The strategic assessment for Israel for 2021 is shaped by significant uncertainty in three principal areas: the level of success in coping with COVID-19; the modus operandi and policies of the new administration in the United States; and the political developments in Israel. The current assessment is based on a broader conception of national security, which places greater weight than in the past on the domestic arena and on threats to internal stability, social cohesion, values, and fabric of life. This of course does not detract...
The State of Israel’s strategic balance in 2020 is the basis for the policy recommendations for the coming year. In implementing these recommendations, it is important to emphasize the State of Israel’s overarching objectives: to strengthen Israel as a Jewish, democratic, secure, prosperous, and just state that is at peace with its neighbors. These objectives define Israel’s purpose, both in the eyes of the Israeli public and in the eyes of the international community.
The State of Israel’s strategic efforts and...
If 2020 is remembered for the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2021 stands to be the year of the vaccine. Nonetheless, the coronavirus will continue to shape the world, and the likely scenario is a gradual decline of the pandemic, marked by sporadic outbreaks. In the second half of the year, the effects of the vaccine will be felt, the Biden administration will settle in, and there may be a new government in Israel. The international system remains polarized, even as each country focuses on its individual problems. The Biden...
In January 2020, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) hosted its 13th Annual International Conference. Entitled “Strategic Assessment for Israel: A Look at the Coming Decade,” the conference included discussions, simulations, and lectures on strategic issues important to Israel’s national security. The conference was attended by decision makers, opinion leaders, and leading researchers from Israel and abroad. We invite you to read the digital version of the booklet that summarizes the conference...
The regimes in Egypt and the Gulf states are trying to earn an image of tolerance toward Judaism. The trend is evident in declarations by Muslim clerics, television productions during Ramadan, and the renovation and construction of synagogues. These expressions of tolerance reflect an instrumentalist approach by the regimes, joining deep social processes that support promotion of the values of openness and multiculturalism. Despite the dualism in Egypt and the Gulf states of a positive attitude toward Judaism alongside belligerence...
The global, regional, and internal implications of the coronavirus are still not fully clear, but Israel’s 35th government will have no 100-day grace period. It must quickly restore the economy to full activity, despite the presence of the virus and the possibility of a renewed outbreak. On the security level, all the regimes in the Middle East are busy with the pandemic and internal affairs, and will most likely seek to avoid escalation in conflicts with Israel. At the same time, the risk of unplanned escalation (in Syria,...
In recent years, the Jewish world has been beset by two longstanding diseases – growing antisemitism and the delegitimization campaign against Israel. The struggle against antisemitism has lately commanded increased attention and resources among Jewish communities, various governments around the world, and even the Israeli establishment. In tandem, the coronavirus crisis has changed the global agenda and created difficulties for Jewish communities in the Diaspora that have yet to be fully understood. The struggle against threats to...
Michal Hatuel-Radoshitzky | Shahar Eilam | Tal-Or Cohen
The fifth World Holocaust Forum was held in Jerusalem on January 23, 2020, with the participation of 47 world leaders – an unprecedented number when compared with previous forums – marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Some of the countries that exhibited a unified front against antisemitism are not expected to stop criticizing or condemning Israeli policy in other international forums. Therefore, it is important to address concrete arguments against Israeli policy seriously, while avoiding as...
In mid-October 2019, against the background of increasing anti-semitic incidents – demonstrated most vividly in the shooting in Halle, Germany on Yom Kippur – Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, presented a report to the UN General Assembly entitled “Elimination of All Forms of Religious Intolerance,” focusing on anti-semitism. The 19-page report, a comprehensive effort to deal with anti-semitism on a global scale, warrants attention not only because it...
