Zion's Dilemmas , livre ebook

337

pages

English

Ebooks

2012

Écrit par
D. Freilich Charles

Publié par
Cornell University Press

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Découvre YouScribe et accède à tout notre catalogue !

Je m'inscris

Découvre YouScribe et accède à tout notre catalogue !

Je m'inscris

337

pages

English

Ebooks

2012

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

Cornell University Press

Date de parution

28 septembre 2012

EAN13

9780801465741

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

1 Mo

In Zion's Dilemmas, a former deputy national security adviser to the State of Israel details the history and, in many cases, the chronic inadequacies in the making of Israeli national security policy. Chuck Freilich identifies profound, ongoing problems that he ascribes to a series of factors: a hostile and highly volatile regional environment, Israel's proportional representation electoral system, and structural peculiarities of the Israeli government and bureaucracy.Freilich uses his insider understanding and substantial archival and interview research to describe how Israel has made strategic decisions and to present a first of its kind model of national security decision-making in Israel. He analyzes the major events of the last thirty years, from Camp David I to the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, through Camp David II, the Gaza Disengagement Plan of 2005, and the second Lebanon war of 2006.In these and other cases he identifies opportunities forgone, failures that resulted from a flawed decision-making process, and the entanglement of Israeli leaders in an inconsistent, highly politicized, and sometimes improvisational planning process. The cabinet is dysfunctional and Israel does not have an effective statutory forum for its decision-making-most of which is thus conducted in informal settings. In many cases policy objectives and options are poorly formulated. For all these problems, however, the Israeli decision-making process does have some strengths, among them the ability to make rapid and flexible responses, generally pragmatic decision-making, effective planning within the defense establishment, and the skills and motivation of those involved. Freilich concludes with cogent and timely recommendations for reform.

Voir

Publié par

Cornell University Press

Date de parution

28 septembre 2012

EAN13

9780801465741

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

1 Mo

Zion’s Dilemmas

a volume in the series

Cornell Studies in Security Affairs

Edited by Robert J. Art, Robert Jervis, and Stephen M. Walt

A list of titles in this series is available at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Zion’s Dilemmas

How Israel Makes National Security Policy

C h a r l e s D . F r e i l i c h

Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2012 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Freilich, Charles D. (Charles David) Zion’s dilemmas : how Israel makes national security policy / Charles D. Freilich. p. cm.—(Cornell studies in security affairs) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9780801451041 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. National security—Israel—Decision making. 2. Israel—Politics and government. 3. Israel—Military policy. 4. Israel—Foreign relations. I. Title. II. Series: Cornell studies in security affairs. UA853.I8F73 2013 355'.03355694—dc23 2012019706

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetablebased, lowVOC inks and acidfree papers that are recycled, totally chlorinefree, or partly composed of nonwood ﬁbers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Lior and Tal, in the fervent hope that their children, or at least grandchildren, may know peace and no longer have to bear arms in Israel’s defense

Contents

Prefacea ndA cknowledgments Acronyms Dramatis Personae

Introduction

PART I. THE SETTING 1. Constraints and Players:The External Environment, Proportional Representation System, and National Security EstablishmentIsrael’s National Security Environment TheP roportionalRe presentationSyst em The National Security Establishment 2. TheD ecisionMakingP rocess:How the System Actually WorksPathology 1: An Unplanned Process Pathology 2: A Highly Politicized Process Pathology 3: Semiorganized Anarchy; or, Is Anyone at the Helm? Pathology 4: An Uninstitutionalized Process Pathology 5: Primacy of the Defense Establishment Something Must Be Good: Strengths of the Israeli System

vii

ix xiii xv

11 12 16 19

27 27 37 43 52 60 71

CONTENTS

PART II. THE CASE STUDIES 3. Camp David I:Making Peace with Egypt, 1977–19794. The Makings of a Young Lion:The Lavi Combat Aircraft,1980–1987

5.6.7.

8.9.

The Invasion of Lebanon, 1982

Leaving Lebanon:The Unilateral Withdrawal, 2000

Camp David II:The IsraeliPalestinian Negotiations, 1999–2000

Disengaging from Gaza, 2005

Back Again:The Second Lebanon War, 2006

PART III. FINAL THOUGHTS Conclusions and Recommendations The Case Studies in Comparative Perspective Key Findings Past Attempts at Reform Failings Tolerable No Longer Future Reforms

Appendix 1: The INSC Law, 2008 Appendix 2: Recommendations of the Winograd Commission and the Shahak Committee List of Interviews Notes Bibliography Index

viii

75 79 100

122 141

154 177 199

223 225 225 231 234 243 246

259

261 267 269 295 309

Preface and Acknowledgments

Israel’s history, its travails and accomplishments, especially in the area of national security, have been a lifelong passion. Having been born in the United States in the post–World War II era, following the Holocaust, I have always felt extraordinarily privileged to have been able to enjoy the mag niﬁcent freedoms and opportunities America affords and for which I bear an unabashed reverence. But for a geographic accident of birth, neither my family nor I might have been alive to share these blessings. After the Jewish people’s twothousandyear saga of exile, persecution, and achievement, I have always felt especially fortunate to have been born shortly after Israel’s rebirth and that it was important that I make my life in Israel, participate in some small way in its stormy and dramatic history, and enjoy the freedoms and opportunities it, too, affords. As such, this is a work of love, embedded in a lifelong commitment to Zionism, along with deeply felt frustration over Israel’s shortcomings and failings, which I have long observed as a citizen, soldier, civil servant, and now scholar. This book is not part of the “revisionist history” popular in recent years among some Israeli scholars, whose often highly biased at tempts to redress the biases of some of their predecessors have added little to our objective understanding of the Israeli experience. It is an attempt to describe Israel’s national security decisionmaking processes as they truly are. I wish that the picture presented could have been far more positive and laudatory. I would have greatly preferred to extol than to criticize, but only a cold, unforgiving, and “objective” analysis, to the extent that I am capable of it, does justice to the importance of the subject and as such truly serves Israel’s cause.

Voir