Abstract
In the aftermath of the 2006 Lebanon War, Israel launched an investigative committee known as the Winograd Commission to analyze the factors that contributed to the relatively lackluster performance of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The Commission identified three dominant trends that affected the IDF’s operational concept and modus operandi in 2006 and that may have contributed to the IDF’s shortcomings.1 (1) The influence of the “Revolution in Military Affairs” (RMA), the American-formulated military concept that emerged in the 1990s that espoused the perceived benefits of advances in military technology, intelligence, and precision targeting for military operations. The RMA was viewed in Israel as having unique attributes that correlated with the IDF’s distinct operational and social circumstances, and would improve its overall warfighting capabilities. (2) The prevalence of “asymmetric” opponents with access to technologically-sophisticated weaponry, embedded in dense urban environments, and focused on waging attritional warfare brought new operational challenges that made the achievement of traditional “battlefield decision” more difficult. (3) Deep societal shifts were affecting the IDF’s role in Israeli society as the “people’s army” — made up of conscripts and a large reservist force. Increased risk aversion in society and a lower tolerance for large-scale military operations due to fear of incurring casualties had a subtle but significant effect on the role of the army in society, the IDF’s fighting spirit, and willingness to utilize reservist units.
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Notes
Dima P. Adamsky, The Culture of Military Innovation (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010), chapter 4.
On these battlefield surprises see, Meir Finkel, On flexibility (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2011), chapters 8–9.
Uri Bar-Joseph, “RMA: the View from Israel”, paper presented at the conference “Modern Military Thought in the Post-Cold War Era: A Critical Approach” (Norwegian Defence University College: Oslo, July25, 2009) p.3.
Martin Van Creveld, The Sword and the Olive: A Critical History of the Israeli Defense Force (New York: Public Affairs, 2002) pp.253–57.
Zeev Bonen, “Sophisticated Conventional Warfare”, in Zeev Bonen and Eliot A. Cohen (eds) Advanced Technology and Future Warfare, Mideast Security and Policy Studies no. 28, (Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, 1996).
Maj.-Gen. Isaac Ben-Israel, “The Revolution in Military Affairs and the Operation in Iraq”, in Shai Feldman (ed.) After the War in Iraq: Defining the New Strategic Balance (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2003) pp.63–70.
Quoted in Henry Kamm, “Israel Reports Its Aircraft have Wrecked Syria’s Antiaircraft in Lebanon”, New York Times (June 10, 1982).
David Ottaway, “War and Missiles: Israel said to Master New Technology to Trick and Destroy Soviet-made Rockets”, Washington Post (June 14, 1982).
Adamsky, Culture of Military Innovation, p.95; Rebecca Grant, “The Bekaa Valley War”, Air Force Magazine, 85:6 (June 2002) pp.58–62.
Matthew Hurley, “The Bekaa Valley Air Battle, June 1982: Lessons Mislearned?” Airpower Journal, 3:4 (Winter, 1989).
Eliot A. Cohen et al., “Israel’s Revolution in Security Affairs”, Survival, 40:1 (Spring, 1998) p.50.
Defense Minister Yitzchak Rabin, Speech, “After the Gulf War: Israeli Defense and Its Security Policy”, Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (June 10, 1991).
For details see, Anthony Cordesman, Peace and War: The Arab-Israeli Military Balance Enters the 21st Century (Westport CT: Praeger, 2002) pp.199–213.
Quoted in Avi Kober, “Western Democracies in Low Intensity Conflict: Some Postmodern Aspects”, in Efraim Inbar (ed.) Democracies and Small Wars (London: Frank Cass, 2003) p.10.
Human Rights Watch, Civilian Pawns: Laws of War Violations and the Use of Weapons on the Israel-Lebanon Border (May 1996), footnotes 199–200; also, “Hizballah Vows to Resist”, AFP (July 28, 1993).
Human Rights Watch, Operation Grapes of Wrath: The Civilian Victims (September 1997), footnote 17.
Bonen (1996) uses the term “Sophisticated Conventional Warfare” (SCW) to describe the RMA. For consistency, the term “RMA” will be used.
Cohen, Israel and Its Army, pp.48–49; Tamir Libel, “David’s Shield: The Decline and Partial Rise of the IDF Command and General Staff College”, Baltic Security and Defence Review, 10:2 (2010) pp.66–67.
For more on lesson learning, Raphael D. Marcus “Military Innovation and Tactical Adaptation in the Israel-Hizballah Conflict: The Institutionalization of Lesson-learning in the IDF”, Journal of Strategic Studies (August 2014) pp.1–29.
Col. Shmuel Nir, “The Fighting in the Lebanese Arena as a Conflict between Unbalanced Forces: Simple Truths”, Zarkor no. 1 (February 1999) [Hebrew].
Col. Shmuel Nir, The Limited Conflict (IDF, 2001).
quoted in Yoram Peri, Generals in the Cabinet Room: How the Military Shapes Israeli Policy (Washington, D.C.: US Institute of Peace Press, 2006) p.125.
Eado Hecht, “Low-intensity Wars: Some Characteristics of a Unique Conflict”, in Hagai Golan and Shaul Shai (eds) The Limited Conflict (Tel Aviv: Maarachot, 2004) pp.45–68; Col. Shmuel Nir, “The Nature of the Limited Conflict”, in Golan and Shai (eds) The Limited Conflict, pp.19–45 [Hebrew].
Col. (res.) Yehuda Wegman, “Israel’s Security Doctrine and the Trap of ‘Limited Conflict,’” Jerusalem Viewpoints no. 514, Jerusalem Center for Publics Affairs (March 1, 2004).
Amir Oren, “IDF to Share Its Anti-terrorism Expertise with Pentagon”, Haaretz (October 14, 2001).
Amos Harel, “Disquiet on the Eastern front”, Haaretz (August 20, 2004).
Col. (res.) Yehuda Wegman, “Israel’s Security Doctrine and the Trap of ‘Limited Conflict,’” Military Technology, 29:3 (March 2005) pp.88–96.
Author interviews with senior IDF officers, January 2013; also, Col. Meir Finkel and Eitan Shamir, “From Whom Does the IDF Need to Learn?” Maarachot, no. 433 (October 2010) pp.28–35 [Hebrew].
Lt.-Col. (res.) Ron Tira, The Limitations of Standoff Firepower-based Operations, Memorandum no. 89 (Tel Aviv: INSS, March 2007).
Gen. Dan Haloutz, “21st Century Threats Facing ISRAEL”, Jerusalem Issue Brief, 3:16, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (February 3, 2004).
For a good narrative of the war, Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, 34 Days: Israel, Hezbollah, and the War in Lebanon (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).
Benjamin Lambeth, “Air Operations in Israel’s War against Hezbollah” (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2011) pp.29–30; Harel and Issacharoff, “34 Days”, pp.91–92.
Mazal Mualem, “Former Israeli Defense Minister: IDF Must Cut Its Ground Forces”, Al-Monitor (June 6, 2013).
Brig.-Gen. Itai Brun, “‘While You’re Busy Making Other Plans’: The ‘O-RMA,’” Journal of Strategic Studies, 33:4 (August 2010) pp.535–65.
Lt.-Col. (res.) Ron Tira, The Nature of War: Conflicting Paradigms of Israeli Military Effectiveness (Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press, 2010) pp.109–23.
Author interview with IDF officers. For two perspectives on Hezbollah’s mode of warfare, Frank Hoffman, Conflict in the 21st Century: The Rise of Hybrid Wars (Arlington, VA: Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, 2007).
Stephen Biddle and Jeffrey Friedman, The 2006 Lebanon Campaign and the Future of Warfare: Implications for Army and Defense Policy (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2008).
Eliot A. Cohen, “Change and Transformation in Military Affairs”, Journal of Strategic Studies, 27:3 (September 2004) p.402.
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Marcus, R.D. (2015). The Israeli Revolution in Military Affairs and the Road to the 2006 Lebanon War. In: Collins, J., Futter, A. (eds) Reassessing the Revolution in Military Affairs. Initiatives in Strategic Studies: Issues and Policies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137513762_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137513762_6
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