From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Knesset passes law requiring governments to set a national security policy
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
A law requiring every government to formulate a national security policy passes its third and final reading 19-0 in the Knesset plenum on Tuesday.
The bipartisan bill — sponsored by National Unity MK Gadi Eisenkot and committee chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) — requires the National Security Council to formulate a national security strategy in consultation with the foreign and defense ministries, intelligence agencies and other government bureaus.
In the bill’s explanatory notes, Edelstein and Eisenkot assert that a lack of an explicit security doctrine in favor of unwritten rules has damaged the country’s preparations and readiness in the face of threats, paving the way for the events of October 7, 2023.
The strategy — which will have to be approved by the government within 150 days of its formulation and be updated regularly — will identify Israel’s national security challenges and establish its strategic goals, and provide a “critical assessment” of the country’s existing national security strategy.
“The law was also born against the backdrop of the lessons from the October 7 attack, which radically clarified the lack of a national security concept,” says Eisenkot, expressing the law’s importance in ensuring that Israel remains “strong and powerful in a way that ensures the existence of the state forever.”
The Times of Israel Community.