Book Presentation
Moderator: Bruce Riedel
(Senior Fellow and Director, The Intelligence Project, The Brooking Institution)
Featured Speaker:
Yossi Alpher
(Former Director, Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Tel Aviv University)
Copyright: www.brookings.edu (Brookings Institution, USA) Publication Date on RIEAS (www.rieas.gr) on 29 March 2015.
From the mid-1950s, the State of Israel sought alliances with non-Arab and non-Muslim countries and minorities in the Middle East. Israel's strategy of geographically and politically outflanking the hostile Sunni Arab core that surrounded it in its early decades became a pillar of the country's security policy. This "periphery doctrine" for countering Arab hostility faded with the advent of Arab-Israel peace in 1977. But it began to reappear after 2010: the rise of militant political Islam in Egypt, Turkey, Gaza, southern Lebanon and possibly Syria, coupled with the Islamic regime in Iran, has generated concern in Israel that it is again being surrounded by a ring of hostility. By looking at Israel's search for Middle East allies then and now, Periphery explores a key Israeli grand strategy. Written in an accessible manner for all, it provides a better understanding of Israel's role in the Middle East region and its Middle East identity... Read more