National Security Council - Activities of the Security Policy Division

The Security Policy Division is in charge of a variety of security issues, most of which are classified and secret. Following is a short review of those activities of the Division that are permitted for publication:

Principal activities of the Security Policy Division

The National Security Council periodically carries out an assessment of the overall national security situation, in conjunction with all the official and other bodies concerned, and presents the assessment to the Prime Minister. In addition, the NSC carries out periodic situation assessments on various issues in the field of national security.
Carrying out systematic staff work in the field of security as required or as instructed from time to time.
Involvement with security programming and resource issues, the internal security concept and law enforcement, command, control and oversight.
Examining the issue of deterrence, force building and its uses.
Coordinating issues in the fields of control and proliferation of both conventional and non conventional weapons, and participation in the processes led by other Ministries in this field.
Management of staff work in the field of the Home Front and national infrastructures.
Staff work on the issue of strategic threats and responses.
Coordinating and characterizing the National Crisis and Emergency Management Center.
Operation of the national Situation Room.
Formulation of rules of action in order to prevent the exploitation of scientific research for the purposes of terrorism.

The National Crisis & Emergency Management Center (NMC) and the Situation Room

A team led by Major. Gen. (res.) Rafael Vardi recommended, back in 1996, the establishment of a "National Management Center" (NMC) and proposed tools and guidelines that would enable the Prime Minister and the Government to function in a systematic and proper fashion during an emergency/crisis. This year, as part of the implementation of the lessons of the Second Lebanon War, the Winograd Commission and the Shahak Commission, which followed in its wake, recommended the establishment of a "National Crisis & Emergency Management Center in the Prime Minister's Office, equipped, inter alia, with a Situation Room," which would also operate during routine periods. The Government accepted the recommendations of the Committee in August 2007, and determined that the mission of the NMC is "to present an integrative, up-to-date and dynamic national situation assessment of the state of affairs at any given time," and that "the National Security Council will be responsible for the establishment of the NMC, for defining its specific character, and thereafter for its operation."

The NMC handles issues of national security, in its broad interpretation, on two main levels:

The Prime Minister's Work Environment – including his personal aides and advisors and the relevant Ministers and Department heads.
The National Situation Room – the Situation Room formulates the integrated national situation assessment for the Prime Minister and the Government. This consists of an integrative update – on a daily basis – on issues that are on the agenda in the field of national security, with an emphasis on the issues of security, foreign policy, the economy, national resources and internal affairs, including their reflection in the media. For the purpose of formulating the situation assessment, the Situation Room is connected to State Ministries and Departments that handle these issues. At the same time, it is emphasized that the situation room does not serve as a national Situation Room. It is not a channel for passing on instructions and guidelines to the various Departments, and it does not replace the direct communication channels between the Prime Minister and his team and Department heads and Ministers.

Upon identifying the occurrence of a crisis, the national Situation Room is expanded and senior representatives of the Departments concerned come to the Room and coordinate their operations there on an ongoing basis. The Prime Minister may also decide to operate from within the NMC in times of crisis.

The national Situation Room commenced its regular operations in March 2008, including in the field of assessment of crisis situations.

Recommendations of the National Security Council regarding assigning responsibility for Home Front emergency preparedness

On Monday, March 12, 2007, the head of the National Security Council presented its recommendations to the members of the Sub-Committee of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. The NSC had previously presented its recommendations to the Prime Minister, in a discussion regarding the preparedness of the Home Front over the long term, on 28.02.07, and the Prime Minister had decided to leave the responsibility for the Home Front to the Ministry of Defense.

In the Sub-Committee discussion, the head of the National Security Council presented the Council's recommendation that the responsibility for handling emergency situations on the Home Front should be transferred to the Internal Security Ministry, after proper preparatory staff work, which would be carried out together with the various Government Ministries and bodies. The recommendation of the head of the NSC was that the responsibility should remain with the Ministry of Defense until the end of the preparatory staff work, which, according to estimation, would be carried out within a year and would be implemented within two years. This position was shared by a senior representative of the Ministry of Internal Security, who was present at the Sub-Committee meeting.