world
Pushed by Goldstone,
Israeli army embraces
new "smart" warfare.
Leslie Susser
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jerusalem
D
espite Israel's rejection of the
Goldstone Report on the Gaza
war a year-and-a-half ago, the
international criticism it engendered has
led the Israel Defense Forces to make a
number of significant changes in policy
and doctrine.
And they'll stay, even though Richard
Goldstone has recanted one of the most
significant findings of his committee's
report — that Israel intentionally targeted
civilians and perpetrated war crimes and
crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Among the changes made by the IDF
were modifying the way soldiers fight in
urban areas, teaching relatively low-level
combat officers nuances in the laws of war,
attaching humanitarian liaison officers to
active forces and making media relations
a priority
Last May, eight months after the
Goldstone Report was released, the IDF
issued a new document defining rules of
engagement in urban warfare. Although
the ideas elaborated long had been stan-
dard practice, putting them down in writ-
ing was tantamount to introducing a new
doctrine for fighting in built-up areas.
The document noted that during the
Gaza operation, even after every effort had
been made to induce civilians to evacuate
areas where combat was expected — for
example, by dropping fliers and making
direct telephone calls to area residents —
28
more often than not some non-combat-
ants stayed behind.
The new doctrine requires that after
efforts have been made to warn the civil-
ian population to leave, the incoming
troops first fire warning shots and give
the remaining civilians a chance to leave
safely. Then, to minimize casualties among
civilians who, nevertheless, choose to stay,
IDF fighters and commanders must use
the most accurate weapons at their dis-
posal and choose munitions of relatively
low impact.
The IDF also has taken significant legal
steps.
Officer training courses at company,
battalion and brigade levels now include
detailed study of international law, with
special reference to the rules of war. The
Military Advocate General's Office and the
Foreign Ministry consult regularly with
foreign governments and international
organizations to ensure that all IDF opera-
tions conform to accepted legal norms.
During the month-long Gaza War in the
winter of 2008-09, legal advisers from the
Military Advocate General's Office served
with combat forces, advising command-
ers in real time of what might constitute a
breach of law. In January 2010, then Chief
of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi standard-
ized this practice, instructing command-
ers to consult with legal advisers not only
in the planning stages of military opera-
tions, but also during the actual fighting.
To prevent possible loss of military
focus, however, Ashkenazi ordered that
the legal advisers be sent to divisional
headquarters rather than battalions or
Israeli reservists take part in
an urban warfare exercise.
brigades, as is common in some other
Western armies.
Another step the IDF has taken to
help minimize civilian casualties and
humanitarian distress on the other side
is to attach humanitarian liaison officers
to troops in the field. The officers come
from a pool set up by the Coordinator of
Government Activities in the Territories,
or COGAT, and are in regular contact with
the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank
and international aid organizations in
Gaza.
Their task in the event of hostilities is
to help coordinate humanitarian needs on
the Palestinian side and to point out loca-
tions of sensitive facilities like hospitals,
schools and U.N. aid centers to ensure that
they are not mistakenly targeted. Such
officers were assigned during the Gaza
War on an ad hoc basis and, according to
the IDF, proved very effective.
As a result, Ashkenazi decided in
February 2010 to refine and institutional-
ize the system.
The most radical change in IDF think-
ing since Goldstone has been in the realm
of media relations. Now there is a firm
consensus in the army that the way mili-
tary actions are perceived is at least as
important as their physical impact.
Brig.-Gen. Avi Benayahu, the Israeli
army's outgoing spokesman, is fond of
quoting the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff
Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen's dictum that
whereas public relations once was supple-
mental to battle, now battle is supplemen-
tal to PR.
More than ever, IDF generals agree, all
operations must now be planned with
media, legal and international legitimacy
aspects in mind. To instill more media
savvy, the IDF Spokesperson's Office rou-
tinely sends its mobile communications'
school unit from one combat unit to the
next, teaching officers to get their messag-
es across in 20-second sound bites. More
important, trained media officers are now
attached to combat units.
This means that in future combat
situations, commanders will have legal,
humanitarian and media advice on tap.
Not everyone is happy with the changes.
Some say it will make it difficult for the
Israeli army to operate in combat situa-
tions and won't prevent the next Goldstone
Report because, they say, war is always
ugly, brutal and destructive.
Nevertheless, it seems that in the post-
Goldstone era, with Israel under severe
international scrutiny, the IDF is deter-
mined to do all it can to uphold the strict-
est standards of international law.
Moreover, the IDF is collaborating with
some of the human rights organizations
critical of its actions to make sure cases
of alleged IDF misconduct are handled
appropriately. Last July, the military advo-
cate general, Avichai Mendelblit, singled
out B'Tselem, which monitors Israeli
actions against Palestinians, for thanks.
"Between the military and various
human rights organizations, there is
constant dialogue IDF spokesman Capt.
Barak Raz told the Forward newspaper
last year.
Another inkling of the IDF's height-
ened legal sensitivity came earlier this
Gloved Fist on page 30
April 21 • 2011