction – to an attack likely to come from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In this context, developing the idea...
