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May. 31, 2021 1:13 PM
The War between the Wars doctrine has become the key concept of Israel‘s national strategy over the past decade. This open-ended military campaign has provided a convenient alternative to any diplomatic initiative on the Israeli-Palestinian front.
The latest round of escalation between Israel and Hamas illustrates that absent a diplomatic framework, this military strategy is greatly limited in shaping an endurable reality for Israel.
The War between the Wars strategy is underpinned by an assumption that Israel is destined to experience significant, temporary escalation every few years in its conflict with the Axis of Resistance – whether Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Its goal is to delay escalation as long as possible and shore up Israel s strategic position in the interim in preparation for the next round.
The masked members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed branch of Hamas - the Islamist group that runs Gaza - paraded through Rafah in the south of the territory.
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel s military correspondent.
A soldier from the Israeli military s Home Front Command walks outside a house in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon that had been struck by a Hamas rocket on May 20, 2021. (Edi Israel/FLASH90)
The 11 days of fighting in Gaza that made up what the Israel Defense Forces calls Operation Guardian of the Walls constituted the first major conflict overseen by army chief Aviv Kohavi. The results were at best a mixed bag, despite claims by military and political leaders of unprecedented achievements.
On a strictly military basis, in this round of fighting, Israel emerged the clear victor. The IDF destroyed large amounts of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad weaponry and infrastructure and killed over 200 of their members, including senior leaders. The underground tunnels that represented the primary challenge for Israel before and during the 2014 Gaza war were not only not a threat, but were instead a liability for Hama