Despite Israel’s problematic decisions and flaws in preparedness and use of force in the Second Lebanon War, the realization of the gaps in force between Israel and Hezbollah left the Lebanese organization badly bruised and forced it to change its modus operandi and strategic conduct vis-à-vis Israel. In the years after the war, Hezbollah was drawn into the Syrian civil war, leaving Israel’s northern border calm for the decade that followed. The most important lesson is not to embark on a military campaign to fix the outcomes and...
Israel did not intend to start a war in the Lebanese theater, nor did Hezbollah plan one. Essentially, the Second Lebanon War was a result of the ongoing erosion in Israel’s deterrence, which motivated Hezbollah to carry out a provocative kidnapping operation, under the erroneous assumption that it would not necessarily lead to escalation. The Second Lebanon War lasted 34 days, and its results were far reaching. Even though the way it was conducted drew strong criticism from the Israeli public and the Winograd Commission Report, it...
The Second Lebanon War broke out on July 12, 2006, without either Israel or Hezbollah intending this escalation. However, the abduction of IDF soldiers that day by a Hezbollah cell created a new reality in the north that prompted Israel to embark on a military operation, which ultimately became a war. The course of the war and its outcomes strongly affected subsequent internal and external Israeli, Lebanese, and regional processes.
Hindsight provides an opportunity to examine the war and its ramifications from a broader and more...
The Second Lebanon War broke out on July 12, 2006, without either Israel or Hezbollah intending this escalation. However, the abduction of IDF soldiers that day by a Hezbollah cell created a new reality in the north that prompted Israel to embark on a military operation, which ultimately became a war. The course of the war and its outcomes strongly affected subsequent internal and external Israeli, Lebanese, and regional processes. Hindsight provides an opportunity to examine the war and its ramifications from a broader and more...
The Israel Defense Forces recently completed a large military exercise on the island of Cyprus, and a smaller training exercise in Crete was held several months earlier. Although the commanders of the exercise did not refer to this specifically, the topographic outline of Cyprus is clearly similar to that of the Lebanese mountains, and in general, training in unfamiliar territory, and particularly when it resembles areas beyond the border where the troops may well have to operate, is highly important. The exercise presumably created...
Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India recently compared his country’s cross-border response against terrorists in Pakistan— following the attack in Uri in Indian-administered Kashmir—to Israel’s pre-emptive and retaliatory raids across its borders. This has given rise to serious debate about whether it is desirable for India to adopt Israeli military strategy. A country’s history, political culture, and dominant discourse of national security greatly influence policymakers and their communities. With that in mind, in this article, it...
This article describes and defines the concept of “human terrain” that developed in the American military following its experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq and elaborates on the reasons that led to its development. It focuses on the theoretical foundations and on the correlations between human terrain, cultural intelligence, and intercultural competence, all against the backdrop of the American and Israeli experiences in different theaters of confrontation. Acquiring an in-depth understanding of the local culture is an essential...
On February 28, 2017, the State Comptroller’s Office issued its report on Operation Protective Edge. Nearly two-thirds of the report is devoted to the tunnels, an emphasis disproportionate to the real weight of the threat in the overall campaign and in related trends. In contrast, there is a glaring absence – both in the report and in the public debates surrounding it – of fundamental components of national security in the context of the operation. Based on the Comptroller’s report, i.e., what it contains but especially what it...
Statements about Hezbollah by Lebanese President Michel Aoun in a recent interview in Cairo are a formal confirmation by Lebanon’s official government of Hezbollah’s recognized status, and represent a public and political achievement for the organization. Yet at the same time, these statements involve costs and negative consequences for the organization and for Lebanon as a state. For Israel, the declaration is the official unveiling of a known Lebanese reality that diplomatic conventions in the West have long tended to...
The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) recently held its annual conference, which was attended by statesmen, military commanders, media figures, and political and security experts from Israel and abroad. As true of any conference of this type, many divergent opinions were expressed on a range of topics. They sketched a complex picture of Israel’s current situation and the challenges it can expect to face in 2017. Based on the mosaic of opinions presented at the conference, several distinct, unambiguous trends...
“There is no one to sign an agreement that would dramatically change reality,” Liberman said at at a conference hosted by the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. “What’s needed is strong leadership who enjoys support on the ground, but [Abbas] is not a legitimate leader,” he said. The defense minister further charged that Israel previously offered Abbas “half of Jerusalem, the evacuation of the West Bank and to re-open talks regarding the issue of refugees.” Liberman’s speech at the INSS conference came hours...
The essays in Strategic Survey for Israel 2016-2017, the latest volume in the series published annually by the Institute for National Security Studies, were written and compiled during a period of upheaval and instability in Israel’s strategic environment. In many respects, this upheaval continues the trends that have marked the Middle East and much of the international arena in previous years, especially since the so-called “Arab Spring” swept through the region. Accordingly, many of the events that occurred in the region during the...
