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Israel Contemplates New Regional Strategy

Israel is anticipating how to manage the consequences of a thaw in US-Iran relations.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enters a door to speak at the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York October 1, 2013. Netanyahu said on Tuesday the only way to peacefully stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons is to combine tough sanctions with a credible military threat and that Israel was ready to stand alone in defending itself. REUTERS/Adrees Latif (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3FHFO

The “new thinking” about Syria and Iran that has rocked the international scene in the last month may prove to be an isolated and short-lived experiment. But if the successful US-Russian cooperation on Syria and the associated engagement between Washington and Tehran take hold, the change will be felt throughout the region and beyond. No more will this be the case than in Israel, which will be challenged to defend and rationalize its rejection of any change in its doctrines in a rapidly changing regional and international environment — or modify them to suit and to influence the new rules of the game. Adapt … or die, as the saying goes.

The current thaw suggests the possibility of a welcome change in relations between Iran and the United States and more broadly in Iran’s place in the international community. Such a development would by its very nature challenge the rules of regional security that have long been in place — rules that Israel, and not Israel alone, has found so comfortable.

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