Clean Break or Dirty War? Israel’s Foreign Policy Directive

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Clean Break or Dirty War? Israel's Foreign Policy Directive to the United States

Securing the Realm: Background

"A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm" (ACB) contains six pages of policy recommendations for Benjamin Netanyahu. In 1996 Israel's newly elected Prime Minister relied upon opinion makers, thinkers and researchers to craft the paper. This Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies' "Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000" included Richard Perle, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks, Douglas Feith, Robert Loewenberg, David Wurmser, and Meyrav Wurmser.

The paper's call for a "break" from failed policies of the past such as "land for peace" and a new concentration on the realities of "balance of power" in the region are striking for their realpolitik approaches and high dependence on actions and resources of the U.S. government.

Executive Summary

Great changes are seldom achieved without a plan. The Israeli policy paper "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm" (ACB) was authored by a group of policy advisors to Israel. Subsequently, nearly all members ascended to influential policy making positions within U.S. government, media, and academic circles. Many of the ACB policies such as toppling the government of Iraq are now in full implementation and present new challenges to the global community. Others, such as the reform of Israel's economy have been abysmal failures, but generate little visibility or impact outside of Israel.