Israel's Search for Middle East Allies

DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER IN THE DC AREA, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. We will update this page when a new date and time have been set. 

Beginning in 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. But this "periphery doctrine" for countering Arab hostility faded with the advent of Arab-Israeli peace in 1977. More than thirty years later, it began to reappear, with the rise of militant political Islam in Egypt, Gaza, southern Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey, coupled with the Islamic regime in Iran. Now fears are growing that the country is once again being surrounded by a ring of hostility.

In his new book, Periphery: Israel’s Search for Middle East Allies, former Mossad official Yossi Alpher explores this key Israeli strategy, and provides his readers with a better understanding of the country’s role in the Middle East and its regional identity.

New America is pleased to welcome Mr. Alpher for a discussion about his new book, Israel’s past “periphery doctrine,” and what it’s future grand strategy might be.

Follow the discussion online using #Periphery and by following @NatSecNAF.

Copies of the book will be available for sale at the event. 

Participants:

Yossi Alpher
Former Senior Official, Mossad
Former Director, Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Tel Aviv University
Author, Periphery: Israel’s Search for Middle East Allies

Moderator: 

Peter Bergen
Director, International Security Program, New America