Research memo
From Ben-Gurion to Netanyahu:
The Evolution of Israel’s National
Security Strategy
By Jacob Nagel and Jonathan Schanzer
May 13, 2019
Every White House has an o cial National Security Strategy (NSS) thanks to the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986.
1
e law mandates annual revisions to the NSS, but the accepted practice is for the White House to publish a
new strategy every four years. e public nature of the strategy ensures that the document is full of platitudes.
Nonetheless, the requirement to produce the NSS ensures that each president’s national security team conducts a
thorough review of U.S. foreign and defense policy. e resulting document represents, at least in principle, the
authoritative view of the commander in chief.
Israel, despite being a country that is under constant threat and thus in constant need of updated national security
strategies, has o cially released only one such document. David Ben-Gurion, the country’s rst prime minister,
wrote Israel’s rst and only o cially approved national security document. It was the product of approximately
seven weeks of work in 1953, when he took a leave of absence to write it in his small home in the southern desert
kibbutz of Sde Boker.
Since then, Israel has not published an o cial, updated security concept. ere were at least three serious attempts,
which this report details. None, however, were successful in becoming o cial Israeli government documents.
Israel is now on the cusp of producing a new national security strategy. It will likely become the rst document of
its kind since 1953. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally wrote the document, with the assistance of his
top advisors and close sta (including the National Security Council and military secretariat) and in consultation
with several experts. e document re ects his formidable understanding of Israeli security a er 13 years (10
consecutive) in o ce. Although the document is largely classi ed, Netanyahu has shared some of its elements with
the public.
1. Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986, Pub. L. 99-433, 100 Stat. 992, codi ed as amended at 99
U.S.C. (https://history.defense.gov/Portals/70/Documents/dod_reforms/Goldwater-NicholsDoDReordAct1986.pdf)
Brigadier General (Res.) Professor Jacob Nagelis a visiting professor at the Technion and a visiting fellow
at Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). He previously served as the head of Israel’s National
Security Council and as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s National Security Advisor (acting).
Jonathan Schanzer, a former terrorism nance analyst at the United States Department of the Treasury, is
senior vice president at FDD.
