Israel adapts to changing strategic reality in Mideast
The Israel Defense Forces believe that excellent intelligence capabilities will determine the fate of Israel’s next war.
The past year has not been a bad one for Israel’s national security. The wave of individual terror attacks, which emerged in October 2015, continued to die down. The “battles between the wars” conducted secretly by Israel against developments in the Middle East that threaten its security have been largely successful. US President Donald Trump entered the White House and started to make good on his pro-Israeli promises. On the “negative” side is the end of the war in Syria, with a clear victory of the Shiite axis.
One dilemma of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) — which is worse, Iran or the Islamic State (IS) — has long since been decided. (This dilemma was discussed in several earlier Al-Monitor articles.) Now there is a consensus among the Israeli security experts that Iran poses more dangers to Israel and the region than the expansion of IS. “IS was a passing fad,” a senior Israeli security source told Al-Monitor recently on condition of anonymity.
