Vision to Reality: The Reut Blog

Why would the IDF purposefully expose a wealth of valuable intelligence about Hezbollah military operations in Lebanon? The answer, it seems, lies in a growing recognition that, in the current reality, achieving military victory is insufficient in attaining Israel’s security.

By exposing this intelligence information, Israel’s defense establishment appears to be integrating political and diplomatic variables into its operative strategy.

Haaretz‘s Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel term the decision to expose intelligence on Hezbollah as part of “a battle for political legitimacy and credibility,” with Israel preparing for an eventuality in which the next round of fighting occurs in the 160 Shi’ite villages and towns in southern Lebanon.

The Jerusalem Post‘s Yaakov Katz meanwhile writes that the information released by the IDF reflects a post-Goldstone report understanding that Israel needs to proactively prepare the public diplomatic and political grounds for potential conflicts. This insight, he writes, was not acted upon in advance of the Mavi Marmara – the implications of which Israel has only begun contending with.

The extent to which the erosion of Israel’s political and diplomatic standing influences military operations – from the way in which campaigns are conducted to the legal threat posed to IDF officers in their wake – is, in fact, increasingly clear.

This thinking reflects a more developed understanding of what Reut calls

Synchronized Victories – the concept that Israel’s national security strategy must contend with several fronts and arenas simultaneously, including the military and home fronts, as well as in the diplomatic, legal, and media arenas. Since these arenas are interconnected and interdependent, they must be considered a systemic whole.

One of the movies published by the IDF as part of its release of intelligence: