How Israel Lost Its Appetite for Ground Warfare
The dangers of postmodern strategy.
November 8, 2023
How Israel Lost Its Appetite for Ground Warfare
The dangers of postmodern strategy.
Besides the immediate question of the intelligence failure of October 7—why didn’t the IDF and Shin Bet anticipate the attack and prepare to defend against it—there is also the much broader question of what went wrong with Israel’s strategic thinking. In this 2021 essay, recently made available in English, Omer Dostri criticizes the IDF for losing its appetite for maneuver warfare, i.e., sending substantial ground forces to destroy an enemy and bring about a decisive victory. Dostri argues that, in struggling with the difficulties of confronting enemies like Hamas, Israeli generals erred by focusing on limited warfare and attacks from the air. They developed complex doctrines, influence by French postmodernist philosophers, that lost sight of the basic principles of war.
November 8, 2023
The Gaza War Has Turned into a Liability for China
The U.S. is back in the Middle East, and Beijing isn’t happy.
The Token Jews Providing Fig-Leaves for Anti-Semitism
Flak jackets for Israel-hating politicians.
The 18th-Century Jewish Wine Merchant, Intellectual, and Polyglot Who Defended His Coreligionists against the Blood Libel
Ber of Bolechów.
How Does One Spot a Biblical Fake?
A Civil War chaplain and a forged statue of a Near Eastern goddess.