New Article: Watkins & James, The Sophisticated Tunneling Network of Hamas

Watkins, Nicole J., and Alena M. James. “Digging Into Israel: The Sophisticated Tunneling Network of Hamas.” Journal of Strategic Security 9.1 (2016): 84-103.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.9.1.1508

 

Abstract

By the end of Operation Protective Edge in August 2014, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) claimed to have discovered and destroyed more than 30 tunnels spanning from beneath Gaza into Israeli territory. Hamas officials have praised these tunnels as an innovative approach to fighting an asymmetric war with a far more conventionally powerful Israel. The purpose of this case study is to examine the complexity of Hamas’ vast tunneling network by assessing the motivations behind the group’s decision to construct the network, to identify the factors that enabled Hamas to engage in such a complex engineering task, and to assess the level of effectiveness of the tunnel network both strategically and tactically against the IDF.

 

 

 

New Book: Golan | Lavi: The United States, Israel, and a Controversial Fighter Jet

Golan, John W. Lavi. The United States, Israel, and a Controversial Fighter Jet. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2016.

The Lavi fighter program, the largest weapons-development effort ever undertaken by the State of Israel, envisioned a new generation of high-performance aircraft. In a controversial strategy, Israel Aircraft Industries intended to develop and manufacture the fighters in Israel with American financial support. The sophisticated planes, developed in the mid-1980s, were unique in design and intended to make up the majority of the Israeli air force. Though considerable prestige and money were at stake, developmental costs increased and doubts arose as to whether the Lavi could indeed be the warplane it was meant to be. Eventually the program became a microcosm for the ambitions, fears, and internal divisions that shaped both the U.S.-Israeli relationship and Israeli society itself. But the fighter never made it to operational service, and until now, the full breadth and significance of the Lavi story have never been examined and presented.

Lavi: The United States, Israel, and a Controversial Fighter Jet traces the evolution of the Lavi fighter from its genesis in the 1970s to its scrapping in August 1987. John W. Golan examines the roles of Israeli military icons and political leaders such as Ezer Weizman, Ariel Sharon, Menachem Begin, and Yitzhak Rabin in the program and in relation to their counterparts in the United States. On the American side, Golan traces the evolution of government policy toward the program, detailing the complex picture of the U.S. foreign policy apparatus and of U.S.-Israeli relations in general—from President Reagan’s public endorsement of the program on the White House lawn to Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger’s unremitting attempts to cancel it in succeeding years.

 

JOHN W. GOLAN has served as a designer, structural analyst, and engineering manager in the U.S. aerospace industry for the last two decades, developing future-generation technology concepts. He has published articles with Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, Aviation History, and the Jerusalem Post Magazine.

 

New Book: Tabansky and Ben-Israel, Cybersecurity in Israel

Tabansky, Lior, and Isaac Ben Israel. Cybersecurity in Israel. New York: Springer, 2015.

This SpringerBrief gives the reader a detailed account of how cybersecurity in Israel has evolved over the past two decades. The formation of the regions cybersecurity strategy is explored and an in-depth analysis of key developments in cybersecurity policy is provided.
The authors examine cybersecurity from an integrative national perspective and see it as a set of policies and actions with two interconnected goals: to mitigate security risks and increase resilience and leverage opportunities enabled by cyber-space.
Chapters include an insight into the planning and implementation of the National Security Concept strategy which facilitated the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) agreement in 2002, (one of the first of its kind), the foundation of the Israeli Cyber-strategy in 2011, and details of the current steps being taken to establish a National Cyber Security Authority (NCSA).
Cybersecurity in Israel will be essential reading for anybody interested in cyber-security policy, including students, researchers, analysts and policy makers alike.

 

Table of Contents

Introduction
Pages 1-8

Geopolitics and Israeli Strategy
Pages 9-14

The National Innovation Ecosystem of Israel
Pages 15-30

Mid-1990s: The Prequel for National Cybersecurity Policy
Pages 31-34

The Israeli National Cybersecurity Policy Focuses on Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP)
Pages 35-41

Seeking Cyberpower: The National Cyber Initiative, 2010
Pages 43-48

The National Cyber-Strategy of Israel and the INCB
Pages 49-54

Towards Comprehensive National Cybersecurity
Pages 55-61

Striking with Bits? The IDF and Cyber-Warfare
Pages 63-69

Conclusion: From Cybersecurity to Cyberpower
Pages 71-73

 

 

New Article: Barzilai et al, Characteristics of Trauma Casualties in the Gaza Strip and Other Combat Regions

Barzilai, L., M. Harats, I. Wiser, O. Weissman, N. Domniz, E. Glassberg, D. Stavrou, I. Zilinsky, E. Winkler, J. Hiak. “Characteristics of Improvised Explosive Device Trauma Casualties in the Gaza Strip and Other Combat Regions: The Israeli Experience.” Wounds 27.8 (2015): 209-14.

 
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26284374

 
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Low-intensity conflict is characterized in asymmetrical conventional and nonconventional warfare. The use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has evolved over the past few decades to include the addition of diesel, biological agents, shrapnel, and nitroglycerin to the explosive content. Due to its nature and mechanism, an IED injury might present as a multidimensional injury, impairing numerous systems and organs.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The authors present a case series of 5 Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers wounded by an IED presenting a typical and similar pattern of burns to their faces, trunks, and limbs, in addition to ocular, ear/nose/throat, and orthopedic injuries. An analysis of the experience in treating the aforementioned injuries is included.

RESULTS: Improvement in casualties’ burns and traumatic tattoos was observed following debridement, aggressive scrubbing with or without dermabrasion, and conservative local dressing treatment protocol. The authors found a positive correlation between improvement degree and treatment timing. Injury pattern was correlative to the protective gear worn by the soldiers. Wearing protective eye gear and wearing ceramic vests can diminish the extent of IED injuries, while creating typical patterns of injuries to be treated.

CONCLUSION: Based on these experiences, such injuries should be brought to a trauma center as soon as possible. Treating multidimensional trauma should be done in a facility with abilities to treat head injuries, eye injuries, penetrating injuries, blast injuries, and burns. Such specialized disciplines and facilities that have past experience with IEDs and war injuries are able to assess and treat these injuries in a more dedicated manner, resulting in better long-term rehabilitation.
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New Article: Cox, Britain and the Origin of Israeli Special Operations

Cox, Stephen Russell. “Britain and the Origin of Israeli Special Operations: SOE and PALMACH during the Second World War.” Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict 8.1 (2015): 60-78.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17467586.2014.964741

 

Abstract

This article explores the British influence on the origins of Israeli Special Operations and elite units before and during the Second World War. Specifically, it brings to light the roles Captain (later Major-General) Orde Wingate and the British Special Operations Executive played in the creation of the Special Night Squads and the PALMACH, respectively. It concludes with an examination of the consequences of this military and philosophical influence for the British in Palestine and for the creation of the state of Israel. The primary source material for this article comes principally from Wingate’s personal papers at the Imperial War Museum and the SOE’s declassified documents in the National Archives, both in London.

 
 
 

New Article: Bleibleh, Walking Through Walls. The Invisible War

Bleibleh, Sahera. “Walking Through Walls. The Invisible War.” Space and Culture 18.2 (2015): 156-70.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1206331213512919

 

Abstract

This article presents the implications of modern urban warfare through ethnographic research of the Palestinian lived experience of the 2002 Israeli invasion Edjteyah. It is a scholarly attempt to document, investigate, and analyze the community’s response to Israel’s new military strategy of “walking through walls” as invisible urban warfare. This article connects the community experience in the old town of Nablus with the broader experience of warfare and political uncertainty. It is structured in three parts. The first discusses “walking through walls” as a modern warfare strategy, the second presents the methodology to capture the consequences of war with a case study of suspended everyday life, and the third narrates the participants’ “making-do” emergent tactics to counter the oppressor’s strategies. Following an analysis that encompasses qualitative ethnography and storytelling, it provides an interdisciplinary perspective of people’s temporal, spatial, and behavioral aftermath based on the participants’ narrations and experiences. In conclusion, the colonial power’s extended contemporary war delays any long-term planning, development, and sovereignty statehood by suspending the Palestinians’ everyday life.

ToC: Israel Affairs 18,4 (2012)

Israel Affairs, Vol. 18, No. 4, 01 Oct 2012 is now available on Taylor & Francis Online. — This new issue contains the following articles: — Original Articles — Existential threats to Israel: learning from the ancient past Steven R. David Pages: 503-525 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717386 — Leadership, preventive war and territorial expansion: David Ben-Gurion and Levi Eshkol Shlomo Aronson Pages: 526-545 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717387 — ‘Two & three air raids daily. What a bother’: an American diplomat in Israel during the War of Independence Henry D. Fetter Pages: 546-562 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717388 — The failed Palestinian–Israeli peace process 1993–2011: an Israeli perspective Raphael Cohen-Almagor Pages: 563-576 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717389 — The birth of the core issues: the West Bank and East Jerusalem under Israeli administration 1967–76 (part 1) Moshe Elad Pages: 577-595 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717390 — The social representation of incapacity: a psycho-cultural analysis of Israel’s political arena Mira Moshe Pages: 596-614 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717391 — The advent of Israel’s commercial lobby Hila Tal Pages: 615-628 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717392 — The games must go on? The influence of terror attacks on hosting sporting events in Israel Yair Galily, Ilan Tamir & Moshe Levy Pages: 629-644 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717393 — Combat stress reactions during the 1948 war: a conspiracy of silence? Eldad Rom & Dan Bar-On Pages: 645-651 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717394 — The US, Hezbollah and the idea of sub-state terrorism Hussain Sirriyeh Pages: 652-662 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717395 — Book Reviews — India’s Israel policy David Rodman Pages: 663-665 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718493 — The West and the Middle East David Rodman Pages: 665-666 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718494 — Nation and history: Israeli historiography between Zionism and post-Zionism David Rodman Pages: 666-667 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718495 — Israeli statecraft: national security challenges and responses David Rodman Pages: 667-668 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718496 — Confidential: the life of secret agent turned Hollywood tycoon Arnon Milchan David Rodman Pages: 669-669 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718497 — The anatomy of Israel’s survival David Rodman Pages: 669-670 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718498 — Perspectives of psychological operations (PSYOP) in contemporary conflicts: essays in winning hearts and minds David Rodman Pages: 670-671 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718499 — Holy wars: 3000 years of battles in the holy land David Rodman Pages: 671-671 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718500 — Crossroads: the future of the U.S.–Israel strategic partnership David Rodman Pages: 671-673 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718501 — Israel’s national security law: political dynamics and historical development David Rodman Pages: 673-674 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718502