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Israel
National Security
IN FEW COUNTRIES of the world have matters of national security
played as pervasive a role in society as in Israel. The Israel
Defense Forces (IDF--commonly known in Israel as Zahal, the Hebrew
acronym for Zvah Haganah Le Yisrael) was organized to be the ultimate
guarantor of national security. Israeli policy makers, however,
have believed that strong armed forces alone were not enough to
protect the state. All of the state's resources were to be marshalled
and applied to national security. In 1960 David Ben-Gurion stated
that Israeli security also depended on the integration of immigrants,
the settlement and peopling of "empty areas," the dispersal of
the population and establishment of industries throughout the
country, the development of agriculture, the "conquest of the
sea and air," economic independence, and the fostering of research
and scientific skill at the highest level of technology in all
branches of science. Israel's quest for national security has
been a prime motivating factor behind the state's rapid development.
The quest for national security also has imposed great costs
on the state and its citizens. Defense expenditures on a per capita
basis, and as a percentage of gross national product (GNP--see
Glossary), have been consistently higher in Israel than in almost
any other country in the world. Moreover, the IDF has diverted
scarce manpower from the civilian economy, and Israeli industry
has been compelled to manufacture military matériel instead of
the consumer items that would raise the standard of living. Defense
spending has also fueled double digit inflation for protracted
periods and created a large national debt.
The prominence given national security by Israeli society stems
from the perceived massive security threat posed by Israel's Arab
neighbors. Having founded the State of Israel in the wake of the
Holocaust, in which Diaspora (see Glossary) Jews were defenseless
against an enemy bent on their destruction, Israeli Jews were
determined to devote considerable resources to defend their young
nation. In 1988 most outside observers agreed that the IDF was
stronger than ever and clearly superior to the armies of its Arab
enemies. Unlike the years after the June 1967 War, however, Israelis
in the late 1980s did not display overconfidence in their defense
capability. The surprise Arab offensive in October 1973 had renewed
Israel's fears of defeat at the hands of its Arab enemies. Israel's
1982 invasion of Lebanon restored confidence in the tactical superiority
of the IDF, but it also engendered controversy. The invasion was
opposed from its inception by many Israeli politicians and IDF
officers, who referred to it as Israel's first imperial war. Moreover,
the IDF's victory on the battlefield was not matched by strategic
accomplishments. In 1988 the IDF confronted a new problem--sustained
protest by Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Many observers in the late 1980s described Israel as a democratic
garrison state and a praetorian society. Indeed, in many respects
Israel resembled an armed camp, and a wide range of government
policies, particularly in foreign affairs, was dictated by security
considerations as advised by IDF commanders. Unlike many garrison
states, however, in Israel the armed forces played an indirect
role in politics, and the IDF was unlikely to abandon its tradition
of strict subordination to civilian authority.
Nevertheless, national defense policy was a major component of
civilian politics during 1988. The Palestinian uprising in the
occupied territories, known as the intifadah, created
a new threat to Israel's security. Although the army seemed able
to contain the violence militarily, its resources were strained
by the dual role of policing the territories while maintaining
strong border defenses. A nationwide debate centered on the question
of whether Israeli concessions were strategically preferable to
further Jewish settlement in the occupied territories. With the
growing sophistication and deadliness of modern armaments in the
Middle East, the alternative to peace with Israel's neighbors
was the specter of increasingly costly wars. Since Israel's birth
forty years earlier, such conflicts already had cost nearly 12,000
Israeli lives.
Data as of December 1988
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