See also:
The Jerusalem Center Impact Report 2024
The Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs is a leading independent research institute, serving as Israel’s global embassy for national security and applied diplomacy. Founded in 1976, the Center has produced hundreds of studies and initiatives by leading experts on a wide range of strategic topics.
Jerusalem Center Programs:
Defensible Borders for Israel
The “Defensible Borders for Israel” program is one of the center’s central and long-standing initiatives. It is designed to establish a conceptual, military, and diplomatic framework for sustainable border arrangements for Israel.
The concept, which crystallized after the Six-Day War, holds that Israel’s permanent borders must allow it to maintain effective self-defense without reliance on foreign armies or international security mechanisms. The model developed by the center is based on strategic depth, control over critical terrain features (such as the Jordan Valley and the Samarian highlands), and the ability to respond rapidly to hybrid threats.
As part of the initiative, 3D simulations and maps were developed, policy briefings were held for decision-makers in Israel and abroad, and policy reports were published that influenced the shaping of international security and diplomatic discourse. The program established a professional language relevant to American and international dialogue and reinforced the need for defense lines that are not based on the 1967 borders, integrating topographic, security, and demographic considerations.
Key elements of the initiative include:
- Flagship Program: “Defensible Borders for Israel” (2022)
- Use of 3D geographic models, scenario simulations, and threat maps.
- National Security Survey: a quarterly index of Israeli public opinion.
- Core Principle: The concept of defensible borders rests on Israel’s need to maintain strategic depth, control of topographical passages, and early-warning spaces – particularly along unstable frontiers.
- Assumptions include: maintaining security control of the Jordan Valley as an eastern buffer zone; preserving strategic continuity along the Samarian ridges toward the coastal plain; and rejecting border lines based on the 1967 armistice lines.
- Conceptual Impact: The term “Defensible Borders” has been adopted in diplomatic discourse, U.S. policy documents, and international discussions about future permanent-status arrangements.
- Achievements: briefings to the U.S. Congress, the Israeli Knesset, and the UN Security Council; adoption of the term by ambassadors and senior spokespersons; and influence on the shaping of Israeli negotiation positions.
Following the events of October 7, 2023, the concept was expanded and its applications deepened, with the understanding that defensible borders do not relate solely to external lines, but also include internal buffer zones, sterile spaces separating civilian communities from hostile territories, and permanent force deployment to counter terrorist infiltrations.
The emphasis shifted from traditional defense alone to a new definition of defensible borders as multi-layered zones of physical, cognitive, technological, and demographic defense.
Center for Security, Diplomacy, and Communications
The JCFA Center for Security, Diplomacy, and Communications was established in 2024 as the Institute’s strategic media arm. The center specializes in identifying, analyzing, and countering hostile narratives against Israel, while leading multi-channel public diplomacy efforts in the international arena. Its primary goal is to strengthen Israel’s ability to combat cognitive threats through programmatic production, discourse analysis, and direct message broadcasting to target audiences.
The center focuses on analyzing and exposing hostile discourse, developing positive narratives about Israel, and disseminating them digitally to audiences around the world.
To that end, an advanced multimedia system was established, including a professional studio, filming equipment, dubbing and multilingual editing capabilities, and a series of digital content channels produced in Hebrew, English, and Arabic.
The center’s flagship platforms include:
- East to West – JCFA’s main English-language podcast, hosted by Sarah Martinez Amir. The series focuses on the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East and Israel through interviews with researchers, diplomats, and officials from the region and the West, offering deep and fresh perspectives rarely found in Western media.
- فضح الأكاذيب (Exposing Lies) – a nine-part Arabic-language series that dismantles anti-Israel disinformation and presents the Israeli narrative to Arabic-speaking audiences, notable for its direct approach and visual evidence.
- War Room Briefing – an ongoing cognitive-security briefing produced at the start of the Gaza war (2023) by the center’s team, broadcast in about 150 episodes. The series dealt with current events, hybrid terror threats, and battles in the social media arena.
The center also maintains continuous social media activity – including X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram – producing tailored content for each platform. This digital activity reaches diverse audiences and places the Institute in a position of ongoing global presence in the field of cognitive advocacy. The center also runs online training programs for diplomats, government spokespersons, students, and advocacy activists, aiming to build a professional cadre of proactive representatives in the public arena.
Applied Diplomacy
The Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs has created a special framework to promote Middle East–Israel–U.S. relations, led by Center President Dr. Dan Diker and in cooperation with an American research team including Dalia Ziada, Hussein Aboubakr Mansour, and Dr. David Wurmser. This initiative seeks to build a bridge between the moderate Middle East, Israel, and the U.S., while strengthening democratic alliances in the region.
The center develops educational programs for U.S. campuses, bringing speakers and activists from the Middle East for lecture tours and academic discussions, with the goal of presenting an authentic regional narrative opposing the influence of regimes such as Iran and Qatar. Activities focus on refuting anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-American narratives, in cooperation with student communities, scholars, and Jewish and pro-Israel organizations.
As part of these efforts, an infrastructure of academic and public diplomacy has been established, including lecturers, researchers, and intellectuals from Middle Eastern countries who speak English and present authentic perspectives supported by up-to-date research. The main objective is to offer a credible narrative of the moderate Middle East, rooted in local and cultural approaches.
The educational campaign responds to the spread of hostile narratives on campuses, often fueled by propaganda from countries such as Qatar and Iran. The center works to push back against those narratives using tools of education, exposure, and ideological confrontation. In addition to campus work, the center holds roundtable meetings with American policymakers, briefings for congressional and parliamentary staff, and collaborations with grassroots and pro-Israel communities across the U.S.
The center also engages diplomatically with governments, research institutes, and policy bodies worldwide. Through delegations, parliamentary briefings, content initiatives, and cross-continental projects, it fosters strategic partnerships and encourages pro-Israel policies.
Beyond U.S.-based activity, the center builds strategic bridges with Gulf states as part of an ongoing effort to shape a moderate regional coalition against the Iran–Qatar axis. Within this framework, a memorandum of understanding was signed with the Derasat Research Institute in Bahrain, aimed at deepening regional cooperation in maritime security, monitoring Iranian influence, and conducting strategic policy dialogue. The center also organizes joint professional forums with entities from Gulf countries such as Morocco, the UAE, and Bahrain, emphasizing pro-Western discourse based on stability, security, and interfaith understanding.
Additionally, the Institute cooperates with India’s Vivekananda Foundation within Indo-Abrahamic initiatives to promote regional security, intercontinental trade, and joint responses to asymmetric threats.
“Talking Middle East” Program
In April 2024, the Jerusalem Center launched the first cycle of the “Talking Middle East” training program – a unique internship designed to prepare Israeli students for in-depth acquaintance with Arab and Muslim culture, thought, and society.
The program, held in Jerusalem and Ramat HaSharon, brings together outstanding third-year and above students from various fields to meet with Israeli and international diplomats, former senior security officials, and Arab world journalists. The training includes courses in spoken Arabic, diplomacy, advocacy, Islam, international law, and field tours. At its conclusion, outstanding participants are given opportunities to join a regional leadership program.
Initiative for Palestinian Authority Accountability and Reform
Since 2016, the center has documented the financial incentives provided by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to imprisoned terrorists and their families, in a policy known as “Pay-for-Slay.” The project investigates the PA’s structured system of payments carried out by its official institutions (such as the Ministry for Prisoner Affairs), which include monthly salaries graded by years of imprisonment, bonuses for severe attacks, and fixed stipends for families of “martyrs.”
The center created a detailed database documenting the payment mechanisms, the budget structure, and the identities of beneficiaries. The initiative is led by Lt. Col. (res.) Adv. Maurice Hirsch and served as the basis for the Taylor Force Act (U.S., 2018) and the Israeli deduction law.
The center’s activities include international legislative analysis, documenting corrupt practices within the PA’s governance system, and appealing to donor states to condition financial aid on reforms in transparency, democratization, and education for reconciliation values.
It also exposes incitement to hatred and terror in the Palestinian education system, evaluates the performance of PA civilian institutions in Europe, and submits legal opinions calling for recognition that this incentive policy encourages terrorism and constitutes a systematic violation of international law.
Israel’s Legal Rights
Since its founding, the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs has worked to strengthen advocacy for Israel’s legal rights in the international system. This project aims to confront false legal claims, provide a solid basis of legal arguments, and serve as a counterweight to the often-hostile international discourse toward Israel.
The project seeks to present the historical and legal background of the Jewish people’s right to a sovereign state in the Land of Israel, anchor the status of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and examine the legality of Israeli activities in disputed areas in light of international law.
Led by Ambassador (ret.) Adv. Alan Baker, the center publishes position papers, legal opinions, and research books. Notable among them is Baker’s “Jerusalem and the Legal Rights of the Jewish People,” which reviews the legal basis for international recognition of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria, drawing on foundational documents such as the British Mandate and League of Nations resolutions. In his later book “Israel Under Fire,” Baker shows how international law has been systematically used as a tool of political subversion against Israel and calls for the development of a fact-based, normatively supported sovereign-legal narrative.
The project also includes briefings for international bodies, legal assistance to foreign courts, activity with the UN Human Rights Council, and partnerships with legal research institutions in Israel and abroad.
Jerusalem Center Serial Publications:
Jerusalem Issue Brief/Jerusalem Viewpoints – Insider briefings by top-level Israeli government officials, military experts, and academics, as part of the Center’s Institute for Contemporary Affairs.
Daily Alert – A digest of hyperlinked news and commentary on Israel and the Middle East from the world and Israeli press since 2002.
Jewish Political Studies Review – A scholarly journal founded in 1989.
See also:
The Jerusalem Center Activity Report 2022 (January-September 2022)
The Jerusalem Center Activity Report (October 2021)
The Jerusalem Center during the Coronavirus Epidemic (March–August 2020)
Jerusalem Center Action and Impact (2019–2020)
Jerusalem Center Action and Impact (January–October 2018)
Annual Report 2017: Jerusalem Center Action and Impact
Jerusalem Center Initiatives and Impact (2017)
Other Jerusalem Center Websites and Pages
- Daily Alert: dailyalert.org
- Hebrew Website: jcpa.org.il
- French Website: jcpa-lecape.org
- German Website: jer-zentrum.org
- YouTube Channel: TheJerusalemCenter
- Facebook: jerusalemcenter
- Twitter: jerusalemcenter
- Wiki: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
