ABSTRACT
This contribution examines Israeli regional perspectives in and of the Mediterranean through three linked lenses: the Israeli perception of the Mediterranean, its strategic vision for it, as well as resulting policy practices in the region. Israel does not perceive the Mediterranean as one region but rather as comprising linked areas, that is Europe in the northern Mediterranean, the Middle East and North Africa in the eastern and southern Mediterranean, and Turkey somewhere between these areas. Even though Israel has geostrategically benefitted from the Arab uprisings, uncertainty has increased threat perceptions. While the EU and Turkey are seen with renewed suspicion and the Arab eastern and southern Mediterranean as inherently unstable, the Shia-crescent which stretches from the Gulf (Iran) to the Mediterranean (Syria and Lebanon) is perceived as an existential threat. This has strengthened the Iron Wall doctrine and Israel’s corresponding policy practices are unilateral on the Palestinian front and bilateral on the regional front – where Israel also upholds a de-facto alliance system with Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, directed against a ‘Shiite crescent’ – while multilateral practices are either evaded or rejected.
