Weekly Commentary: Different Skill Sets To Plan Operations And Set Policy
Dr. Aaron Lerner 26 July 2024

I have a lot of respect for the ability of the leadership of the IDF and
others in the security establishment to plan and execute missions.

But the skill set associated with planning and executing a specific
operation is not the same skill set required for setting policy.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that a different skill set is required
to either conclude that an operation is required or to approve, in turn, the
operation planned by the security establishment.

To be clear: I am not making light of the skills required to plan and
execute operations.

It is just that time and again the Israeli security establishment makes the
mistake of thinking that since they know how to plan and execute an
operation, this somehow means that they are experts in setting policy.

It is actually worse than that today.

The Israeli security establishment is confident that they and only they have
the skill set to set policy.

In their eyes, the civilian leadership is at best a rubber stamp and at
worst a nuisance to deal with.

This is why the leadership of the security establishment saw fit to tell the
media, as Prime Minister Netanyahu reached Washington, that there's no
problem for Israel to retreat completely from the Gaza Strip for 6 weeks.

It was reported to be a unanimous conclusion, something that in and of
itself raises serious questions about the quality of the process which led
to this announcement.

It isn't clear to me how, in the short run, this attitude can be changed
inside the security establishment.

Our challenge is to do what we can to encourage and enable the civilian
leadership to apply the skill set needed to set policy so that the
operations which the security establishment plans and executes best serve
our nation's interests.

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