The Israeli Foreign Policy Index of 2023

The Mitvim Institute’s Eleventh Annual Public Opinion Survey on Israeli Foreign Policy was conducted in late July 2023. The survey was conducted by the Rafi Smith Institute in collaboration with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, among a representative sample (both politically and demographically) of the adult population in Israel (800 men and women, Jews and Arabs) and with a sampling error of 3.5%. This document presents the findings of the survey, divided into five areas: Israel’s foreign policy apparatus, Israel’s foreign relations, the implications of the Judicial Reform for Israel’s foreign relations, Israel and its surrounding regions, and Israel and the Palestinians. This year the survey included, among other topics, questions about the implications of the “full-fledged right-wing” government’s policies on Israel’s foreign relations, both in regard to the Judicial Reform as well as its policy in the West Bank; the future of the Arab-Israeli normalization process, with emphasis on Saudi Arabia, and the potential of leveraging it to promote Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking; Iran’s growing nuclear threat; international cooperation on the climate crisis; Israel’s policy in Lebanon; China’s growing involvement in the Middle-East; and Israel’s stance on the war in Ukraine.

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Trends in Israel’s Regional Foreign Policies

Issue No.11, January-June 2023 Editors: Dr. Roee Kibrik and Dr. Orni Livny This document presents key trends in Israel’s regional foreign policy from January to July 2023, corresponding to the first six months in office of Benjamin Netanyahu’s sixth government. This government’s composition and policies distanced Israel from the league of liberal-democratic countries – even as the continuing war in Ukraine divided the world between democratic and autocratic forces, geopolitical developments shifted the system of Middle East alliances (including China’s successful Iranian-Saudi mediation), and the spreading climate crisis consequences underscored the urgency of cooperation. The government promoted an anti-democratic judicial overhaul and deepened the occupation and defacto annexation of the West Bank, generating growing tensions in relations with the United States as well as much international criticism. An attempt was made to continue managing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the assistance of regional and international forces, and strategic cooperation with Egypt and Jordan was maintained. Relations with the normalization countries progressed, but the Palestinian issue prevented additional countries from joining the process and convening multilateral frameworks. Israel encountered difficulties in persuading other countries to adopt its position on Iran’s nuclear program, and its attempt to avoid taking sides on the war in Ukraine drew increasing criticism in the West. The rehabilitation of relations with Europe that began under the previous government was replaced by cooperation based on specific interests. The government continued to strengthen relations with Turkey, and at the same time, with Greece and Cyprus. Still, the standing of the

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Amid Crisis, Peacebuilding Advances with Smart Donor Strategies

While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems only to deepen with each day, another trend is at play this year: unprecedented resources continue to grow to stem the polarization starting from the ground up, in order to lay the foundations for a peaceful and equitable future. In the second year of grant competition under the $250 million Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act of 2020 (MEPPA), the program points to new and unexpected opportunities even as NGOs strategize how to navigate a number of core challenges to their work. Findings and recommendations in this paper cover: ● MEPPA’s first year, which revealed a stunning level of demand to implement peacebuilding projects. ● A breakdown and analysis of what to expect in MEPPA’s second year of grants, which has a framework that makes room for significant growth, leaning into conflict resolution, smaller grants for smaller local partners, and core new audiences. ● Challenges facing civil society peacebuilding work and responsive strategies. The current environment needs this work more than ever but rising extremists fear it and threaten it. ● The role that international public and private donors and allies can play in standing up for civil society, amplifying it, and scaling the impact for conflict-sized change. Indeed, despite otherwise contentious politics and despair, broad support for large- scale peacebuilding investments continues to grow in Washington and other capitals, including the UK, Canada, and the EU.

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The Prospects for a Regional Climate Forum in the Middle East

This paper examines the prospects for establishing a regional multilateral forum to help address climate change in the Middle East. The document defines the constructs of forums, analyzes the characteristics of various regional forums around the world, and discusses the pros and cons of such frameworks in general, and their relevance to Israel, in particular. The paper also describes opportunities for leveraging existing policy structures in the Middle East to enhance transboundary climate cooperation, presents new ideas for such regional cooperation, and points out the barriers to such an endeavor. This paper was born out of collaboration between Mitvim, the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, and Israel Policy Forum.

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