Think Tank Highlights Internal Divisions in National Security Evaluation

Israel’s internal divisions must be addressed if the country is to successfully meet security challenges coming from Iran and the Palestinians, according to a report by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), as quoted in The Times of Israel on Monday.

The domestic problems are causing Israel to fail to “maximize its security, economic, and technological potential in its response to the political, security, and internal challenges,” the think tank said in its annual report, presented to President Isaac Herzog.

It identified an erosion of trust in Israeli institutions, rising extremism and the ineffectiveness of the police force in dealing with the spread of essentially ungoverned regions within the country, notably the Bedouin in the Negev.

Ranking Iran as the greatest external threat, the report said that country has the capability to break out to a nuclear weapon in a matter of weeks, though it has not yet made that decision.

“However, the opposition to an arrangement between the powers and Iran, focused on a freeze of the nuclear program,” the report said, “will leave Israel isolated with only the military option for preventing Iran from attaining a nuclear weapon.”

Declarations of Israeli leaders to the contrary notwithstanding, the INSS warned that Israel cannot manage the Iranian threat in both nuclear and conventional weapons on its own, and must coordinate its defense efforts with the United States.

The ten recommendations made in the report are all in line with policies already adopted in one way or another: preparing a credible military option against Iran’s nuclear program in coordination with the U.S; strengthening the PA and improving Palestinian quality of life; pursuing economic development in exchange for security guarantees in Gaza; further investing in Israel’s technological prowess as a means of improving its global status; and setting up mechanisms for handling crime in Arab society and restoring governance across the country.

On accepting the report, Herzog said: “Today there is an emerging regional understanding that the future of the Middle East is a future of cooperation. In the face of the Iranian threat and its dangerous proxies in the region, we must cooperate with our friends.”

“Israel’s security is tightly bound up with its national resilience, in our ability to deal with the most profound disagreements, without giving up on our faith in ourselves,” he continued. “We have the power to live together and act as one people. Bridging divides, including political ones, is perhaps the most important step for maintaining Israel’s security, stability, and prosperity.”