Shammay Siskind writes in Middle East Quarterly: “Israel played a unique role during the Cold War. Unlike most countries, which functioned as satellites or proxies of the United States or the Soviet Union, it had to fend off enemies both directly on its borders and over the distant horizon. The new state was surrounded and vastly outgunned and outnumbered by enemies that vowed to wipe it clean off the map, just a few short years after the Holocaust. Its intelligence community responded accordingly.”
Gregg Roman is an investigative journalist and Director of the Middle East Forum.