The unprecedented attacks against senior IDF officers and the heads of Israel’s other security organizations are not just an attempt to blame them for the severe damage to the fitness and cohesion of the military caused by the widespread public protest against the government’s legislative plan. Nor did these attacks start when the plan was unveiled or when the government began to advance it. In some cases, these attacks are a deliberate attempt to tarnish the image of commanders as authorities in the security realm in order to...
Advocating the separation between the military and politics treats the IDF like a governmental tool – while ignoring, either knowingly or not, the fact that the people who serve in the IDF are, first and foremost, citizens. The outcome of “separating the military from politics” is the nullification of the idea that the IDF is the people’s army, whose values are entrenched in the values of the people – including the very clear distinction between not volunteering and the refusal to serve. It is no coincidence that reserve pilots from...
This article contends that the full significance of the electronic revolution underway has yet to be fully realized in land warfare. This revolution has already generated far-reaching changes in air and sea warfare, and it is now exerting similar influence on land warfare. Heavy armor and kinetic weapons are becoming less important, replaced by electronic systems and counter-systems – both offensive and defensive – for detection, attack, and disruption. In this light, the war in Ukraine gives us little more than a partial glimpse of...
Underwater infrastructures are a rapidly evolving domain – worldwide, as well as in Israel. This developing phenomenon stems from the need to define and address the emergence of potential threats and disruptions endangering worldwide communication infrastructure. Such infrastructure can be differentiated by the depth of its deployment, and thus the investment in force buildup differs accordingly. Shallow water defense, up to 50 meters, draws most of the attention, while deeper deployed assets should be dealt with by intelligence and...
IDF Central Command is responsible for the ongoing campaign in a unique, complex reality in which it has both military control of territory and control over a population – an Israeli population alongside a Palestinian population with nationalist aspirations. The Command has successfully maintained control over the West Bank for the past 56 years, while aiming to preserve long-term stability through three wssential enabling principles: it is the sovereign with a systemic approach to the theater; it takes a force application approach...
On May 9, 2023, the IDF fired the opening shots in Operation Shield and Arrow, when in targeted killings it killed three senior members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad: the commander of the organization in the northern Gaza Strip, the secretary general of the PIJ military council, and a senior commander responsible for directing terror arracks in the West Bank. Ten other people were killed in the attacks, including women and children. The civilian deaths prompted discussion of the specific operation and whether it met the rules of...
A bill regarding the formulation of a naval strategy to address the threat of maritime terrorism in the Middle East, currently before the US Congress, provides another opportunity for understanding the maritime arena as a significant element in Israel’s national strategy regarding the Iranian threat.
The important and precedent-setting agreement between the Ministry of Defense and the Treasury is analyzed here from three perspectives: the power of Minister Smotrich in the Defense Ministry; the change in policy on human resources; and the approval of the multiyear security budget for a multiyear plan. The main message is that notwithstanding the plan’s stability and innovation and its positive potential in terms of security establishment buildup and improved conditions of service in the IDF, the prospects are overshadowed by the...
Current Situation – Gaps between service branches · HR challenges in compulsory, standing, and reserve service · Inadequate response for a multi-arena scenario | Current Israeli Strategy – Military buildup based on options and precedents · No decisions on fundamental questions, particularly regarding ground forces | Israeli Strategic Gap – Ground forces lag technologically and conceptually behind the air force and Intelligence · HR model ignores changes in the threat and in society · Doubts regarding required...
Every state, governed by any type of regime, faces a paradox: to fulfill its basic obligation to defend the lives of its citizens from external enemies, it puts these same citizens in danger by conscripting them into the army. In order to resolve this conundrum, the state turns to creative solutions, including the recruitment of mercenaries, security outsourcing, and use of firepower instead of maneuver. Do these responses offer a solution to the paradox?
In past wars, especially those of recent decades, the IDF made little use of systemic depth action behind enemy lines to influence the outcome of the military campaign. Ironically, the very existence of the Depth Corps, which was established a decade ago in order to correct this lapse, strengthens the trends it was established to counteract. Those include excessive reliance on centralized command and micromanagement, the weakening of regional commands and field units, operational plans not based on appropriate force buildup, and harm...
