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The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA Center)
mourns the passing of Ran Segev and extends its deepest condolences to the Segev family.
Ran was one of our distinguished research fellows.
For decades, Ran made a significant contribution to Israel's security through a series of senior positions within the Israeli intelligence community.
He subsequently continued to place his extensive experience, sound judgment, and expertise at the service of strategic research at the BESA Center.
We will remember his outstanding contributions, his many years of dedicated service, and the deep commitment he demonstrated throughout his career to the security of the State of Israel.
May his memory be a blessing.

Israeli Gas Exports to Syria:
The Dilemma of Formalizing Direct Gas Cooperation
By By Dr. Elai Rettig
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This paper is part of an ongoing collaborative project between
the BESA Center and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation

The Implications of the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding and Its Consequences for Israel
By Col. (res.) Shay Shabtai and Prof. Eitan Shamir
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THE GAZA TERROR OFFENSIVE: The Iranian and Lebanese Chapter
15 June 15 Jul 2026
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Your Impact at BESA: Strategic Research That Reaches Decision-Makers
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The Other Iranian Energy Crisis: How Israeli Gas Disruptions Will Reshape East Mediterranean Energy Infrastructure
by Dr. Elai Rettig
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Debunking the Genocide Allegations:
A Reexamination of the Israel-Hamas War
(2023-2025)
by Prof. Danny Orbach, Dr. Jonathan Boxman, Dr. Yagil Henkin, and Jonathan Braverman

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Israel at War
BESA Researchers in the Media
Israel at war

The Post-Soviet Conflicts Research Program (PSCRP)/תוכנית לחקר סכסוכים מדיניים במרחב הפוסט-סובייטי is a research initiative in the fields of politics, society and international relation of the USSR-successor states

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From September 12th to 14th, the BESA Center welcomed a delegation from the RUSI Military Sciences research group and an esteemed expert from Exeter University for a strategic dialogue focused on various facets of modern warfare.
On September 10th, The BESA Center conducted a conference in collaboration with the Association of Civil-Military Studies in Israel.
On July 2 Besa hosted the Israel's First "Hybrid Warfare" Conference at Bar Ilan University.
The conference marked the initiation of an innovative international research initiative, funded with 380,000 euros by the EU, aiming to address the complex challenges posed by the era of hybrid warfare comprehensively.
On July 5 Besa researchers participated in a strategic dialogue on mutual collaboration with colleagues from Turkey, Bahrain, UAE, SaudiArabia, Georgia and Qatar in Baku Azarbijan. Hosted by the AIR center in Baku.




The Shift in Technological Innovation from the Defense Sector to the Civilian Sector by Nir Reuven
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 2,205, July 4, 2023
On the 30 of March Dr. Shamir met with a team of NESA researchers led by Col. David Lamm

Featured Articles

Private: In Memoriam: Aby Har-Even

BESA Center | June 7, 2021
It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of Aby Har-Even, a BESA Center Fellow and former director of the Israel Space Agency. Aby was seriously wounded on May 11 when Arab rioters set fire to the Efendi Hotel in Acre, where he was staying. He succumbed to his wounds at Rambam Medical Center on June 6, at the age of 84.
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The Europeanized USA

Dr. Alex Joffe | April 7, 2021
America is undergoing a rapid transformation founded in a moral panic over race that masks the exercise of class-based power in which technology companies and left-wing politics have united to wield unprecedented control. The outcome will likely be a union of Europeanized states where freedoms are severely curtailed and social cohesion is minimized in favor of dependency.
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The New Blood Libel of “Medical Apartheid”

Edwin Black | April 14, 2021
A vicious lie has been making the rounds lately. It is a timeworn smear against the Jewish people in a modern guise. The ancient blood libel—“Jews are poisoners”—stoked antisemitic violence through the ages, from the Black Death to tainted wells. This time, it has taken the form of a claim that Israel is denying COVID-19 vaccinations to its non-Jewish citizens and to the residents of the not-yet-sovereign Palestinian Authority. This is as much a lie as all its predecessors.
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The Rise and Rise of Turkish Drone Technology

Burak Bekdil | April 11, 2021
Everything’s coming up roses for Turkey’s thriving drone industry, but a cash-strapped economy and technological challenges may slow further progress.
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Mansour Abbas and the Lebanonization of Israel

Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Mordechai Kedar | April 5, 2021
The Islamic Movement in Israel is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, the ideological hothouse that spawned such organizations as Hamas, al-Qaeda, ISIS, and various other Sunni jihadist groups that reject Israel’s right to exist. Giving the Islamic Movement a kosher stamp of approval sets Israel on the same destructive path trod by Lebanon ever since Hezbollah became part of that country.
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Mideast Security and Policy Studies

The Modern Blitz:
The Collapse of Strategic Warning as a Response to Tactical Alert

The collapse of strategic warning—the “fundamental surprise” written about by Dr. Zvi Lanir—is no longer a localized intelligence failure but rather a profound conceptual one. It is defined by the loss of the ability to identify the enemy’s changes in intent and pattern in time, within the framework of outdated conceptual models. In this reality, the pattern of the “Modern Blitz” has evolved—a multi-domain, simultaneous, massed offensive intended to exploit the operational “zero-time” of the first 24-72 hours to generate

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September 1, 2026 No Comments
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Balochistan Has Become a Nightmare for Pakistan and Iran

Increasingly well-coordinated and deadly rebel assaults on Pakistani security forces in Balochistan have revealed the extreme vulnerability of the Pakistani military in the province. The enormity of the territory, lack of local support, inability to commit sufficient forces, and porous borders with Iran and Afghanistan render the Baloch challenge to the Pakistani army nearly impossible to counter. The violence is spilling into the Sistan and Balochistan province of Iran, which is experiencing its own Baloch insurgency.

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August 27, 2026 No Comments
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Iranian Cyber Sabotage Is Targeting US Water Systems

In a coordinated offensive, cyber actors directly linked to the Iranian regime recently executed a series of targeted digital intrusions against water infrastructure in the US. This aggressive campaign focused on the operational technology networks of municipal drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities across seven to twelve states. Unlike traditional cyber espionage campaigns, this unconventional and widespread operation was explicitly designed for real-world physical sabotage of a vital civilian resource.

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August 25, 2026 No Comments
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India’s Private Space Race:
From Sarabhai’s Vision to the Commercialization of Space

India’s emerging private space sector is often presented as a story of entrepreneurship and market liberalization, but there is more to it than that. It reflects a broader reorganization of national capability in which commercialization, security imperatives, industrial policy and status ambitions converge. India has evolved from Vikram Sarabhai’s development-oriented vision to an increasingly dual-use space strategy, shaped by China’s 2007 antisatellite test, Mission Shakti in 2019, and the institutional reforms introduced from 2020 onward. Private participation has responded to

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August 19, 2026 No Comments
Geo Energy Program

 Power Without Integration:
A Cautious Model for Electricity Cooperation Between Israel, Syria, and Lebanon

Electricity cooperation between Israel and Syria is technically possible, but would be considerably more difficult than the indirect gas exports that are already taking place via Jordan. Unlike natural gas, electricity trade must be balanced in real time, creating immediate dependence on shared infrastructure. A model of small, reversible, and externally monitored electricity links that serve defined civilian projects and are detached from either side’s national grid is therefore the most likely path for the future. The most realistic first

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August 16, 2026 No Comments
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Beyond Victory: How Should Israel’s War Against Iran Be Assessed?

The success of Israel’s 2023–2026 campaigns against Iran, its proxies, and its allies should not be judged by simplistic measures of targets destroyed or by the continuing existence or otherwise of the Iranian regime, but by whether or not Iran’s grand strategy has been disrupted. Rather than viewing Iran’s nuclear program in isolation, we interpret it as one pillar of an integrated strategy that also included the “Ring of Fire” proxy network and long-range missile forces. Following the degradation of

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August 10, 2026 No Comments
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Between Precision and Legitimacy: How the Kargil War Shaped India’s Strategic Partnerships

The Kargil War is remembered in India as a military victory, but its legacy extends far beyond the recapture of positions seized by Pakistani forces in 1999. It was an early test of India’s ability to employ conventional military force under the shadow of nuclear deterrence and a turning point in its relations with both Israel and the United States. Israel continued an established pattern of assisting India during times of crisis, but in this instance, it evolved from a

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August 6, 2026 No Comments
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From Cognitive Victory to Political Exclusion:
Hamas and the 2026 Palestinian Elections

Following the October 7 war and the documentation of the atrocities committed by Hamas against Israeli civilians, the limited political legitimacy the organization had retained within the Palestinian political system eroded dramatically. The Palestinian elections scheduled for 2026 are being held in a framework of institutional reform intended to align the Palestinian Authority with international requirements as it seeks international recognition of a future Palestinian state. One of the reform’s defining features is the deliberate exclusion of Hamas and Palestinian

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August 4, 2026 No Comments
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Trump and the Art of the Iranian Deal

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 2,399, August 2, 2026 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The dynamics of the US-Iranian issue are the product of the clash between Donald Trump’s approach to business negotiations, which involves promoting a state of instability as the basis for advancing a deal until its signing and then following up with stable implementation, and the approach of the Iranian regime, which is to prolong negotiations until the deal conforms as much as possible to its own ideological and strategic

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August 2, 2026 No Comments
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Lavi 2.0: Taking Israeli Combat Aircraft Production Out of Mothballs

Israel has had the technological and industrial wherewithal to manufacture its own fighter-bombers since the early 1970s—yet ever since the mid-1980s, Jerusalem has repeatedly passed up this option in favor of continuing to rely on the United States to fulfill the IAF’s manned aircraft requirements. In light of current trends in both Israel and the United States, Jerusalem must urgently revisit this approach. Israel needs to design and build its own fighter-bomber—a Lavi 2.0.

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July 29, 2026 No Comments
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Between Historical Memory and Strategic Interests: Israel, Turkey, and the Armenian Question

For many years, the Armenian question has constituted one of the most sensitive issues in Israeli–Turkish relations. Although it was never at the core of the bilateral relationship, it repeatedly resurfaced whenever the question of recognizing the Armenian Genocide was raised, confronting Israel with a complex dilemma: how to balance its commitment to historical memory and the struggle against genocide denial with the strategic importance of its relations with Turkey. Over the years, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has

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July 28, 2026 No Comments

BESA Center publications and research are made possible thanks to the generosity of Saul Koschitzky and family

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