Introduction

Summary

The introductory chapter sets up the empirical puzzle of the book: Paradoxically, while large swaths of the Israeli electorate have long thought of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “Mr. Security,” the Israeli security community has for decades viewed him as a security liability. The Israeli public’s general indifference to the years’ long, publicly expressed views of senior veterans of the security establishment is a fascinating and important phenomenon this book aims to explain. The book’s twofold argument is stated here: First, a chasm characterizes the relationship between the Israeli national security community and Netanyahu – on a personal level but also in terms of his approach toward national security; second, that three interconnected trends explain the security establishment’s diminished status in Israeli society: Perceived military debacles since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war; the disintegration of the political left in the aftermath of the second Intifada, with the security community being a casualty of the left’s collapse given its association with the Israeli-Palestinian peace process; and the rise of populist nationalism in Israel. Following a historical survey of civil-military relations in Israel, this chapter concludes with a description of the book’s structure.