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...
This article reviews trends in goods and services trade between Israel and China over the past decade, with an emphasis on 2020, when the world grappled with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods used by countries to handle recurring outbreaks of the disease included varying levels of lockdowns, which led to a reduction of economic activity, prompting economic and financial uncertainty and even significant crises in certain sectors. The economic crisis and uncertainty affected some trends in international trade: while...
There has never been complete agreement between Washington and Jerusalem over a number of core issues affecting Israel’s security. United States administrations and Israeli governments have come and gone, and these issues remained in place and sometimes had a temporary impact on American political and military aid to Israel. Demographic and political changes in the United States, the return of the Democrats to the White House and to control over both houses of Congress, demographic and ideological changes in the Democratic Party...
September 1, 2021 marked the official launch of operations at the Haifa Bayport Terminal. In recent years, Israeli media publications have raised concerns about the port’s operation by a Chinese state-owned company, particularly in view of the growing rivalry between China and the United States. These concerns have likewise resonated in the United States. The launch of the new port invites a re-examination of the issue.
In July 2021, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited three countries in the Middle East. Like his previous visit in March, the visit dealt with three principal topics: promoting the distribution of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines; Chinese investments in the framework of the Belt & Road Initiative; and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel was not included in the itinerary, but it appears that China is using the conflict as a way of taunting the United States and amassing political capital – at Israel’s expense. Jerusalem must...
At the start of H. E. President Isaac Herzog’s term of office, and following the many global and local developments and changes over the past six months – including a new administration in Washington, President Biden’s decision to try to return to the nuclear deal with Iran, the formation of a new government in Israel, and growing tensions in Israeli society, including clashes between Arabs and Jews in Israeli cities – the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) presented to President Herzog highlights on the main strategic...
Relations between China and the Arab Gulf states are evolving in new directions, some problematic for Israel and the United States. Against this background, the Abraham Accords, which offer Israel new opportunities for partnerships, also expose it to risks. Alongside the expected rise in the importance of the Gulf states for China’s energy security and in view of China’s increased political involvement in the Middle East, Israel must examine its ties with the Gulf states from a multiple viewpoints and take steps to minimize the new...
The Islamic Republic of Iran and the People’s Republic of China embody the main strategic threats facing, respectively, Israel and its major power ally, the US. The relationship between both governments and their converging interests, especially in the contexts of energy and security cooperation, China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and a shared vision of an alternative international order in which America exerts considerably diminished influence, pose challenges to Israel in particular.
China is not only one of Israel’s top trade...
China identified the crisis between Israel and Hamas in Gaza as a political opportunity to bolster its national interests, particularly in the context of Xinjiang, through vehement opposition to the United States policy towards Muslims. As rotating UN Security Council president in May 2021, China sponsored a statement calling for an immediate halt in the violence against the Palestinian Muslims, while accusing the United States of thwarting a joint declaration through its one-sided support for Israel. At the same time, China claimed...
Defense cooperation between China and Iran reportedly began in the early 1980s during the Iran-Iraq War, when China became one of Iran’s main arms suppliers and contributed to its nuclear program. Following the war, and since then, Chinese arms exports to Iran gradually declined, and in 1997 the assistance to Iran’s nuclear program formally ceased. Although the current level of cooperation between China and Iran pales in comparison with that of the 1980s and 1990s, there have been significant advances under Xi Jinping,...
On March 27, 2021, China and Iran signed a strategic agreement focusing on large-scale investments by China in Iran in exchange for a supply of oil over the next 25 years. The very achievement of this agreement helps ease Iran’s economic isolation, imposed by the United States. At the same time, China-Iran relations are complex and tension-rich, and a far cry from an “all weather” solid alliance guaranteeing the Islamic Republic of Iran full strategic support from the People’s Republic of China. Nonetheless, the developing...
China’s 14th Five-Year Plan addresses the key challenges facing Beijing’s policymakers – continued modernization, ongoing innovation, and attention to structural issues. Delays in addressing these challenges may pose a risk to the stability of the regime. In this context, decision makers must deal with exacerbated economic and social inequality between different regions across the country. The plan highlights the Party’s desire to hold both ends of the stick: to accelerate structural reforms and promote...
