A Link in the Chain: Founding the Reut Institute

The experience of serving in the Bureau of the Prime Minister made me realize how meager the tools are at the disposal of those taking historic decisions. The underlying reason is structural and institutional, and at its root lies our electoral system.

The story of the Reut Institute has its roots in my personal and professional experiences starting in the mid 1990's after my military service.

In July 1995, after finishing my service, I was committed to devoting myself to a personal and professional experience I considered important and urgent from the public perspective, as well as an experience that I would be passionate about.

This led me to work with the Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF). Initially, I was responsible for coordinating projects of economic cooperation among Israel, the Palestinians and Jordan. Later, in November 1996, I began to coordinate a project, which aimed to prepare the portfolios for negotiations on a Permanent Status Agreement between Israel and the PLO, under the assumption that such negotiations would begin within the following few years.

A central working assumption of the project had been that the Government of Israel was unable to prepare for such negotiations for political and structural reasons. Dozens of experts - former military and foreign service professionals, academics and legal experts - participated in this effort. We covered most of the outstanding issues including Jerusalem, refugees, security, water, holy sites or economics.

In July 1999, one of these experts - Attorney Gilead Sher - was appointed as the Chief Negotiator of the Prime Minister and offered me a position as Secretary of the Delegation. The files we prepared during these three years later served as the basis for the negotiations.

My work in the Bureau of the Prime Minister exposed me to the reality of Israel's decision-making capacities at the highest levels. I saw how meager the tools are at the disposal of those taking historic decisions, the absence of a culture of rigorous analysis of the strategic alternatives and the lack of methodology.

Later - after leaving the PM Office and having had the opportunity to reflect on my experiences (I was a Wexner Israel Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government) - I conlcuded that the primary reason for this is structural-institutional. Its root lies in Israel's electoral system, which generates short and unstable tenures, fragmented governments and Knessets, and powerful incentives for short-term, sectarian and populist conduct, whereas the country needs the exact opposite.

After leaving government service, I decided to dedicate my year at school to a research that would focus on the ISRAEL 15 Vision, which calls for Israel to become one of the fifteen leading nations in terms of quality of life. This research led me to realize that the shortcomings of Israel's decision-making in the areas of national security pale in comparison to the areas of social and economic development.

It was these experiences that led me to conclude that a policy group that would be dedicated to real-time systemic strategic analysis may offer unique value to Israel's public sphere. This is how the idea of the Reut Institute came into being.

Gidi Grinstein is the founder and president of the Reut Institute.