Israel’s Operation Protective Edge: Showcase for the Limits of Precision Strike?

Israel’s Operation Protective Edge: Showcase for the Limits of Precision Strike?

08/01/14

Michael Carl Haas

Security, State of the Military, Military Strategy, Israel, Palestinian territories

The IDF can see anything that moves in the open, and it can kill anything that it sees—but missiles keep falling from the sky.

As Israel’s Operation Protective Edge entered its fourth week and the death toll of this latest attempt at sapping Hamas’ military capabilities stood at more than 1,300 Palestinians and fifty-nine Israelis killed, international attention was predictably focused on the prospects for a durable cease-fire and the hardships of the civilian population inside Gaza. With most commentators emphasizing those aspects of the conflict that are readily understood and easily condemned—the lopsided nature of the violence, the widespread destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, and the human tragedies that continue to unfold—much less attention has been devoted to the deeper dynamics of the use of force that were evident in the operation.

It is still unclear how and when the second phase of Protective Edge, which was marked by large-scale but clearly delimited ground incursions to demolish Hamas’ network of attack and supply tunnels, as well as continued efforts to stem the rocket fire, will be brought to an end. It is not too early, however, to make some observations about the course of the fighting and its implications—not just for Israel, but for Western armed forces more generally.

In a recent contribution in The National Interest, Raphael Cohen and Gabriel Scheinmann have argued that Protective Edge constitutes “a step forward in the long war” against Hamas. While the jury is still out on this assessment, the past three weeks have served as a rather explicit reminder of what standoff firepower can—and cannot—accomplish when facing a determined foe on one’s own turf. Meanwhile, the costs associated with escalating a firepower-based campaign that has failed to produce the required results continue to accrue in plain sight.

In repeating this familiar sequence, the IDF’s efforts point to a number of fundamental constraints that are inherent in the dominant Western approach to warfare—constraints that will manifest themselves at other times, in other places, and that no amount of technological wizardry or careful planning will dissolve.

The Limits of Intelligence

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