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Articles

What Happened to Israeli Military Thought?

Pages 707-732 | Published online: 26 Oct 2011
 

Abstract

This article addresses the following question: how can one explain the neglect of the intellectual aspects of the profession on the part of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)? The explanations offered for that neglect are a mixture of cultural and societal factors. The cultural explanation focuses on Israeli strategic culture; the traditional Israeli perception of the combination of rich experience and experience-based intuition as a winning ticket; the tendency to extol improvisation; a cult of material strength; and a strong belief in technology. The social explanation stresses the declining attractiveness of a military career for qualitative young Israelis. The article contends that change can take place only if the IDF undergoes a process of institutional intellectualism – if not willingly then one imposed by the political echelon.

Notes

1See for example, Carl von Clausewitz, On War [1832] (ed. and trans.) Michael Howard and Peter Paret (Princeton UP 1976), 102, 145, 164; Antoine-Henri Jomini, Summary of the Art of War [1838] (Urbana: University of Illinois Press 1947), 14–15.

2For literature on Liddell Hart's influence on Israeli military thinking see Jac Weller, ‘Sir Basil Liddell Hart's Disciples in Israel’, Military Review 54/2 (Jan. 1974), 13–23; Brian Bond, ‘Liddell Hart's Influence on Israeli Military Theory and Practice’, Journal of the Royal United Services Institute, Vol. 121/2 (June 1974), 83–9; Brian Bond, Liddell Hart: A Study of His Military Thought (London: Cassell 1977); John J. Mearsheimer, Liddell Hart and the Weight of History (Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP 1988), 201–4; Tuvia Ben-Moshe, ‘Liddell Hart and the Israel Defense Forces: A Reappraisal’, Journal of Contemporary History 16/2 (April 1981), 369–91.

3Basil H. Liddell Hart, Thoughts on War (London: Faber 1943), 96–7; Reuven Gal, A Portrait of the Israeli Soldier (Westport, CT: Greenwood 1986), 116.

4Martin van Creveld, The Sword and the Olive (New York: Public Affairs 1998), 263.

5This trend is reflected in Yehuda L. Wallach, Israeli Military History: A Guide to the Sources (New York: Garland 1984); Avner Yaniv, ‘The Study of Israel's National Security’, in Ian Lustick (ed.), Books on Israel (Albany: State University of New York Press 1991), 63–82; Moshe Grundman (ed.) Israel's Security 1967–1991: An Annotated Bibliography and Research Guide (Tel Aviv: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies 1992).

6Avi Kober, ‘Israeli Military Thinking as Reflected in Maarachot Articles, 1948–2000’, Armed Forces & Society 30/1(Fall 2003), 141–60.

7Moshe Dayan, Story of My Life (Jerusalem: Edanim 1976) [Hebrew]; Ezer Weizman, On Eagle's Wings (London: Weidenfeld 1976); Yitzhak Rabin, Pinkas Sharut (Tel Aviv: Maariv 1979) [Hebrew]; Raphael Eytan, Story of a Soldier (Tel Aviv: Maariv 1985) [Hebrew]; Ariel Sharon (with David Chanoff) Warrior (Tel Aviv: Steimatzky 1989); Mordechai Gur, Chief of the General Staff 1974–1978 (Tel Aviv: Maarachot 1998) [Hebrew].

8Eliot Cohen, ‘An Intellectual Challenge’, Haaretz, 20 Sept. 1998

9 Haaretz Weekend Supplement, 12 April 1996, 28 March 1997.

11Eviatar Ben-Tzedef, ‘The Israel Defense Forces, 1996’, Outpost (Sept. 1996), <www. afsi.org/OUTPOST/96SEP/sep4.htm>.

12Eliot A. Cohen, Michael J. Eisenstadt, and Andrew J. Bacevich, Knives, Tanks, and Missiles: Israel's Security Revolution (Washington DC: Washington Institute for Near East Policy 1998), 74–6.

13The Winograd Commission's final report, <www.vaadatwino.org.il/pdf/%20.pdf>, 323, 397.

14Moshe Shamir, ‘On Changes in the Inter-Arm Command and Control Training’, Maarachot 396 (Sept. 2004), 20–5.

15Kober, ‘Israeli Military Thinking as Reflected in Maarachot Articles, 1948–2000’.

16Martin Van Creveld, The Transformation of War (New York: Free Press 1991); Mary Kaldor, New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era (Cambridge, UK: Polity 1999); Special Issue on Fourth Generation Warfare, Contemporary Security Policy 26/2 (Aug. 2005), 185–285; Frank G. Hoffman, ‘Complex Irregular Warfare’, Foreign Policy Research Institute E-Notes, 6 Jan. 2006; Jeffrey B. White, ‘Some Thoughts on Irregular Warfare’, <www.cia.gov/csi/studies/96unclass/iregular.htm>; James N. Mattis and Frank Hoffman, ‘Future Warfare: The Rise in Hybrid Wars’, Proceedings 132/11 (Nov. 2005), 18–19; Frank G. Hoffman, ‘Preparing for Hybrid Wars’, Marine Corps Gazette 91/3 (March 2007), 57–61; Frank Hoffman, ‘Lessons From Lebanon: Hezbollah And Hybrid Wars’, The Evening Bulletin, 5 Sept. 2006, <www.theeveningbulletin.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17152236&BRD=2737& PAG=461&dept_id=574088&rfi=6>.

17Eytan Gilboa, ‘Educating Israeli Officers in the Process of Peacemaking in the Middle East Conflict’, Journal of Peace Research 16/2 (1979), 155–62; Yehoshafat Harkabi, War and Strategy (Tel Aviv: Maarachot 1990) [Hebrew], 587–8; Michael Handel, Masters of War (London: Frank Cass 2001), 353–60; Uri Milstein, ‘Wearing the Officer's Badge, Symbolically’, Politika 26 (May 1989), 40–3; Dov Tamari, ‘Is the IDF Capable of Changing in the Wake of the Second Lebanon War?’ Maarachot 415 (Nov. 2007), 26–41.

19The Committee's report is available at <http://my.ynet.co.il/pic/news/3.7.2007/hub.doc>.

21Testimony by General (ret.) Amatzia Chen, a former instructor at the National Defense College, <www.kav.org.il/100994/647>.

22Gabriel Ben-Dor, ‘The Interface between the Military and the Academic World in Israel’, paper presented at an International conference on ‘The Decline of the Citizen Armies in Democratic States: Processes and Implications’, Bar-Ilan University, 18–19 June 2008.

23Ibid.

24Cohen et al., Knives, Tanks, and Missiles, 74–6.

25Edward Luttwak and Dan Horowitz, The Israeli Army (London: Allen Lane 1975), 126–32; Haim Laskov and Meir Zorea, ‘Should One Wage War’, Maariv, 10 Oct. 1965.

26Luttwak and Horowitz, The Israeli Army, 121.

27Ibid., 318.

28Yehuda L. Wallach, ‘Obits for the Tank’, Maarachot Shiryon 23 (July 1971), 40–1; Moshe Bar-Kochva, Chariots of Steel (Tel Aviv: Maarachot 1989) [Hebrew], 573–6; Israel Tal, ‘The Tank at Present and in the Future’, Maarachot 281 (Nov. 1981), 2–7; Micha Bar, ‘The Tank's Obscure Future’, Maarachot 339 (Feb. 1995), 2–9.

29The staunchest offense advocates were Israel Tal and Dov Tamari. Israel Tal, ‘Israel's Security Doctrine’, Maarachot 253 (Dec. 1976), 2–9; ‘Offense and Defense in the Wars of Israel’, Maarachot 311 (March 1988), 4–7; Dov Tamari, ‘Offense or Defense: Do We Have a Choice?’ Maarachot 289–290 (Oct. 1983), 5–11. For a balanced approach, see Ariel Levite, Offense and Defense in Israeli Military Doctrine (Tel Aviv: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies 1988).

30Uri Bar-Joseph, The Watchman Fell Asleep (Tel-Aviv: Zmora-Bitan 2001) [Hebrew], 22–7.

31Amnon Yogev, ‘Israel's Security in the 1990s and Beyond’, Alpayim 1 (June 1989), 166–85.

32Aaron S. Klieman, ‘Lavi: The Lion Has Yet to Roar’, Journal of Defense and Diplomacy 4 (Aug. 1986), 22–9; Gerald M. Steinberg, ‘Lessons of the Lavi’, Midstream 33 (Nov. 1987), 3–6.

33Arieh Stav and Baruch Koroth (eds), Ballistic Missiles: The Threat and Response (Tel-Aviv: Yediot Aharonot 1999) [Hebrew]; Yiftah S. Shapir, ‘Non-Conventional Solutions for Non-Conventional Dilemmas?’ Journal of Strategic Studies 24/2 (June 2001),153–63; Reuven Pedatzur The Arrow System (Tel-Aviv: Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies 1993).

34For the various opinions on this issue, see Stuart Cohen (ed.), The New Citizen Armies (London: Routledge 2010).

35Isaac Ben-Israel, ‘The Military Buildup's Theory of Relativity’, Maarachot 352–353 (Aug. 1997), 33–42; Dan Schueftan, ‘Beyond the Relative Advantage’, Maarachot 356–357 (March 1998), 70–9.

36Cohen et al., Knives, Tanks, and Missiles; Chris C. Demchack, ‘Technology's Burden, the RMA, and the IDF: Organizing the Hypertext Organization for Future “Wars of Disruption”?’ Journal of Strategic Studies 24/2 (June 2001), 77–146.

37Dima P. Adamsky, ‘The Conceptual Co-Influence: the Soviet Military-Technical Revolution and the Western Military Innovations’, paper presented at the IAIS annual meeting, Hebrew University, 6 June 2006.

38To use late-nineteenth/early-twentieth century Jewish intellectual Ahad Haam's distinction in his seminal essay, ‘Imitation and Assimilation’ (1893), in Ahad Ha'am, Essays, Letters, Memoirs (Oxford: East and West Library 1946), 71–5.

39Elizabeth A. Stanley-Mitchell, ‘The Digital Battlefield: What Army Transformation Efforts Say about its Professional Jurisdiction’, in Don M. Snider and Gayle Watkins (eds), The Future of the Army Profession (New York: McGraw-Hill 2003), 155–78; Benjamin S. Lambeth, The Transformation of American Air Power (Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP 2000), 303. For Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz's perception of the technological opportunities, see: Stella Koren-Lieber, ‘A Small but High-Tech Military’, Globes, 29 Aug. 1999. Mofaz was the Chief of Staff under whose command the IDF completed Aviv Neurim.

40Edward A. Smith, Effects Based Operations: Applying Network-centric Warfare in Peace, Crisis, and War (Washington DC: Dept. of Defense Command and Control Research Program 2002); Allen W. Batschelet, Effects-Based Operations: A New Operational Model? (Carlisle, PA: US Army War College 2002), 2.

41Sean J.A. Edwards, Swarming on the Battlefield (Santa Monica, CA: RAND 2000); John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt, Swarming and the Future of Conflict (Santa Monica, CA: RAND 2000); Amir Rapaport, Friendly Fire (Tel Aviv: Maariv 2007) [Hebrew], 81; Haim Assa and Yedidya Yaari, Diffused Warfare (Tel Aviv: Yediot Aharonot 2005) [Hebrew].

42See Maarachot's special issue 358 (April 1998).

43Shimon Naveh, Operational Art and the IDF (Washington DC: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment 2007), 3.

44<http://jdeanicite.typepad.com/i_cite/2006/09/why_the_israeli.html>; Eyal Weizman, ‘Israeli Military Using Post-Structuralism as Operational Theory’, Infoshop News, 1 Aug. 2006 <www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20060801170800738>.

45 Tziklon 8 (May 1981).

46Halutz's testimony before the Winograd Commission, <www.vaadatwino.org.il/pdf/%20%20.pdf>, 16.

47Alex Fishman, ‘The Five-Day War’, Yediot Aharonot Weekend Supplement, 17 April 2007.

48Avi Kober, ‘The IDF in the Second Lebanon War: Why the Poor Performance?’ Journal of Strategic Studies 31/1 (Feb. 2008), 3–40; Isaac Ben-Israel, The First Missile War (Tel Aviv: The Security Studies Program, May 2007).

49Aharon Zeevi, ‘Aviv Neurim: The Vision and its Implementation’, Maarachot 358 (April 1998), 3–6.

50The Winograd Commission's final report, 274–5, 318, 321–2.

52Oz Almog, Sabra: The Creation of a New Jew (Tel Aviv: Am Oved 1997) [Hebrew].

53Dan Horowitz and Moshe Lissak, Trouble in Utopia (Tel Aviv: Am Oved 1990) [Hebrew], 145, 181; Yaacov Hisdai, ‘Ideologue versus Performer: IDF's Priest and Prophet’, Maarachot 279–280 (May-June 1981), 41–6.

54On the concept, see, for example, Frederick II (the Great), The King of Prussia's Military Instruction to his Generals (1747), Article VI, ‘Of the Coup D'Oeil’, available at <www.kw.igs.net/∼tacit/artofwar/frederick.htm#VI>; Clausewitz, On War, 102.

55Ben-Moshe, ‘Liddell Hart and the Israel Defense Forces’; Bond, Liddell Hart, 246, 252; Anita Shapira, Yigal Allon, Native Son: A Biography (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2007).

56Williamson Murray, ‘The Army's Advanced Strategic Art Program’, Parameters 30 (Winter 2000–01), 31–39.

57Opinions have ranged from defense advocates (e.g. Clausewitz), a mixed approach proponents (e.g. Bernhardi, Liddell Hart) and offense advocates (e.g. Napoleon, Jomini, Moltke, Schlieffen, Fuller)

58Avi Kober, Israel's Wars of Attrition (New York: Routledge 2009).

59Dima Adamsky, The Culture of Military Innovation (Stanford, CA: Stanford UP 2010).

60Gen. Gershon HaCohen, ‘Educating Senior Officers’, in ‘Is the IDF Prepared for Tomorrow's Challenges?’ BESA Colloquia on Strategy and Diplomacy 24, July 2008, 28, <www.biu.ac.il/Besa/coll24.pdf>, 33–4.

61Norwell De Atkine, ‘Why Arabs Lose Wars?’ Middle East Quarterly 6/4 (Dec. 1999), 17–27; Kenneth M. Pollack, Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness 1948–1991 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press 2002).

62Dayan, Story of My Life, 244; Ben-Moshe, ‘Liddell Hart and the Israel Defense Forces’.

63Emanuel Wald, Kilelat Hakelim Hashvurim [The Curse of the Broken Vessels] (Tel Aviv: Shoken 1987) [Hebrew], 183.

64The Winograd Commission's final report, 425.

65Meir Finkel, On Flexibility (Tel Aviv: MOD 2007) [Hebrew], 194–207.

66Ibid., 208–22.

67John T. Nelsen II, ‘Auftragstaktik: A Case for Decentralized Battle’, Parameter 17 (Sept. 1987), 21–34; Daniel Hughes, Moltke On the Art of War (New York: Presidio 1995), 231; Hajo Holborn, ‘The Prusso-German School: Moltke and the Rise of the General Staff’, in Peter Paret (ed.), Makers of Modern Strategy from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age (Princeton UP 1986), 289–91.

68Eliot Cohen and John Gooch, Military Misfortunes (New York: The Free Press 1990), 124; Hanoch Bartov, Dado (Tel Aviv: Maariv 1978) [Hebrew], Vol. I, 235–6; Professor Avi Ravitzky, Interview to Maariv for Israel's 53rd anniversary, <www.nrg. co.il/online/archive/ART/138/748.html>; Avraham Rotem, ‘Is a Small and Smart Military a Vision or a Legend?’ in Haggai Golan (ed.), Israel's Security Web (Tel Aviv: Maarachot 2001) [Hebrew], 92

69Rotem, ‘Is a Small and Smart Military a Vision or a Legend?’ 92.

70Niel Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology(New York: Vintage Books 1993); Theodore Roszak, The Cult of Information (Berkeley: University of California Press 1994); James W. Gibson, The Perfect War: Technowar in Vietnam (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press 1986); Williamson Murray, ‘Military Culture Does Matter’, FPRI Wire 7/2 (Jan. 1999), <www.fpri.org/fpriwire/0702.199901.murray.militaryculturedoesmatter.html>.

71Gal, A Portrait of the Israeli Soldier, 175; Cohen et al., Knives, Tanks, and Missiles, 63–5.

72This is reflected in Ben-Israel, ‘The Military Buildup's Theory of Relativity’, 33; Isaac Ben-Israel, ‘Security, Technology, and Future Battlefield,’ in Golan, Israel's Security Web, 279; Shmuel Gordon, The Bow of Paris (Tel Aviv: Poalim 1997) [Hebrew], esp. 320–2.

73Kober, ‘Israeli Military Thinking as Reflected in Maarachot Articles, 1948–2000’, 156.

74Yagil Levy, ‘Materialist Militarism’, Alternative Information Center, 8 Aug. 2006, <www.alternativenews.org/news/english/materialist-militarism-20060808.html>; Yagil Levy, Israel's Materialist Militarism (Madison, WI: Lexington Books 2007); Levy, ‘The War of the Peripheries: A Social Mapping of IDF Casualties in the Al-Aqsa Intifada’, Social Identities 12/3 (May 2006), 309–24.

75Herbert Rosinski, The German Army (New York: Praeger 1966).

76Adamsky, ‘The Conceptual Co-Influence: the Soviet Military-Technical Revolution and the Western Military Innovations’.

77Murray, ‘The Army's Advanced Strategic Art Program’; Murray, ‘Military Culture Does Matter’; Michael Evans, ‘From the Long Peace to the Long War: Armed Conflict and Military Education and Training in the 21st Century’, Canberra, Australia, <www.defence.gov.au/jetwc/docs/publications%202010/PublcnsOccasional_310310_ FromtheLongPeace.pdf>.

78Yigal Allon, A Curtain of Sand (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuhad 1968) [Hebrew), 303.

79Jennifer G. Mathers, ‘Reform and the Russian Military’, in Theo Farrell and Terry Terriff (eds), The Sources of Military Change: Culture, Politics, Technology (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner 2002), 161–84.

80David J. Bercuson, ‘Up from the Ashes: The Re-Professionalization of the Canadian Forces After the “Somalia Affair’'’, in Stuart Cohen (ed.), The New Citizen Armies (London: Routledge 2010), 159–69.

81Clausewitz, On War, 183, 484, 577–8. For an excellent discussion of Clausewitz's theory as a Geschtalt – a systemic theory, see Handel, Masters of War, 345–51.

82Tamir Libel and Joel Hayward, ‘Adding Brain to Brawn: The School of Advanced Air and Space Studies and its Impact on Air Power Thinking’, Airpower Review 13/2 (Summer 2010), 69–80, <www.airpowerstudies.co.uk/APR-2010-13%20No%202_ Final%20.pdf>.

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