In the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea region—areas whose security and strategic importance for Israel have grown significantly over the past two years—lies Somaliland, an independent and pro-Western state that has yet to be recognized by the international community. Its primary objective is to secure recognition and to build alliances with states that can support it vis-à-vis its rival, the Somali government in Mogadishu. In recent years, Somaliland has cultivated close ties with the United Arab Emirates and Taiwan. Its leadership...
The growing involvement of the Gulf states in Africa reflects their aspiration to establish new spheres of influence on the global stage while taking advantage of a window of opportunity created by the somewhat reduced American engagement on the continent. Alongside localized cooperation, the intensifying competition among Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Qatar for influence in Africa is creating friction—notably in Sudan and the Horn of Africa—and reflects a struggle to define the contours of the emerging regional...
While Israeli attention is currently focused primarily on the assistance Iran provides to its proxies as part of the Swords of Iron war, Tehran continues to expand its activities across the African continent, thereby increasing the threat to Israel’s political, security, and economic interests in this region. In light of this, Israel needs to formulate a strategy to prevent Iran from achieving its goals in Africa.
The recently opened Beit Yehouda Jewish museum in Tangier is a prime example of Morocco’s commitment to Judeo-Islamic coexistence. The kingdom embraces its Jewish heritage for an array of historic and contemporary economic and other reasons that attest to its pluralistic image. At the same time, Israel-Morocco ties are also influenced by King Mohammed VI’s religious role and his commitment to advance a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To foster the encouraging trends in the relations with Morocco, the new Israeli...
Morocco’s development needs, combined with the ambitions of Israeli companies to expand beyond the domestic market, can make cooperation beneficial to the two countries in both the economic and the diplomatic sphere. It can also advance their interests with countries in Western and Central Africa.
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 recent appointment of a new unified government in Libya has fueled cautious optimism that the war-torn North African country may finally be stabilizing after a decade of chaos and conflict. But numerous obstacles remain, not least the ongoing involvement of external actors in Libya, where a broader regional conflict between competing camps has played out alongside an ongoing struggle for influence between Russia, Europe, and the US. Turkey, Russia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates retain varying degrees of influence in the...
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 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...
The gradual decline in the number of suicide bombings in 2018 and 2019 continued in 2020, with a 14.5 percent drop from the previous year. Most of the suicide bombings were concentrated in three countries: Afghanistan, Somalia, and Syria. There was also a steep drop in the number of victims. Salafi-jihadist organizations again accounted for a decisive majority of the world’s suicide bombings, and were directly or indirectly responsible for 95 percent of all such attacks. Whether the decline in suicide bombings in recent years...
