This document deals with the irrelevancy of Israel's National Security Concept and the pressing need to update and translate it to a policy based on political, economic and military resources. This irrelevancy is being only partially addressed by the current investigation committees.
In 2006, Israel suffered three political and military defeats: the freezing of the Convergence Plan in the West Bank and the lack of military success in both Gaza and Lebanon. These results exposed a crisis in Israel's National Security Concept.
Israel conducts itself as if it is progressing towards a secure future as a Jewish and democratic state by ending its control over the Palestinian population and establishing a Palestinian state based on the principle of ‘two states for two nations'. This process is apparently implemented on the basis of Israeli strength.
In practice, strong trends undermine some of the principles of Israel's National Security Concept and render it irrelevant. First, a strategy is being consolidated that is designed to bring to the internal collapse of Israel as a state via, among other means, continuation of Israel's control over the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank; US failures in the region and the attack on the pro-Israel lobby in the US; the rising stature of Iran, the resistance to Israel and the efficiency of the tools that it uses in service of this logic.
These trends have brought Israel to a strategic inferiority regarding its national security, that enhance repetitive failures of political or military moves designed to guarantee the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. At the same time, a reality is liable to emerge which promotes the establishment of a single Arab / Palestinian / Islamist state in place of the State of Israel and under Iranian hegemony.
The goal of this document is to highlight the irrelevancy of Israel's National Security Concept and the pressing need to update it and to translate it to a policy based on political, economic and military resources. This irrelevancy is not being adequately addressed by the investigation committees which were established following the war in Lebanon.
The necessary change in the National Security Concept can include such steps as the establishment of a Palestinian State with Provisional Borders, a political initiative vis-à-vis Syria or successful military action against Iran.
Finally, the weakness of the Israel government is a fundamental structural problem which makes it difficult for Israel to deal with the challenges it faces. The short, unstable tenures and the division between legislative and executive branches complicate long-term policy design and implementation. This is in contrast to the stability of the leadership of Iran and the Resistance Network and the systematic nature with which they advance their goals.
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