The Israel–Hamas War and the Future of Israeli National Security Strategy

Abstract

The Hamas’ terror attack on the 7^th of October 2023 has shaken the core pillars of Israeli national security strategy. The study presents how all four pillars of the Israeli military and national security strategy, advanced warning, deterrence, decisive victory, and defense, have all failed, even if only in a limited way and temporarily. I, however, also argue that this does not necessarily mean that Israel would have similarly failed in case a war for its existence would have erupted. The Israel-Hamas War in terms of the totality of Israeli capabilities is only an emergency military operation conducted as a response to a mid-tier security challenge and not a war for existence which is the basis of the strategy. The war has justly pointed to shortcomings in the readiness of Israeli national security strategy, therefore the paper identifies and analyses the most important areas and presents possible direction of development.