The surprising grit of tiny Israel

“If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.” This is a quote attributed to Israel's former Prime Minister Golda Meir. The quote from the 1970s has often been used to show Israel's predicament, beset by enemies.

Current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as the Speaker of the government, used the quote in a speech in 2006, according to The Times of Israel. Has nothing really changed in all these decades?

Formed in 1948, Israel's foreign policy in the region has mainly been influenced by Israel’s strategic situation, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the rejection of Israel by most of the Arab states, says Colonel Rajeev Agarwal (Retired), a West Asia Expert and former Director in Military Intelligence and MEA.

If there is Hamas in Gaza, there's Hezbollah in Lebanon. Then there are the Iran-backed militia in Iraq and Syria. Finally, there's Iran itself.

Once the second Muslim country after Turkey to have recognised Israel, Iran, after the revolution in 1979, vowed to eliminate the Jewish nation.

"Peace through security,” is the prism through which Israel sees the region, says Colonel Yadav.

Israel has survived by weakening its enemies, and turning foes into friends.

Despite such a challenging geopolitical environment, Israel has thrived due to several key factors like American support, its military strength, innovation and technology, intelligence gathering and a robust economy.

Israelis are steely people too. It is mandatory for every Israeli to serve in the military for up to three years. Because of that, most Israeli know at least the basics of krav maga, one of the most practical martial arts useful for street fights.

"Sense of survival in a neighbourhood surrounded by hostile state and non-state actors, some of which have vowed to destroy Israel," is what makes Israelis tough, explains Colonel Yadav to India Today Digital.

Come to think of it, Israel is a country with around 9 million people, 73% of whom are Jews. Compare that with Egypt, which has around 110 million people. Delhi has a population of 33 million.

Israel is also a small country with an area of about 22,000 square kilometres, much of which is desert and uninhabited.

That tiny nation is fighting battles on five fronts. With Iran, and its proxies Hamas (in Gaza), Hezbollah (in Lebanon), Houthis (Yemen), and Tehran-backed militia in Iraq and Syria.

On October 1, Iran escalated the conflict with Iran, firing around 200 ballistic missiles into Israel.

But how has Israel managed to survive and thrive despite all the odds being stacked against it?

ISRAEL THE FIRST STATE OF THE US

Critics of the two-state, Israel-Palestine solution have called the Jewish nation a colonial project of the US and the UK.

"Israel is the first of the 51 states of the US. The other 50 are on the American continent," satirist Kamlesh Singh told India Today Digital.

"In the middle of the last century, many nation states as we know them today were formed. Two of them, on the basis of religion: Israel and Pakistan. Israel is as legitimate as Pakistan is," Singh, the Tau in popular podcast Teen Taal, added.

The US is the biggest support system that Israel has.

The successful defence industry that Israel has today is a result of American assistance.

It helped Israel build the Iron Dome, David's Sling and the Arrow anti-missile defence system.

The US is also the biggest supplier of cutting-edge weapons to Israel.

It "quietly approved and delivered more than 100 separate foreign military sales to Israel since the Gaza war began on October 7," The Washington Post reported in March.

The sales included precision-guided munitions, small-diameter and bunker buster bombs, it reported.

The US gives Israel $3.8bn in military aid annually, under a 10-year pact.

The US also provides critical intelligence and assistance to Israel. It helped Israel in shooting down Iranian ballistic missiles on October 1.

INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGICAL PROWESS

The first thing that shows the grit of the people of Israel is how they built farmlands in the desert.

With a desalination mechanism and drip irrigation, Israel has turned absolute barren land suitable for agriculture.

After the Silicon Valley in California, the highest concentration of technology startups is in an area near Tel Aviv. It is called the Silicon Wadi and the Silicon Valley of the Middle East.

Israel's technological prowess and innovation culture is also a result of its focus on the needs of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

"The IDF culture, which emphasises collaboration, hard work and the development of complex, multidisciplinary technology under very challenging deadlines, has contributed significantly to the success of many technology startups in the region," Omer Keilaf, CEO and Co-Founder of Innoviz Technologies based in Tel Aviv, wrote in the Forbes.

It is estimated that Israel companies account for 40% of the sales of global cybersecurity technology.

With its engineering talent, Israel has overcome the challenges of raw materials, energy sources and small local market size, and didn't let it hinder industrial growth, explained Keilaf.

In 2022, The Economist ranked Israel as the fourth-best-performing economy among 38 OECD countries. The war since October 7 has hit Israel's economy.

ISRAEL AMONG TOP ARMS EXPORTERS

Israel has found an advantage in adversity. It built its defence industry, eyeing its foes, with the help of the US, but emerged as one of the biggest suppliers of defence equipment.

Israel is now among the Top 10 arms exporters in the world, according to a 2023 report by the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (Sipri). In 2023, it exported defence equipment worth $13 billion.

Israel is the fourth-biggest arms supplier to India, supplying around 8% of its total imports, according to the Sipri report.

The arms trade is interesting. Though Israel exports arms, it is dependent on the US for cutting edge weapons, including F-35s, the most advanced fighter jets ever made, according to the BBC.

The US, in fact, accounts for around 66% of the weapons imported by Israel, while Germany is its second-biggest supplier.

Israel's western allies have helped it with critical weapons as it took on Iran and its proxies -- Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis -- in the last one year.

ISRAEL TURNED FOES INTO FRIENDS, WEAKENED ENEMIES

Israel's survival was also because it fought hard and then made peace. It has turned several foes into friends.

Immediately after Israel was born in 1948, it faced the first war.

Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen joined forces to attack the Jewish nation. The war ended with armistice agreements in 1949, which saw Israel gain territory.

There was the Suez crisis in 1956 with Egypt, the Six-Day War of 1967, and the Yom Kippur War of 1973.

Egypt was a permanent fixture in all these wars. In 1979, Egypt and Israel smoked the peace pipe, ending a 30-year-long state of war between the two. That came after the US-mediated the historic Camp David accords of 1978.

The Abraham Accords of 2020 helped bring a thaw in ties between Israel and Arab countries like the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

An Israeli-Saudi deal to normalise ties was to be signed in 2023, but was upstaged by the Hamas-Israel confrontation. Several experts have said that the October 7 attack by Hamas was Iran's doing to scuttle the deal.

Iran now remains the single biggest threat to Israel.

Other than agreements, Israel has also acted to weaken its enemies to secure itself.

Palestinian guerilla organisations, which shifted from Jordan to Lebanon, kept attacking Israeli assets.

To neutralise the threat, especially from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978 and 1982.

It was the 1982 invasion which gave birth to the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah. Israel again invaded Lebanon in 2006 after a cross-border raid by Hezbollah fighters.

Though IDF soldiers are stationed at the borders, they got into Palestinian territories of West Bank and Gaza to target Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and weaken them.

Why Israel manages to take on enemies on multiple fronts is because of multiple factors, including the grit of the Israelis and the active support of the US. It is also because Israel has seen regional relations through "security for peace" prism, and built its industries to bolster its defence forces. Its solid economy, which thrives on innovation, and pacts that turned foes-into-friends have also helped the Jewish nation. The story of Israel is one of innovation, grit and focus on survival.