Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Algemeiner, Jan. 14, 2025
“From an Arab perspective, of the three regional powers, the least expansive and intrusive is Israel, followed by Turkey, which puts its economy ahead of imperial ambitions and therefore limits its regional adventures.”
Israel is perhaps the most muscular and influential power in the Middle East today. When Israel changes its defense ideology, as per the Nagel Committee Report released last week, the region must take notice.
Under the new doctrine, Israel will not wait for its enemies to build lethal capabilities but will preemptively deny them the pathway to becoming a threat. Islamist Iran and what is left of its proxies remain the top threat to the Jewish State. Turkey is on its watch list. Moderate Arab countries face similar threats from Iran and Turkey, and have an interest in making common cause with Israel.
“Following the October 7 disaster,” the report reads, Israel must move “from a ‘containment’ and defense concept to a ‘prevention’ and readiness concept, alongside building capabilities for immediate and sometimes even disproportionate response.”
Another key recommendation is for Israel to decrease its reliance on importing arms, and reenergize its defense industry — a capable sector that was scaled back to avoid producing weapons and ammunition deemed not commercially competitive on the global market.
With some European countries and Canada threatening bans on arms sales, and with America holding up some ammunition every now and then to apply pressure, Israel has concluded that — even if it doesn’t have an industrial base of scale — producing arms is an issue of utmost national interest, one connected to the state’s existence, not one that must make economic sense. …SOURCE