Why Cyprus Should be Israel’s Closest Regional Ally

This week, the president of Cyprus is making an official visit to Israel. In the view of Gal Luft, Jerusalem would benefit from fostering closer relations with the island nation, which is its “only non-majority-Muslim neighbor”:

Cyprus and Israel share significant natural gas reserves. . . . [L]ike Israel, Cyprus has yet to figure out how to turn its gas bonanza into cash. There is room to mesh both countries’ efforts to develop their energy resources and collectively embark on a regional energy-development plan. . . .

Cyprus is [also] in a unique position to offer Israel a coveted prize: strategic depth. On July 22, 2014 . . . a Hamas rocket landing near Ben-Gurion airport led to a four-day shutdown of Israel’s outlet to the world. This experience ensures that in the next round of fighting, Israel’s airports will be at the top of Hamas’s or Hizballah’s target list.

Israel should seek an alternative airport—far from the missile range—to enable the flow of passengers and supplies into and out of the country in times of emergency. A mere 40-minute flight or four-hour boat ride away, Cyprus can provide Israel with landing rights on its runways and hence an exit to the world. Such relationships can also extend into agreements to requisition fuel and military equipment should Israeli air-force bases come under fire, as well as airspace for training.

Read more at Middle East Forum

More about: Cyprus, Israel & Zionism, Israel diplomacy, Israeli Security, Natural Gas

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF