Israel–NATO Relations

Israel participates in NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue, a framework intended to promote friendly relations, mutual understanding, and security and stability across the Mediterranean.[2] The Dialogue brings Israel together with Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia, connecting the alliance with seven nonmember countries through a common partnership forum.[2] Its activities encompass political discussion and practical security cooperation, including counterterrorism.[1]

Partnership is distinct from membership: Israel does not receive the collective security guarantee available to NATO members.[1] In 2018, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stated that the guarantee “does not apply to Israel,” explaining that Israel was not a member of the alliance.[1] Israel’s participation in exercises, representation at headquarters, and agreements with NATO therefore concern cooperation rather than a mutual-defense commitment.[1][6]

The Mediterranean Dialogue is also separate from NATO’s other partnership arrangements.[9] In 2016, the Partnership for Peace comprised 22 European partners, while the Istanbul Cooperative Initiative was a separate framework established in 2004.[9] Israel’s U.S.-designated major non-NATO ally status, dating to 1987, is likewise not a formal NATO status and does not entail a mutual-defense guarantee.[8]

The partnership covers military and civilian fields rather than a single operational mission.[4] Areas of cooperation have included counterterrorism, weapons-of-mass-destruction prevention, emergency preparation, exercises, and border security.[4] Later cooperation also encompassed cyber defense and maritime security, while NATO leadership cited science and technology among established fields.[5][10] Political restrictions have nevertheless affected which activities Israel can undertake with the alliance.[8]

The North Atlantic Council initiated the Mediterranean Dialogue in 1994 to support regional security and complement other international efforts in the Mediterranean.[2] Israel was among its seven participating countries by 2000.[2] The framework provided a basis for dialogue with NATO without making membership a prerequisite for cooperation.[2]

The 2004 Istanbul summit called for increased strategic cooperation with selected Mediterranean countries, including Israel.[4] In November that year, Israeli military units participated in multinational NATO exercises and counterterrorism activities, including patrols in the eastern Mediterranean.[11] Israel also sent Major General Yisrael Ziv to a military summit in Belgium addressing an upgraded Mediterranean Dialogue and expanded regional joint military operations.[11] Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Mauritania were invited as well.[11]

Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer visited Israel on February 23–24, 2005, making the first official visit by a NATO secretary-general.[4] The cooperation agenda included counterterrorism, countering weapons of mass destruction, border security, disaster and emergency preparation, participation in NATO maneuvers, defense-reform consultations, and prevention of arms and drug smuggling.[4]

In March 2005, Israel and NATO held their first joint naval exercise in the Red Sea near Eilat.[12] Six ships from Standing NATO Response Force Mine Counter-Measures Group 2 joined Israeli fast patrol boats for search-and-rescue training.[12] The NATO formation included German, Greek, Spanish, and Turkish minehunters and an Italian minesweeper.[12]

Israeli forces also participated in a three-week submarine escape-and-rescue exercise in Italy in 2005 alongside fourteen NATO nations and approximately 2,000 soldiers.[11] Submarines from Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Turkey took part.[11] In July, Israeli infantry trained with NATO for the first time during a two-and-a-half-week counterterrorism exercise at Ukraine’s Yavoriv Training Center, focusing on peacekeeping and urban-conflict methods.[11]

By 2006, NATO met Mediterranean Dialogue partners several times annually and sometimes trained and conducted military exercises with them.[13] The partnership approach sought contributions from nonmembers as well as members to security in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Balkans.[13]

Israel signed an Individual Cooperation Program with NATO on October 16, 2006, covering counterterrorism, intelligence sharing, and disaster preparedness.[14] Defense Minister Amir Peretz subsequently became the first Israeli defense minister to visit NATO headquarters in Brussels on February 7, 2007.[14] In June 2007, Israel agreed to joint training and exercises intended to improve interoperability, potentially enabling participation in NATO-led missions.[14]

The October 2006 arrangements also provided for Israeli support to NATO’s Mediterranean counterterrorism activity through maritime patrols, intelligence sharing, and access to Israeli ports for NATO vessels.[15] Israel was the first of the invited Mediterranean countries to agree on the nature of its contribution to this initiative, which followed the September 11 attacks and involved patrols intended to detect terrorist activity.[15]

The recitals of an introduced 2007 U.S. House resolution described an October 2006 exchange of letters governing Israeli support for Operation Active Endeavour and plans to station an Israeli liaison officer at NATO’s naval headquarters in Naples.[16] They also described a step-by-step expansion of cooperation, Israeli willingness to provide search-and-rescue and disaster-relief assets, and exploration of additional intelligence and counter-proliferation cooperation.[16] These statements formed part of an introduced resolution referred to committee, not enacted legislation.[16]

In December 2008, NATO approved an Individual Cooperation Programme encompassing counterterrorism, intelligence exchanges, shared security expertise, additional exercises, non-proliferation, armaments, logistics, and electronic links to NATO systems.[3] Acting Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni described stronger cooperation with international security bodies as a strategic objective and emphasized the operational importance of converting shared understandings into practical security cooperation.[3]

In 2016, the North Atlantic Council agreed to Israel’s request for an official mission at NATO headquarters, following Turkey’s lifting of its veto.[6] The arrangement envisaged the Israeli ambassador to Belgium heading the mission.[6] Aharon “Ronny” Leshno-Yaar later submitted his credentials as Israel’s representative, and the Israeli office was officially opened in January 2017.[17] At the opening, Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller described Israel as an “active and beneficial partner for Mediterranean dialogue.”[17]

The relationship also expanded through an individual cooperation agreement in 2017 and a five-day counterterrorism training seminar hosted by Israel for NATO officials that year.[18] In November 2017, the parties signed an agreement to protect classified information and support expanded intelligence sharing.[19]

President Isaac Herzog addressed NATO ambassadors at the North Atlantic Council during a January 2023 visit to headquarters, becoming the first Israeli president to do so there.[10] Stoltenberg highlighted almost three decades of cooperation, while Herzog pointed to Israel’s maritime liaison, joint training, and projects as examples of deepening ties.[10] An updated partnership agreement was then under negotiation, with Israeli diplomats expecting signature in the following months; that expectation did not itself establish its subsequent completion.[10]

Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană visited Israel in September 2023 and met leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, praising the partnership.[20]

Israeli maritime cooperation has included contributions to Operation Active Endeavour and liaison arrangements associated with Operation Sea Guardian.[18][21] Israel joined Active Endeavour in 2008.[18] By 2017, an Israeli Navy liaison officer represented Israel at Allied Maritime Command in London, and Israel had sent a liaison officer aboard a NATO ship in the central Mediterranean for the first time in connection with Sea Guardian.[21] Israeli personnel also observed the Dynamic Monarch submarine escape-and-rescue exercise off Aksaz, Turkey, while Israeli military branches maintained dialogue with NATO bodies.[21]

Intelligence cooperation included Israeli participation in two NATO discussions on ballistic missiles and the Middle East nuclear threat in 2008.[22] Information supplied by Israel contributed to two NATO reports distributed to the alliance’s then-26 members.[22] An Israeli Navy intelligence officer stationed in Italy helped transfer intelligence and support efforts to intercept vessels suspected of weapons smuggling across the Mediterranean.[22]

Other activities planned in 2008 included using Israeli security information about explosive devices, bringing Israeli observers into exercises, and involving Israeli officers in NATO’s military academy in Rome.[22] In November 2017, NATO security director Wendy Bashnan and Israeli Defense Ministry security director Nir Ben Menashe signed an agreement to protect classified information and facilitate expanded intelligence sharing.[19]

In June 2018, Israeli troops participated for the first time in the annual Saber Strike exercise.[23] Dozens of Israelis joined 18,000 soldiers from nineteen other countries in Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.[23] Training included air-assault operations and bridge- and river-crossing scenarios.[23]

Medical response has been another practical component of cooperation.[24] In December 2018, the Israeli Navy corvette INS Eilat joined the MEDEX Crystal Sea maritime medical exercise.[24] The scenario involved three sailors injured in a simulated fire aboard a Greek frigate: after receiving first aid, they were transferred to the Israeli ship for evaluation and treatment.[24] INS Eilat also had the capability to perform surgery aboard.[24]

In December 2020, a Greek-led task group associated with Sea Guardian trained with the Israeli Navy in the eastern Mediterranean.[5] Greek and Bulgarian ships joined Israeli naval units in search-and-rescue and medical-evacuation scenarios, including the air transport of simulated casualties to an Israeli hospital.[5] Afterward, NATO Maritime Command’s Vice Admiral Keith Blount described Israel as “an important partner to NATO for more than 20 years” and an active Mediterranean Dialogue participant.[5]

Cooperation has also extended to cyber defense, countering missile and weapons-of-mass-destruction proliferation, and intelligence for counterterrorism.[5] In 2023, Israel collaborated with NATO on threats posed by unmanned aerial vehicles and on maritime security.[25] This NATO engagement accompanied separate Israeli counterterrorism dialogues with the European Union, Great Britain, Germany, France, Australia, and the Philippines, as well as exchanges of counterterrorism intelligence and best practices with the United States.[25]

Israel joined NATO’s equipment cataloguing system in 2006, initially as an associate member, following a year of negotiations.[26] The system sought to standardize inventory and equipment identification across participating defense establishments.[26] Within the Israeli military, a review identified approximately 100 independent procurement bodies and numerous uncoordinated cataloguing systems as contributors to redundant purchases and inefficiency.[26] A centralized catalogue center and common item identifiers were proposed as remedies.[26]

Shared cataloguing also offered Israeli defense contractors a route into NATO’s supplier database, where they could present their capabilities to alliance countries.[26] A further procurement opening came in February 2018, when Ambassador Leshno-Yaar signed a logistics agreement with the NATO Support and Procurement Agency.[7] The agreement enabled Israeli companies in fields including cyber, optics, defense, and software to compete for NATO tenders and seek inclusion in its authorized-exporter database.[7]

Supplier registration was to be handled through Israel’s SIBAT, and an Israeli estimate placed potential deals at $4.5 billion.[7] This figure represented an estimate of opportunity rather than completed contracts.[7] Access also remained conditional: NATO member countries could restrict particular tenders to businesses operating in NATO countries.[7]

Civil preparedness and disaster planning formed part of the cooperation agenda established in the mid-2000s and remained among the fields highlighted by NATO leadership in 2023.[4][10] During Herzog’s visit, Stoltenberg identified climate change, innovation, and new technologies as possible areas for further work.[10] Technology, cyber issues, civil resilience, counterterrorism, and climate change were also identified as areas of NATO interest in the partnership negotiations then underway.[10]

U.S. law expresses the sense of Congress that the United States should encourage an expanded Israeli role with NATO, including an enhanced presence at alliance headquarters and participation in exercises.[27] This provision is a statement of congressional sense and policy direction, rather than an extension of NATO membership or collective-defense obligations.[27]

The partnership has provided channels for Israeli participation in NATO consultation, training, maritime operations, and technical cooperation without requiring membership.[14][21] Israel’s representative office also enabled participation in NATO debates, while procurement agreements opened additional opportunities for Israeli technology and defense companies.[19][7]

A 2019 American Jewish Committee article argued that closer ties could offer reciprocal benefits: Israel could share cybersecurity and counterterrorism experience, while NATO could contribute expertise in fields such as energy security.[18] The author also suggested that stronger ties could support Israeli cooperation with Greece and Cyprus and help the Mediterranean Dialogue foster relations between Israel and Arab countries.[18] These were arguments about potential benefits, not an agreed NATO policy program.[18]

Proposals for full Israeli membership have gone beyond the established partnership.[28] In a 2006 interview published by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, Rafael Bardaji advocated a proposal associated with former Spanish prime minister José María Aznar to enlarge NATO to include Israel, Japan, and Australia.[28] Bardaji argued that cooperation developing after the Istanbul summit provided a basis for closer relations, while acknowledging political difficulties surrounding Israeli membership.[28]

Bardaji described an advocacy process involving visits to a dozen NATO member states and proposed candidates, four months of work, and 240 interviews inside and outside governments.[28] He said the draft was discussed with experts in Brussels and Washington.[28] This was a political initiative by membership advocates, not an official NATO enlargement review or an adopted alliance decision.[28]

Other commentary has emphasized the military knowledge Israel could contribute.[29] A 2017 JCFA article reported that Admiral Giampaolo Di Paolo, then chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, visited Israel in 2009 to study Israeli tactics for possible application in Afghanistan, particularly counterterrorism in civilian-populated areas.[29] The article described this as his third visit in four years and also reported a NATO parliamentary delegation in Jerusalem in 2017, without identifying its agenda.[29]

Related Western defense cooperation should be distinguished from NATO programs.[30] A 2007 JCFA article noted that in 1985 the Reagan administration invited NATO allies, Israel, and several other countries to participate in the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative.[30] This concerned a U.S.-led initiative rather than an Israel–NATO program.[30]

Some NATO governments opposed considering eventual Israeli membership while the Arab-Israeli conflict continued and sought to limit Israel’s association with the alliance in 2007.[31] Concerns also included whether advanced partnerships might dilute NATO’s “Atlantic” character.[31] Conversely, NATO official Patrick Hardouin was quoted in a 2007 JCFA article as arguing in 2006 that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict’s “ups and downs” should not limit cooperation.[30] In 2008, Secretary-General de Hoop Scheffer reiterated NATO’s member-territory defense role and outlined conditions for a possible Middle East presence: a UN resolution, a durable agreement, and an appeal from all parties involved.[22]

Turkey’s restrictions have varied over time.[32] In December 2012, it announced withdrawal of a broad cooperation veto imposed after the May 2010 Mavi Marmara raid, while retaining the right to block joint exercises and Israeli activities on Turkish soil.[32] The decision was linked to NATO’s agreement to deploy Patriot missiles near Turkey’s Syrian border.[32] Turkey subsequently lifted the objection that had prevented Israel’s headquarters mission upgrade in 2016.[6]

In August 2024, reporting based on anonymous sources described a renewed Turkish block on NATO communications, meetings, and exercises with Israel since October 2023.[8] The sources attributed it to Turkey’s objections to Israel’s Gaza campaign and its allegations concerning international law and human rights; those were Turkish positions, not established findings.[8] Erdoğan stated in July 2024 that Turkey would not approve cooperation until “comprehensive, sustainable peace” was established in Palestine.[20]

A September 2024 JCFA account reported that Foreign Minister Israel Katz urged NATO members to condemn Erdoğan’s rhetoric and seek Turkey’s expulsion after Erdoğan called for Muslim countries to unite against an alleged Israeli expansion threat.[33] Katz called the remarks “lies and dangerous incitement.”[33] In March 2025, Turkey reportedly blocked Israeli participation in NATO’s resilience and emergency-preparedness exercise despite earlier favorable coordination discussions; an Israeli official accused Turkey of using its veto politically.[34] A July 2025 analysis of the June NATO summit assessed that relations could remain frozen in the short term, while cooperation with individual NATO members remained possible.[35]