Security and Securitization in Israel
type: CreativeWork
description: The State of Israel has faced many security challenges since its founding in 1948. Located in a hostile environment where there are no democratic regimes, and surrounded by Arab countries which immediately after its establishment were declared a war of annihilation, the State of Israel, which is the only democracy in the Middle East, has faced more existential threats than any other country across the globe (Freilich, 2019, p. 21). According to Michael (2009, p. 689), these kinds of threats "can be defined as a trend, processor development that substantially endangers the existence of the state of Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people". Thus, for 73 years since its establishment, the State of Israel has participated in seven wars, conducted hundreds of military operations, and even destroyed two nuclear reactors of enemy states. It would be accurate to argue that the State of Israel, which is in a routine state of emergency, is a classic case of a state that regularly faces security threats, some even existential. This claim stems from the perception of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, who claimed that if Israel was defeated once on the battlefield, it would be the sad end of the Jewish state that would be destroyed by its enemies (Ben-Israel, 2013, pp. 65-66). Therefore, the author of this thesis argues that the State of Israel is a classic case study to examine how a state deals with existential security threats, a process which is manifested theoretically with the help of Securitization Theory. In essence, Securitization Theory is one of the key contemporary International Relations (IR) and Security Studies theories as it describes the process of how normal policy issues are transformed into security issues. In adopting constructivist approach to the study of security that perceives threats subjectively, Securitization Theory was developed in a broader attempt to redefine the concept of security, as it introduces a wider security pe…
abstract: The State of Israel has faced many security challenges since its founding in 1948. Located in a hostile environment where there are no democratic regimes, and surrounded by Arab countries which immediately after its establishment were declared a war of annihilation, the State of Israel, which is the only democracy in the Middle East, has faced more existential threats than any other country across the globe (Freilich, 2019, p. 21). According to Michael (2009, p. 689), these kinds of threats "can be defined as a trend, processor development that substantially endangers the existence of the state of Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people". Thus, for 73 years since its establishment, the State of Israel has participated in seven wars, conducted hundreds of military operations, and even destroyed two nuclear reactors of enemy states. It would be accurate to argue that the State of Israel, which is in a routine state of emergency, is a classic case of a state that regularly faces security threats, some even existential. This claim stems from the perception of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, who claimed that if Israel was defeated once on the battlefield, it would be the sad end of the Jewish state that would be destroyed by its enemies (Ben-Israel, 2013, pp. 65-66). Therefore, the author of this thesis argues that the State of Israel is a classic case study to examine how a state deals with existential security threats, a process which is manifested theoretically with the help of Securitization Theory. In essence, Securitization Theory is one of the key contemporary International Relations (IR) and Security Studies theories as it describes the process of how normal policy issues are transformed into security issues. In adopting constructivist approach to the study of security that perceives threats subjectively, Securitization Theory was developed in a broader attempt to redefine the concept of security, as it introduces a wider security pe…
author: Wertman, Or
language: eng
date published: 2021-11
date modified: 2026-07-24T04:39:44Z
provider: University of South Wales
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of South Wales