Love of the Land: Analysis: The Dahiya Doctrine vs. the Goldstone Report

Analysis: The Dahiya Doctrine vs. the Goldstone Report

Yaakov Katz
Mideast/JPost
25 January '10

Following Operation Cast Lead, the IDF Operations Directorate prepared a slideshow to explain the type of challenges the Israeli military is currently facing in Lebanon against Hizbullah and in the Gaza Strip against Hamas.

On one of the slides is a picture of Khan Yunis, Gaza, but it could also be any one of the 160 Shiite villages in southern Lebanon where Hizbullah has stored its weaponry. The map is filled with different colored dots, each one representing a different type of threat an IDF platoon will face.

The Operations Directorate calls this type of warfare the "Collage War" since when fighting against an organization like Hizbullah or Hamas, IDF commanders will face characteristics from guerrilla, terror and conventional battles.

In other words, a commander invading Lebanon or Gaza will face anti-tank missiles (conventional), kidnapping attempts (terror) and underground tunnels (guerrilla), each threat represented by a different colored dot on the slide. These threats are also not located in open battlefields but in built-up areas like Khan Yunis, one of the most-densely populated parts of the world with close to 200,000 people.

The purpose of the slide is to explain that Israel is not fighting against a conventional military like the IDF, but has enemies - Hamas and Hizbullah - that flagrantly use the civilian population as human shields.

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Love of the Land: Analysis: The Dahiya Doctrine vs. the Goldstone Report