In the past two and a half years, Israel has waged two military campaigns – against Hizbollah in Lebanon and against Hamas in Gaza – and in both, the campaigns were labeled in the public discourse in Israel and abroad as wars against terrorist organizations. The use of this term to describe the enemies Israel fought and the characteristics of these battles is not only imprecise and misleading but also shrouds the character of the enemy and the nature of the confrontation in a haze, minimizes their complexity, and creates unrealistic...
On December 24, 2008, the Israeli cabinet led by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert authorized the IDF plan to attack the Gaza Strip and to change the security reality in the south of Israel in order to improve the lives of the local population. Three days later, the army embarked on Operation Cast Lead. The operation began with an air strike on Hamas military targets in the Gaza Strip. In two waves of attack involving more than 80 aircraft, the IDF destroyed rocket depots, outposts, training bases, and government centers. This was the start...
Already by the second week of Operation Cast Lead, a number of initial insights about Israel’s civilian front have emerged. First, the statistics: In the first six days of the operation, 182 improvised Qassam rockets and 65 standard Grad katyusha rockets were launched against Israel – an average of 41 rockets per day (compared with an average of nine rockets per day in all of 2008). In addition, 277 mortar shells were fired. These numbers are far fewer than what was expected in Israel before the operation. They represent about...
As Operation Cast Lead unfolded during its second week, demonstrations of outrage and protest against the campaign and the attack on the Palestinians marked the Arab and Muslim worlds. Large street demonstrations, media broadcasts and publications, and government spokespeople and public figures called repeatedly for an immediate end both to the operation and the siege of the Gaza Strip.
On December 27, 2008, Israel embarked on an extensive offensive against Hamas’ military and government assets in the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas’ decision not to extend the ceasefire and instead expand the scope of its attacks against Israeli civilian targets. Despite the many assessments, including in the media, about the possibility of military action, Hamas was surprised by the timing of the Israeli operation and its extent. In the first stage of the fighting, the Palestinians sustained heavy losses – some 300 dead...
One of the main obstacles preventing the signing and implementation of a permanent Israeli-Palestinian agreement is the Palestinian Authority’s inability to maintain security control in the West Bank, i.e., ensure law and order and prevent the area from becoming a base for attacks after Israel ceases operations there. Since the Gaza Strip’s fall to Hamas in June 2007, the PA has labored hard to reform its security apparatuses and strengthen their capabilities, mostly with the help of the US, the European Union, Jordan,...
The book includes ten analytical essays written by INSS researchers that dwell on Israel’s strategic environment in the period under review. The ongoing challenges represented by the Palestinian issue and the Iranian nuclear program are well documented, as well as developments elsewhere in the Arab and Muslim world and in Israel.
The violent confrontation between Hamas and Fatah that occurred in the Gaza Strip after the July 25th explosion of a car carrying Hamas activists has brought about a significant strengthening of Hamas’ control of the Gaza Strip and an almost total elimination of Fatah’s presence there.
This study analyzes the two Palestinian popular uprisings and their ramifications for the peace process, arguing that they were shaped increasingly by the intra-Palestinian organizational dynamic as least as much as if not more than by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The escalation in the Palestinian domestic arena was both a catalyst and encouragement for the years of prolonged violence, and aggravates any prospects for achieving a political settlement.
The prisoner exchange between Israel and Hizbollah expected to take place within the coming days has aroused a vehement public debate in Israel regarding the price of the deal versus its value. The prime minister’s declaration that the Israeli soldiers captured by Hizbollah are presumably no longer alive has only intensified the question of the price and the implications for the future security of Israel’s population. Moreover, it is clear that this debate is a forerunner of the one that is sure to occur regarding the...
Israel’s national security doctrine has been molded in a reality of gaping asymmetry, both geographic and demographic, between itself and its hostile neighbors. The security environment of a tiny country with a small population surrounded on three sides by substantially larger states and overwhelmingly larger populations has perforce bred an offensive military doctrine and the preference for offensive rather than defensive weapons. Lacking protective geographical features such as mountain ranges, large rivers, or surrounding seas,...
Both Israel and the Hamas movement hoped the lull in Gaza would temper the domestic criticism in their respective arenas emanating from the ongoing civilian hardships on both sides of the border. For Hamas, the tension between the political process and dialogue with Israel has not been a problem at all – on the contrary. On the other hand, the shift in Israeli policy, reflected by the very fact of dialogue between Israel and Hamas, threatens to harm relations between Israel and Fatah, and therefore hinder progress in the political...
