From People’s Daily Online: (Xinhua) “No one in Israel has any aspirations about full membership of NATO,” said [Yiftah] Shapir [from the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv] .

The founding covenant of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949, makes clear that members must be European, which rules out Israel, said Eitan Barak of the Department of International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Moreover, all 27 member states need to approve any new membership, something Israelis currently far from achieving.

However, there is clearly value added in increased cooperation with NATO. “It puts Israel in with the ‘good guys’,” said Barak.