“The world is becoming significantly less secure,” said Major General (res.) Amir Eshel, Director General of Israel's Ministry of Defense, partner at Aurelius Capital, former commander of the Israeli Air Force, and former director-general of the Defense Ministry, delivering a stark warning at the 2026 Jerusalem Post New York Conference.
Eshel stressed the role of Israel’s rapidly growing defense-tech sector in addressing emerging threats, noting that “the new reality presents both a national security imperative and a business opportunity,” he said he joined Aurelius Capital’s Defense Tech Fund after October 7 “to make Israel safer.” The comments came as he argued that defense establishments must become far more open to civilian innovation, startups, and private investment in order to keep pace with the changing character of war.
Eshel pointed to “a proliferation of regional wars with global repercussions” and emerging technologies that enable relatively weak actors to wield unprecedented power, arguing that conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have exposed five major lessons reshaping warfare.
Chief among them is the rise of “overwhelming firepower of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, drones, and many others,” which now threaten not only front lines but entire civilian populations. “Quantity has become quality,” he said, describing how large numbers of relatively simple systems can generate massive strategic effects. “Numbers count.” He also warned that traditional military assumptions are being upended. Ground maneuvers are increasingly constrained by “full spherical kinetic threats,” while air defenses are struggling to cope with the volume of incoming attacks.
At the same time, wars are becoming “significantly longer and far more costly than in the past.” Asked whether Western militaries are ready for the next conflict, Eshel’s answer was unequivocal: “They are not.” Looking ahead, he painted a dramatic picture of future battlefields dominated by “massive simultaneous multi-domain saturation attacks,” involving thousands of missiles and drones launched at once. “We have to think about thousands simultaneously, maybe 10,000,” he said. Artificial intelligence, he added, will fundamentally transform combat. “We will see AI fight AI, our AI will fight the enemy’s AI, and vice versa,” he said, “we can barely imagine today.”
Eshel also warned that the electromagnetic spectrum itself will become a battlefield, threatening cellular networks, GPS systems, and data links. Directed-energy weapons could disable everything from drones to traffic lights, elevators, and smartphones. To meet these challenges, Eshel called for a “fundamental mindset shift,” arguing that nations must invest more heavily in defensive capabilities. “Without robust defense, offensive potential cannot be realized,” he said. “We need more defensive. We need to change the balance.”
This article was written in collaboration with Aurelius Capital