The growing antisemitism and anti-Israeli sentiments, along with Israel’s dependence on the United States, underscored the urgency for Israel to seize the opportunity to reinvent itself in the Asia theater. There are mutual benefits for Israel and the Asian countries, especially India, Japan, and Taiwan, in the fields of technology and defense.
With China helping to build Iran's new air defense networks following their destruction by Israel in Operation Rising Lion, Israel should begin by working closely with its counterparts in India, who gained experience with addressing Chinese equipment in the recent war with Pakistan, who was supported by China, to gain information about such networks and prepare for a future conflict with Iran.
Both countries could also collaborate on studying Pakistan’s cyber and information warfare, believed to be amplified by China and anti-Indian hacker groups that have also targeted Israel.
Sharing information on their tactics, operations, tools, and conduct would enable Israel and India to better prepare for future conflicts in the cyber domain.
This would also benefit the United States, especially since it has been disclosed that nation-state Chinese hackers, such as Vault Typhoon and Sault Typhoon, have penetrated critical infrastructure and communications systems in the US, positioning themselves to disrupt them in a potential conflict. These are only examples of the partnership's potential.
The Taiwan advantage and supply chains
China has clearly shifted its rhetoric toward Israel since October 7, 2023, in a sharp contrast to Taiwan, who was one of the first nations to stand by the Jewish state.
Israel will likely hope to avoid further deteriorating its complex relations with China – as a small nation should – yet it must continue working with Taiwan. Not only is Taiwan perceived to be a safe place for Israelis and Jews (a fact I can personally testify to), the two countries share democratic values, a rich history and culture blended with modernity, and impressive technological ecosystems.
As Taiwan prepares for a potential Chinese blockade or invasion, it could continue to benefit from quietly collaborating with Israel while attempting to avoid provoking Beijing.
Taiwan possesses mass production capacity and leads in electronics and hardware manufacturing, especially semiconductors, and in confronting disinformation campaigns. Conversely, Israel largely lacks these elements but leads in software development, cybersecurity solutions, commercialization of academic knowledge, patent development, innovation promotion, development of dual-use and defense-tech technologies, as well as building social resilience – areas where Taiwan relatively lags.
Pooling resources, knowledge, and expertise could accelerate and sophisticate each country’s capabilities, including their operational and strategic readiness.
Crucially, Israel could embed itself into regional technological supply chains by integrating smart solutions into hardware and other equipment and improving their cyber resiliency – to empower its status and value in Asia.
Thus, it could also benefit the United States, which is working to decouple from China’s economy and dependency partly by creating new partnerships around the world in natural resources, energy, trade, and technological development.
Regional opportunities and conclusion
The lesson here is clear: Due to overlapping circumstances, Israel has a rare opportunity to emphasize its image and role in Asia and expand its presence in the region.
The potential to intensify Israel’s regional involvement also rests on the agenda of Japan’s new right-wing Prime Minister, Sanaea Takaichi, who holds a strong stance against China.
Takaichi is expected to continue the late prime minister Shinzo Ab’s policies of gradually rebuilding and modernizing Japan’s defense capabilities after years of appeasement.
Although Japan traditionally holds a balanced position toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel should not miss the historic opportunity to leverage its defense and technological capacity to accelerate Japan's turn into a true strategic partner.
Israel’s technological value was apparently one of the main elements behind the strategic shift toward Israel that India made under Prime Minister Modi nearly a decade ago, after years of holding a balanced position toward the Middle East.
Other countries, such as Singapore, with which Israel already holds strong relations, as well as the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia (a strong candidate to join the Abraham Accords) will likely also be interested in deepening relations with Israel, especially due to their growing regional concerns. The recovering of the Abraham Accords after two years of war could ease this shift.
Israel could offer a wide variety of areas for cooperation in Asia, from sharing its experience in employing battlefield technologies – from embedding artificial intelligence (AI) into drones and UAVs, to developing sandboxes for testing new technological tools and promoting R&D and collaborating on sciences.
They could jointly arrange cybersecurity exercises and competitions, and share knowledge about tactics, operations, and tools used by notorious cyber-actors. Additionally, they could train a talented technological workforce to work together on the commercialization of scientific knowledge, and strengthening cooperation between governments, academia, and the private sectors and industries. They could establish new consortiums to develop defensive technologies, and more.
The Asian countries can bring to the table mass production, efficiency, discipline, and expertise in electronics, hardware, and equipment. Israel can pool its creativity to make them work faster and smarter. The time to act on this is now.
The writer is an AWC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Clements Center for National Security in the University of Texas at Austin. Recently, he was a research fellow in the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica, Taipei, under The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of the Republic of China's (Taiwan) Fellowship.