In recent years, foreign countries has increased their attempts to influence democratic processes in rival countries. The aim is to damage the electoral process via cyberattacks on computerized systems or to try and affect the outcomes. Examining the electoral process in Israel makes it possible to identify such attempts and propose ways of dealing with them. This article suggests the need to distinguish between foreign attempts to influence the elections and domestic ones, which are part of the democratic process, and outlines...
Over the past two years, democracies throughout the world have been subject to widespread concern over foreign efforts – mainly by Russia – to influence election campaigns, including in a series of elections held over the past several months. This article assesses the lessons of those elections in the context of the coming Israeli elections, in September 2019. It appears that following counter-measures mounted by media giants and countries themselves, there has been a reduction in attempted foreign interference in social...
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.
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...
The warning by Nadav Argaman, head of the Israel Security Agency, that a foreign nation could potentially interfere in the forthcoming Knesset elections has aroused much debate in Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel is prepared to thwart any cybernetic interference in the election. However, while the technological infrastructure used for the election process may be bolstered by known cyber defense tools, influence operations targeting the political debate during elections are a completely different issue....
The Israel Air Force attack in Syria on December 25, 2018 showed that Israel is trying to keep to its strategy of offensive action – the “campaign between wars” – that has been implemented successfully in the northern arena since early 2013. The attack did indeed show that Israel maintains its operational attack capability and that it can execute a focused attack of this sort even at present, while dealing with immediate risks of escalation. However, after six years, a combination of factors suggests that this mode of action in the...
In the latest confrontation between Israel and Hamas, Israel’s policy was to offer sparse explanations to the public regarding the limited response to the Hamas attacks; this in turn allowed Hamas’s own interpretation of the events to dominate. As the Israeli public was not informed of the considerations behind the government’s restrained response, the sense of internal resilience was undermined. While Hamas won points in the cognitive battle, the Israeli public was embarrassed and disappointed; the political...
Over the past six months, cyber security firms and technology companies have exposed extensive Iranian cognitive-related activity in cyberspace aimed primarily at the American public, with Iran’s seeking to exacerbate internal US debates between different social groups. Iran’s influence efforts in cyberspace reflect the importance Tehran attributes to the ideological struggle at home and against its external enemies, first and foremost the United States. In the regime’s eyes, the United States, in addition to its political and...
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...
Since its inception, Hezbollah has employed cognitive warfare as a force multiplier for its operations. The organization’s cognitive campaign is designed to encourage support for its actions while rebuffing verbal and media attacks, and to sow fear and deter enemies, with Israel chief among them. In explaining its military involvement in the civil war in Syria, Hezbollah has conducted a public opinion campaign in Lebanon in order to counter criticism at home for participation in a war not its own that has jeopardized the security of...
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 Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip is heavily engaged in preparations for a the “Great March of Return,” scheduled for May 14, 2018, when thousands of Gaza’s Palestinians will march toward the security fence and position themselves in tent cities along the Israeli border. The event is intended to highlight the Palestinian refugee issue and connect it to the plight of those living the Gaza Strip, while positioning Hamas as the leader of the national struggle and a worthy alternative to Fatah. Although the move aims for cognitive...
