The Collapse of Israel's Security Doctrine

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

On this very day in 2006, the Zionist war on Lebanon came to a halt — and Israel did not halt it out of mercy or charity, but because it was taken aback by the scale of the losses it had suffered, and taken aback by Hezbollah’s tactical military capabilities. Israel became certain that this war of hers was no picnic, and that any prospect of achieving victory was out of the question. So she gathered up her soldiers and what remained of her tanks and agreed to a ceasefire. Then Israeli setbacks followed one after another: in the war on Gaza of 2008/2009, repeated again in Gaza in 2012, and now again in July and August of 2014. The Israel of the military is no longer what it once was, and its easy, effortless battles will not return. The tables have turned for Israel, and failure has become the headline of its military adventures.

Since 1948, Israel has charted for itself a security doctrine, worked to apply it, and achieved through it a great many military accomplishments, inflicting on the Arabs a number of defeats that ultimately led most Arabs to submit to it, to normalize relations with it, and to establish diplomatic, commercial, and economic ties with it. Some Arabs went so far as security cooperation with it, Palestinians among them. Palestinians recognized Israel and accepted normalization and security coordination with it. But Israel’s battles against Arab resistance, whether in south Lebanon or south Palestine, cast heavy shadows over the Israeli security doctrine, to the point that it has become futile, its pillars and foundations shattered.

The Israeli Security Doctrine

The Israeli security doctrine was built on a number of rules and foundations, which can be summarized as follows:

First: from the outset, Israel adopted a policy of self-reliance, proceeding from Jewish doctrinal and intellectual dimensions found in the Torah, and from the historical experience of the Jews, particularly in Europe, marked as it was by persecution and pursuit. The Torah considers the Jews to be God’s holy and chosen people, who may not coexist with strangers who are neither holy nor consecrated, nor mix with them, since that would compromise their sanctity. The various teachings of the Torah now in the Jews’ hands on this subject counsel them not to rely on others, not to intermarry with them, nor to establish ordinary relations with them. This is perhaps what continually drives them toward isolation, insularity, and looking down with condescension and superiority upon others — the other peoples whom, in this view, God hates. As for the historical experience, the sages, intellectuals, and writers of Zion hold that they met persecution, killing, and destruction at the hands of strangers, and that relying on them ultimately breeds failure and brings calamities.

For this reason, Israel worked from 1948 onward to rely on itself in the various economic, scientific, political, military, and security fields, etc. The Zionist movement built its foundation for scientific advancement on the premise that scientific progress is the basis for advancement in every other field, so it established an agricultural school in Jaffa in 1870 to teach its children the art of agriculture, then established the Rehovot Institute for scientific research — without equal in the region at the time — in 1910, and also established the Technion Institute in Haifa in 1912, and opened the Hebrew University in [19]25. Israel launched into its scientific research, focusing at first on developing agriculture on the premise that it is the primary source of food and lays the groundwork for a political will independent of the will of others who possess the wheat. It then moved on to developing its military capabilities through military manufacturing and the development of military technology, and turned to the manufacture of jewelry, and the establishment of factories and plants of every kind, until it became one of the leading exporting states. Israel initially continued to rely

on external financial assistance from Western states and on donations from wealthy Jews around the world, but its goal remained liberation from this assistance and reliance on itself, so that it would not one day bite its fingers in regret.

Second: to remain the foremost military power in the Arab-Islamic region, such that it can achieve military victory over the Arab and Islamic states individually and collectively. The continuous Israeli security slogan was that Israel’s survival is tied to its deterrent military capabilities, and that its army must remain the strongest army in the region, capable of settling battles swiftly and with great efficiency. The United States adopted this slogan and worked to empower Israel militarily so that it would remain a military power beyond challenge. From this was born the slogan of “the invincible army,” to be part of a psychological war backed on the ground against the Arabs and their allies. Israel did not rely on Western military aid alone, but worked to develop the weapons it needed, developing tanks, fighter jets, electronic aircraft, missiles, warships, rifles, etc. Beyond that, Israel decided to acquire weapons of mass destruction and developed a large nuclear capability that its adversaries lack.

Third: to wage its wars on the territory of others, always sparing Israel the calamities of fighting on the areas under its own control. Israel built a large, fast army armed with the latest kinds of weapons, and its mobility was distinguished among the world’s armies in reaching areas of tension and combat, and in its ability to mass forces and deliver swift, decisive strikes. For this reason, Israel spared its large and small population centers the calamities of war, and confined its wars to the neighboring Arab countries, and sometimes to Arab countries far from it, such as Tunisia and Sudan. Israel destroyed Arab population centers, its tanks invaded Arab lands, and its aircraft attacked numerous Arab centers and institutions, and the Arab armies were not strong enough to defend themselves or to halt the repeated Israeli military assaults.

[Fourth,] it relies on gathering information about the enemy and its military capabilities, weapons stockpiles, and plans, etc. For this reason Israel worked continuously to recruit Arab agents and spies in every Arab country, with a focus on the Palestinians and the Arab confrontation states. Israel recruited agents from among officers of the Arab armies, and perhaps from among Arab ministers and rulers, and spread its agents across the various security and civilian institutions, and was able to keep track of the finest details of affairs in the Arab arenas. Israel waged a fierce, powerful, and effective intelligence-gathering war, and fought its wars possessing abundant information about the targets that needed to be struck or neutralized, so that the losses of the Arab armies were very great, while Israeli losses remained as narrow as possible. Israel continually relied on its internal and external security services to assess the balance of power and the Arabs’ capacity to harm it and its army, and it always acted on the basis of prior knowledge.

Fifth: preemptive or preventive war is the best of wars and the least costly. From the very outset, Israel relied on the Arab proverb that says, “Eat him for lunch before he eats you for dinner.” That is, any rising Arab power must be struck and destroyed before it grows and becomes capable of striking Israel militarily. For this reason, after 1948 Israel worked to carry out provocative acts aimed at dragging Arab armies onto the battlefield, and then crushing them before they became capable of taking flight and posing a challenge.

Sixth: from its founding, Israel charted educational and instructional programs aimed at developing the scientific mindset and scientific thinking among its population, spreading awareness of its point of view regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict, and raising levels of commitment, sacrifice, and devotion for the sake of Israel. It worked to instill confidence, calm, and reassurance in the hearts of its population so that they would be capable of approaching their concerns and problems with deliberation, logic, and a scientific method. A state is strong by the strength of its own children, and those who are neither free nor scientifically minded are of no use in establishing a state or preserving its existence.

Seventh: Israel’s ultimate security goal is for Israel to remain the security oasis embracing all the Jews of the world, keeping alive and persuasive the Zionist dialectic that there is no security for Jews except in Israel.

The Collapse of the Pillars of the Security Doctrine

Iraq was the first Arab state to strike Israel with missiles, but its missiles were few and did not fundamentally affect Israel’s security doctrine, though they gave an indication of future directions. Arab resistance in Lebanon and Palestine proved the most influential and the most powerful. The 2006 war on Lebanon constituted the first great shock to the Israeli army, and to the entire Israeli security fabric. Hezbollah rained a relentless barrage of missiles on Israel that paralyzed civilian life; missiles fell on Israeli cities and settlements, and people rushed to shelters. Israel’s streets and squares were no longer safe, and both people and stone were threatened with destruction by missiles. The northern region of Israel was no longer safe, and people lost their sense of security and their trust in their state’s ability to protect them.

Over the years, Hezbollah adopted a doctrine of security fortification aimed at eliminating spies and agents, thereby cutting off Israel’s sources of information. It is true that Israel possesses technical means for gathering information, but the Party worked to acquire similar technical means, and considered the human element to be the most important in gathering information. It hunted down agents and spies and developed multiple methods for tracking them down. For this reason, Israel embarked on a nearly blind war, unseeing, and the Party surprised it with its multiple field-level military and tactical capabilities.

The most important thing that happened was that the Party managed to neutralize the Israeli air force by building an underground network of tunnels, so that the aircraft could not reach the fighters. The air force then took its revenge on civilians and on the homes of ordinary citizens.

What matters is that the battle was not fought on Lebanese soil alone, and that it was not Israel who surprised Hezbollah, but Hezbollah who surprised Israel; the Israeli security oasis became a source of sleepless nights, the doctrine of the invincible army no longer exists, and the Israelis’ trust in their army was struck a powerful blow.

The War of August 14, 2014

Hamas and the Palestinian resistance forces in Gaza completed the journey, and astonished the world with their capacity to rise, develop, and manufacture, even as Gaza remains besieged and lacking the means for development. The Palestinian resistance bombarded Israel with powerful barrages of missiles that now reach every corner of occupied Palestine. People rushed to shelters, so that the entire population of Israel came to realize that security may be available anywhere in the world except Israel. All of Israel now — its public, its intelligence services, its army, and its officials — has become certain that all of Israel is unsafe, and that Israel is no longer capable of waging preemptive wars, nor is the theater of war its exclusive preserve.

The most important thing about the 2014 war is that its mill turns on the soil of Palestine itself. Palestinians are no longer fighting from neighboring states but from their own land, launching from liberated, besieged ground. Not only that, but the residents of the Jewish population centers in southern Palestine are now working to leave, in order to escape the burden of the Palestinian missiles. The meaning of this is that the Palestinian resistance in Gaza has before it a future opportunity to expand its geographic reach. Gaza has formed a Palestinian military bridgehead that the Palestinian resistance has put to good use, and the future lies ahead of it for further development.

I do not mean, by this article, that Israel is finished, but I do mean that Arab resistance is developing itself at an accelerating pace, with perseverance and determination. There is now a new Israeli, doubting and hesitant, and a new Arab — Lebanese, Palestinian — confident in himself and his capabilities, possessing a firm creed that leads him to death for the sake of life, so that the coming generations of Arabs may live.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “انهيار النظرية الأمنية الإسرائيلية” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.