The 2006 Hezbollah-Israeli War (catch all)

[Gian P Gentile]

Zack:

I didnt see it on your original list and also didnt see it on the posts suggesting other readings (although I may have missed it) but you should have a look at the work and thinking of Shimon Naveh, the Israeli GO, and so-called intellectual father of IDF thinking about war prior to 2006. He is mentioned briefly in the works by Matthews and Kober and others. Many of the critiques of the IDF in Lebanon at one point or another trace their way back to what some analysts see as the pernicious influence of Naveh and his purportedly whack-job ideas about theory and practice in war.

A place to start might be this interview with Naveh in Haaretz.

Wilf might have some things to add in this regard too.

gian

[William F. Owen]

Many of the critiques of the IDF in Lebanon at one point or another trace their way back to what some analysts see as the pernicious influence of Naveh and his purportedly whack-job ideas about theory and practice in war.

Naveh is indeed the father of SOD and very few officers in the IDF do not have a very strong opinion about him, or his teaching. Yes his influence was huge

.... and he is also apparently a driving power behind Operational Design and FM3!- so fear not! The wackiness lives on!

[Tukhachevskii]

The Combat Studies Institute also has an interview with Naveh which was posted at the small wars journal website here

smallwarsjournal.com/documents/mattmatthews.pdf

Regarding SOD and the 2006 war his take on events was that no-one in the IDF was cleverer (!) enough to understand his conceptual schema. His invective against IDF Gen. Dan Halutz (formerly of the IAF) is revealing in this regard. Understandibly when one frames one's ideas in an esoteric vocabulary properly belonging to those who were berets and frequent Parisian Cafes what do you expect?