IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot on Thursday published a document to the Israeli public entitled “IDF Strategy,” which maps out the changing threats to the Jewish state and the IDF’s evolving methods of confronting them.
There have been many strategic changes in recent years, both regarding the nature of the threats on Israel as well as the IDF’s ever-expanding fighting capabilities.
The strategic assessment of the IDF as presented in the document posits that conventional and non-conventional threats within the first and most immediate circle of proximity are dwindling, even as sub-conventional threats such as terrorist organizations and cyber warfare are on the rise.
Eizenkot explained that the new document aims to prepare the IDF’s forces in the coming years to defend Israel on numerous fronts and dimensions, including scenarios requiring operations on numerous battlefronts simultaneously.
The document presents the changes required from the IDF in light of future challenges and changes in the nature of the enemy.
Those changes include an improvement and strengthening of the effectiveness in ground forces maneuvers, a diversification of the operational capabilities for confronting operations as opposed to full-out wars, an improvement in the IDF’s ability to wage cyber warfare, and methods to preserve intelligence, aerial and naval superiority.
In the strategic document, the tried and true principles of deterrence, alertness, defense, decisive action and victory remain the core fundamentals in terms of deploying force.
“Dealing with ‘IDF Strategy’ will accompany the operational activity in the IDF for many long years,” Eizenkot wrote in the introduction to the document.
“The approach as consolidated in this document will stand as the base for processes the IDF will lead in the framework of its ‘Gideon’ multi-year plan, and it will be the compass for deploying and developing force, from a desire to fully utilize capabilities, while studying the changes in the nature of the enemy and recognizing the strength of the IDF.”
Eizenkot emphasized that “the consolidation of the strategy is not the supreme test, rather the burden of proof is in conducting operations in practice during routine conditions, emergency conditions and war. The IDF will stand in success in every mission and challenge, and will achieve its goal – to defend and to win.”