Hezbollah's conduct of its 2006 campaign in southern Lebanon has become an increasingly important case for the U.S. defense debate. Some see the future of warfare as one of nonstate opponents employing irregular methods, and advocate a sweeping transformation of the U.S. military to meet such threats. Others point to the 2006 campaign as an example of a nonstate actor nevertheless waging a state-like conventional war, and argue that a more traditional U.S. military posture is needed to deal with such enemies in the future. This monograph seeks to inform this debate by examining in detail Hezbollah's conduct of the 2006 campaign. The authors use evidence collected from a series of 36 primary source interviews with Israeli participants in the fighting who were in a position to observe Hezbollah's actual behavior in the field in 2006, coupled with deductive inference from observable Hezbollah behavior in the field to findings for their larger strategic intent for the campaign ; Stephen Biddle; Jeffrey A. Friedman
Partial contents: Prospects for peace or war : military developments after the Israeli-Hezbollah War -- Israeli and Syrian alarms and excursions in 2007 -- The prospects for war -- Major trends in force strength -- Israeli force quality versus Syrian force quantity -- Looking at a snapshot of total forces -- Comparative manpower quantity and quality -- Comparative land force strength : active versus mobilized strength -- Comparative land force manpower -- Armor and anti-tank weapons -- Artillery weapons -- Anti-aircraft weapons -- Comparative air strength : quality over quantity -- Comparative air force strength -- Air force manpower -- Air force aircraft, weapons, and technology -- Comparative land-based air defense forces -- Comparative naval strength : peripheral missions -- Shifts in the role of seapower -- Naval manpower -- Naval ships, weapons, and technology -- Total resources : recapitalization, force modernization, and impact on effectiveness -- Comparative trends in military expenditures -- Comparative trends in arms imports -- Recent deals : the importance of the US, Russia and Iran -- The military forces of Israel -- Israel's struggle to maintain its conventional "edge" -- Adapting to asymmetric wars -- Seeking to add an asymmetric "edge" to a conventional one -- Adapting to new threats while retaining conventional military strengths -- Trends in manpower and total force strength before the 2006 Lebanon war : active versus reserve forces -- Israeli defense planning after the 2006 Lebanon war -- Israeli land forces -- Israeli air forces -- Israeli land-based air defenses -- Israeli naval forces -- Israel's counterterrorism and internal security forces -- Israeli weapons of mass destruction and missile defenses -- The military forces of Syria -- Syria's long proxy war with Israel -- Internal stability, Alawite rule, and the Shi'ite crescent -- Syria's broader regional issues -- The trends in Syrian forces -- Syrian land forces -- Syrian air and air defense forces -- Syrian land-based air defenses -- Syrian naval forces -- Syrian paramilitary, security, and intelligence forces -- Syrian weapons of mass destruction -- War on the Golan Heights -- The strategic geography of the Golan Heights -- The new dimensions of the strategic geography of the Golan -- The UN peacekeeping force on the Golan -- Israeli positions on the Golan -- Syrian positions near the Golan -- A Syrian surprise attack or "grab for the Golan -- Israeli options against Syria -- Continuing external asymmetric wars -- Israel's "haves" versus Syria's "haves not" -- The possible impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- Gaming a future Israeli-Hezbollah conflict? -- The Iranian wild card
In response to a surprise incursion by Hezbollah combatants into northern Israel and their abduction of two Israeli soldiers, Israel launched a campaign that included the most complex air offensive to have taken place in the history of the Israeli Air Force (IAF). Many believe that the inconclusive results of this war represent a "failure of air power." The author demonstrates that this conclusion is an oversimplification of a more complex reality. He assesses the main details associated with the Israeli Defense Forces' (IDF's) campaign against Hezbollah to correct the record regarding what Israeli air power did and did not accomplish (and promise to accomplish) in the course of contributing to that campaign. He considers IAF operations in the larger context of the numerous premises, constraints, and ultimate errors in both military and civilian leadership strategy choice that drove the Israeli government's decisionmaking throughout the counteroffensive. He also examines the IDF's more successful operation against the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip in December 2008 and January 2009, to provide points of comparison and contrast in the IDF's conduct of the latter campaign based on lessons learned and assimilated from its earlier combat experience in Lebanon.--Publisher description
Die 1959 geborene, französische Autorin ist Psychoanalytikerin und arbeitete für den "Focus" von 1997 bis 2001 als Korrespondentin im Nahen Osten. Der Krieg zwischen Israel und der Hisbollah 2006 und die Israel als Täter bezeichnende Berichterstattung in Europa veranlassen sie zu einer Reise in den Norden Israels. Sie trifft dort Neu-Einwanderer und Überlebende des Holocaust, deren Berichte die Angst um ihre Existenz deutlich werden lassen, die sie nach den Raketenangriffen der Hisbollah und den immer wiederkehrenden Terroranschlägen befällt, spricht mit Zivilisten, Militärs, Arabern. Die Ereignisse bewegen die Autorin auch, über ihre eigene Vergangenheit und der ihrer Familie zu reflektieren. Sie berichtet über einen bedrückenden Aufenthalt in Auschwitz, schildert jüdisches Familienleben und das schmerzliche Schicksal von Familienmitgliedern. Eindrücke, die sie in Deutschland gewinnt, lassen sie zweifeln, dass "jüdisches Leben in Deutschland sich in Richtung Normalität entwickelt hat". Eine persönliche Stimme der Angst und der leisen Hoffnung, kein Buch der politischen Auseinandersetzung. (2) (Herbert Lindenlaub)
