Brig. Gen. (Res.) Nitzan Nuriel previously served as the Director of the Counter-Terrorism Bureau at the National Security Council. He currently serves as the deputy Commander of the Depth Corps of the IDF. He has also served as the head of Israel-US International Exercise Directorate since 2003. In this framework, he is in charge of planning and managing the military exercises, including drawing conclusions.

Nuriel has served as an associate at the ICT for several years. In this framework, he took part in many of the ICT’s events, lectured in front of various audiences, participated in simulations, gave briefings to foreign guests and officials on a political and security level, and participated in many think-tanks in his field of expertise.

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In his opinion, the greatest terrorism threat facing the world today is non-conventional terrorism as it is a very simple to produce. There are detailed explanations for preparation of these weapons on the internet and non-conventional material can be hidden inside any product, however small.

Nuriel’s outlook on counter-terrorism consists of three central views that he believes will significantly improve the ability to protect the country’s citizens, when implemented:

• Nuriel believes that the municipal level plays an important role in all things related to counter-terrorism. In his opinion, the mayor knows best what his district needs from a security standpoint. He should be given the option, for example, to decide for himself how to protect public places in the city, such as cafes. Therefore, we must begin to delegate more and more authority to the municipal level, rather than the federal level. In addition, in his opinion, a multi-casualty event should be practiced at a municipal level at least twice a year, something that is not done at all at this level.
• He believes that employee reliability is a vulnerable point in the system since for the most part, employee tracking is often not embedded in the agenda of the security department or the company’s security officers. For instance, it is necessary to monitor an employee’s lifestyle, suspicious connections, etc. It is relatively easy for terrorist organizations to recruit people of varying ranks and roles. Sometimes these people are not aware that they are serving a terrorist organization. One example of this is the crash of the Russian “Metrojet” airplane in the Sinai Peninsula, which was caused by a bomb that exploded in the plane. The bomb was hidden by a technician from Egypt Air airlines, whose cousin had joined the Islamic State in Syria.
• Finally, Nuriel believes that academics and research institutes should bring to the fore he security risks that may arise from products that are under development so that the regulator can examine these risks and sometimes even add a component that will allow the authorities to control that product when necessary. Today, in contrast, the development and construction of products are completed first, and only after the products go to the market are the dangers inherent in them discovered and solutions sought – such as with the development of the multirotor drone.

Regarding the current issue of the Gaza riots, he claims that the pace of events will only increase, and they will become something that people get used to. In his opinion, the State of Israel’s toolbox does not contain enough non-lethal capabilities. Only when there are such capabilities will Israel have a first-degree deterrent and the motivation to stir up riots will diminish.

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