Books

The relations of the state and the Jewish majority with the Arab-Palestinian society directly concern Israel’s national security. Like the Commission of Inquiry into the Clashes between Security Forces and Israeli Citizens in October 2000 (Or Commission), so too, the president of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, deems the advancement and integration of Arab society in the social and economic life of the state—on the basis of full and equal citizenship—as an interest of utmost national importance to Israel’s social, economic, and moral...

In the course of 2017, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) conducted a research study to examine the situation in the Gaza Strip, with a focus on the prevailing political, economic, infrastructural, and security conditions, including their cumulative manifestations and their short term and long term implications. The aim of the project was to provide a knowledge base for reevaluation of Israeli policy toward the region and for an international reconstruction project. Underlying this aim is the understanding that the...

The Arab World on the Road to State Failure examines the causes and characteristics of the failed state in the Middle East and its spread throughout the region, and evaluates the implications of the phenomenon for Israel, as well as for the regional and international arenas.

Israel, the United States, and the Struggle over the Settlement Construction Freeze, 2009-2010 sketches the long and winding road President Barack Obama took during his first two years in office to bring about an Israel-Palestinian agreement. Based on a wide range of sources and the testimony of senior members of the US administration and the Israeli government, the book describes how US-Israel relations deteriorated to the verge of a severe crisis. The author analyzes the reasons and constraints that kept an agreement from being...

The Islamic State burst onto the Middle East scene as an entity whose conduct and very essence challenge the existing regional order. With its military conquests in Iraq and Syria, its establishment of branches elsewhere in the Middle East and beyond, its state-like governance in the areas under its control, and the cruelty it typically exhibits, the Islamic State has become the focus of regional and international interest and concern. The articles compiled in this volume examine ways of dealing with one of the most salient military,...

Edited by Gilead Sher and Anat Kurz, this book contains a collection of essays by leading conflict resolution analysts and practitioners from across the globe. It aims to serve as a resource for policymakers, negotiators, and mediators who are striving to resolve intractable conflicts that account for widespread casualties and immeasurable suffering, and that challenge governments with acute policy and security dilemmas.

Israel’s rapid development as a leader in cyberspace places it in a unique position to advance cyberspace research in Israel in general and at the Institute for National Security Studies in particular. As is our custom every year, we offer those interested in cyberspace this unique publication, which brings together some of the products of cyberspace research and essays published by the INSS Cyber Security Program. The essays in this journal have been published in Military and Strategic Affairs and represent the efforts of INSS...

This book addresses some of the major challenges that contemporary conflicts, particularly transnational asymmetric armed conflicts, present in the context of international humanitarian law. Against the growing interface between international humanitarian and human rights law, it discusses the normative framework regulating such conflicts as well as particular issues concerning the law on targeting, such as the application of the principles of distinction and proportionality in scenarios of asymmetric conflict. The book defines the...

The essays compiled in The Lessons of Operation Protective Edge cover a wide range of key topics, among them: the implications of Israel’s Iron Dome anti-rocket/missile defense system; the challenge of the tunnels; the legal aspect of Israel’s military action; the potential demilitarization of Gaza; relations between Israel and the Palestinians and the balance of power in the Palestinian arena itself; the civilian front in wartime; Israeli public opinion; the implications for Jewish-Arab relations in Israel; economic ramifications;...

Israel’s rapid development as a leading player in the cyber realm is one of several factors that have spurred research in Israel in general, and at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in particular, on cyber-related issues. In order to broaden the scope of the research underway at INSS, the INSS Cyber Program has long promoted international cooperation in the field, reflected, for example, in the INSS conference on defensive operations and intelligence in cyberspace, held with the Cyber Security Forum Initiative...

The INSS program on cyberwarfare focuses on the conceptualization and creation of a common languageregarding cyberspace and national security, the development and examination ofnational policy, and the identification of guidelines for a doctrine of cyber warfarefor Israel,both at the national and the inter-organizational level. Research aims tocontribute to an informed public debate on cyberspace security and promotestrong public policy on the issue. This volume compiles eight essays published previously in Military and Strategic...

Beyond explaining where Israeli intelligence erred in the Yom Kippur War, the book probes expectations of military intelligence in general and the relationship between military and political assessments. It considers what kind of assessment an intelligence branch is capable of producing with a great degree of certainty, and conversely, what kind of assessment it should not be asked to produce. Based on the intelligence failure of the Yom Kippur War, this book also reviews possible organizational changes and methodological...