Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s famous aphorism that “Israel has no foreign policy, only domestic policy” is even truer today than in 1975 during his Middle East shuttle diplomacy. Traditionally, Israeli foreign policy, with the exception of its relationship with the United States, focuses on convincing the world of its righteousness in its struggle against the Arab world. Most often, it is composed of public diplomacy campaigns rather than being defined by common interests shared with other states, even hostile ones.
While this has been the case for many years, these tendencies were often and currently are exacerbated by two fundamental factors. The first is the fragile nature of most Israeli coalition governments. This fragility makes the leading party dependent on small splinter parties, mostly the religious ones, thus not allowing the prime ministers much room to maneuver on foreign policy.