As Israel prepares an offensive on Gaza City that could be a step toward reoccupation of the entire Palestinian territory, Israeli reservists are taking to the streets to demand the government end the war and secure the hostages who have been held for nearly 700 days. A free-to-read article in the new Middle East Policy shows how these service members and former commanders are wielding influence and examines how they have emerged as a domestic political force.
Middle East Policy has just published its Summer 2025 journal, featuring 10 original articles investigating Iran’s existential struggle, Syria’s regime change and Hezbollah’s money trail, the Israeli government’s domestic and regional backlash, and the strategies of middle powers. Six pieces and one book review are free to read, even without a subscription.
The new analysis by Guy Ziv of American University traces the history of political action by Israeli reservists, which culminated in the 2023 demonstrations against the right-wing government’s attempt to subvert the Supreme Court. This was generations in the making, as the state’s warfighters have historically embraced democratic values at home and played key roles in social movements.
“Senior officers have traditionally ‘parachuted’ into politics upon retirement,” Ziv writes. While the 1973 war sparked protests by veterans who demanded accountability for the surprise attacks, these interventions grew and broadened. Over the last few decades, reservists
- pushed the government to seek peace with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat
- refused to serve in Lebanon
- urged hardline President Yitzhak Shamir to negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organization
- and publicly denounced military action “beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.”
In the last dozen years or so, as part of the right wing’s ascendance, this political action has sparked what Ziv terms “illiberal pushback.” Commanders and reservists faced rebukes from government ministers and populist leaders who claimed the fighting force had become too focused on the rights of noncombatants and not enough on the burdens this placed on soldiers charged with fighting the enemy. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly sided with the military’s critics.
After the October 7, 2023, attacks, the reservists who had been vehemently demonstrating against Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul willingly took up arms, and Israelis in the streets shifted to voicing support for the troops. However, Ziv notes, the good feeling did not endure. Reservists played roles in the calls for the government to seek the release of hostages instead of the annihilation of Hamas, and they threatened to return to domestic activism if the government tried to resuscitate its moves against the Supreme Court. The rhetoric has sharpened and the pleas for a change to the war plans have become louder, with former members of the military condemning President Donald Trump’s advocacy for clearing out the Palestinian territory and creating a “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Given the history he traces, Ziv expects the reservists to become more vocal in “opposing the government’s conduct of the war in Gaza, its purported post-conflict plans, and…the renewal of its judicial overhaul.” With the protests of service members this week, and the military’s reported need for 100,000 reservists to take over Gaza City, we are likely to see these political actions intensify as we head toward the third year of the war.
Middle East Policy’s summer edition is anchored by Thomas Juneau’s open-access analysis of the Islamic Republic’s “annus horribilis” in 2024 and Annie Tracy Samuel’s investigation of how Washington and the US media conjured an Iranian enemy in the 1980s, which is free to read for the next six weeks.
From there, the journal continues its coverage of Israel with an examination of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political turmoil at home and military and diplomatic challenges abroad. In addition to Guy Ziv’s article on the political power of Israeli reservists, Emir Hadžikadunić and Marko Ćuže analyze Netanyahu’s belief system and how it has affected his approach to retaliation for the October 7 attacks, and Mahmood Monshipouri, Manochehr Dorraj, and John Fields show that Netanyahu and his far-right government have largely foreclosed the potential for expanding normalization with Arab states.
Among the open-access articles in the Summer 2025 issue are Iftah Burman and Yehuda Blanga’s examination of Hezbollah’s criminal enterprise from 1985 to 2005; Chen Kertcher and Gadi Hitman’s explanation of how middle powers like Israel and Syria try to achieve their interests; and Fred H. Lawson and Matteo Legrenzi’s analysis of the shifting relationship of the United States and United Arab Emirates, a dyadic protectorate that has allowed the smaller state to slowly gain confidence in forging its own path.
In addition to the journal’s summer installment, Middle East Policy’s special issue, The Israel-Iran War, continues to be available for free, even for those readers without a subscription. The mix of new and archival articles provides a comprehensive look at how the conflict developed, and how it could have been avoided.
Middle East Policy, Summer 2025
THE LONG ARC OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC
Iran’s Annus Horribilis in 2024: Beaten, but Not Defeated
Thomas Juneau—open access!
Conjuring an Enemy: US Discourse and Policy on Iran, 1979–88
Annie Tracy Samuel—free to read!
ISRAELI POLITICS, AT HOME AND ABROAD
Military Reservists and the Resistance to Netanyahu’s Legal Overhaul
Guy Ziv—free to read!
The Impact of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Beliefs on Israel’s War against the Axis of Resistance
Emir Hadžikadunić, Marko Ćuže—free to read!
The Gaza War and the Future of the Abraham Accords
Mahmood Monshipouri, Manochehr Dorraj, John Fields
WAR AND REBUILDING IN THE LEVANT
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham: Voices of Syria’s New Leaders
Rasim Koç
Lessons from the Syria-Hezbollah Criminal Syndicate, 1985–2005
Iftah Burman, Yehuda Blanga—open access!
THE RESOLVE OF SMALL STATES
Middle Powers and Limited Balancing: Syria and the Post‐October 7 Wars
Chen Kertcher, Gadi Hitman—open access!
Antinomies of Alignment Redux: The United Arab Emirates and the United States
Fred H. Lawson, Matteo Legrenzi—open access!
The Making of a Ruler: Haitham bin Tariq on the Omani Throne
Joseph Albert Kéchichian
BOOK REVIEWS
Omar Ashour, How ISIS Fights: Military Tactics in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt
Reviewed by Manoug Antaby
Birol Başkan, The Politics of Islam: The Muslim Brothers and the State in the Arab Gulf
Reviewed by Gökhan Çınkara
Mohammad Dawood Sofi, The Tunisian Revolution and Democratic Transition: The Role of al-Nahdah
Reviewed by Mohammad Irfan Shah
Hilmi Ozan Özavcı, Dangerous Gifts: Imperialism, Security, and Civil Wars in the Levant, 1798–1864
Reviewed by Hasim Tekines
Max Boot, Reagan: His Life and Legend
Reviewed by A.R. Joyce—free to read!