The Gaza Strip is currently facing a dire humanitarian crisis with potentially devastating implications. Lack of clean water for domestic use and unsafe sanitary conditions pose a serious public health threat to the two million people living in the Gaza Strip. By now, large amounts of untreated wastewater have already crossed Gaza’s borders and created additional repercussions for several neighboring communities in Egypt and Israel, with Israel at one point forced to close two of its beaches.
Seven years after the onset of the upheaval in the Middle East and two years since the implementation of the nuclear deal between the world powers and Iran, the main contours of the region’s emerging reality – including the actors, rivalries, partnerships, front lines, power relations, and behavior of the major powers – are becoming clear. Now, after nearly one full year at the Washington helm, the nature of the Trump administration and its influence on the domestic arena, the Middle East, and the global stage are also coming into...
As 2017 draws to a close, the Middle East is witnessing the convergence of several important developments that will potentially have a broad impact on Israeli national security. The civil war in Syria is subsiding through a process dominated by Russia, Iran, and Turkey – which poses the danger that Israel’s interests will not be taken into account in the deliberations and steps toward an agreement to stabilize the arena. The jihadist territorial Islamic State established in Iraq and Syria has been obliterated, although the underlying...
The discourse in Egypt and Jordan on the gas deals with Israel has demonstrated internal disagreements between the regimes and the oppositions, as well as some of the public, surrounding normalization. Moreover, it has demonstrated the limited influence of the international BDS movement on interactions between Israel and its neighbors. The willingness of the Jordanian and Egyptian governments to promote the gas deals despite disagreements and criticism indicates the heavy weight of economic considerations in shaping relations between...
Securing the Electrical System in Israel: Proposing a Grand Strategy examines the major external threats facing Israel’s electrical system and the current responses to these threats. It offers an assessment of the Israeli situation and looks at tools that have been implemented abroad, particularly in the United States, that might be useful models for Israel. This analysis provides a basis for recommendations regarding what should be done in order to improve the preparedness of the electrical system to cope with signifוcant risks to...
In recent years, the price of a barrel of OPEC oil has plummeted. Following the steep decline in their revenues, combined with pressures from various oil producers, the Gulf states – according to the agreement signed in late 2016 – have had to accept cuts in their oil production in the first half of 2017. The main difficulty in converting the oil-based Gulf economies to economies with diversity is that political stability in these countries is directly related to the high standard of living of their citizens, which is supported by...
At their November 30, 2016 meeting in Vienna, the OPEC oil ministers decided to reduce exports from OPEC states by 1.2 million barrels per day. Soon after, states that are not members of OPEC also decided to reduce their oil exports. The impact of these two decisions, which will take effect on January 1, 2017, was immediate. The price of a barrel of oil rose by some 15 percent, and some predict that in the coming months prices will soar at an even faster rate. The cuts to daily production will not apply to Iran, so its profits from...
The advent of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) will have profound effects on car owner- ship, transportation, and security. It is already possible to hack into individual cars through their entertainment and navigation systems. The connecting of AVs to networks will make it possible to hack them on a large scale. Policymakers should act now to implement both technical and legal security mechanisms. Potential solu- tions include the establishment of a system of certificates, an effort to establish an air gap between different computer...
The article discusses developments in the global oil market and their effects on the Middle East. The essay notes that while the drop in oil prices has a positive effect on the Israeli economy, natural gas prices are also affected by oil prices, and the fall in energy prices will consequently have a negative effect on the development of the natural gas fields for export purposes. In addition, the subject of Israeli gas exports involves many different political issues in Israel and the greater region, as well as security...
The discovery of natural gas in the eastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea is good news for Israel. The gas is expected to satisfy Israel’s energy needs for many years, and export to other states is expected to yield significant tax revenues. It is therefore generally said that the infrastructure for drilling natural gas and transporting it to Israel’s shores, mainly drilling platforms, constitutes a strategic asset for Israel.
Israel cannot ignore the procurement of advanced Russian weapons systems by its neighbors, or their accelerated entry into the nuclear field; these plans are liable to serve as a basis for obtaining greater know-how and as a cover for building nuclear weapons capability, certainly if the transfer of know-how includes enrichment capability. For its part, Russia is being careful to maintain positive relations with Israel, which it regards as an important regional player. Israel also regards Russia as a key player in the region, and the...
