Covid-19 and the securitization of national crises in Israel's strategic approach: reliance on the security community as a "comfortable necessity"

Abstract

Israel's first response to the Covid-19 crisis demonstrated a security-based approach to a non-military national crisis. Faced with a first-of-its-kind non-military crisis of national magnitude, the government reactivated a pre-established, well-rehearsed policy protocol. It assigned the security community with the operational management of the crisis and responsibility over key strategic roles. Israel’s reliance on this commu­nity is an outcome of both the health system's weakness as well as an overarching mind­set - shared by both the leadership and the public - that perceives the security commu­nity as the optimal manager of national crises. This approach curtails the development of civilian crisis capacities and enhances future dependency on the security community in national crises. It bears consequences on Israel’s performance in future civilian crises: first, on its ability to devise an optimal response, second on its level of readiness to con­front security threats during such crises, and third on public transparency. (author's abstract)