Fighting networked terrorist groups: Lessons from Israel

Studies in Conflict and Terrorism

Volumn 30, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 281-302

  Jones, Seth G ^a,b  

^a RAND CORPORATION   (United States)

^b GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33847780942     PISSN: 1057610X     EISSN: 15210731     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10576100701200157     Document Type: Article

References (117)

1. Stephen M. Walt, Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy (New York: W.W. Norton, 2005)
2. William C. Wohlforth, "The Stability of a UnipolarWorld," International Security, 24, (1) (Summer 1999), 5-41
3. G. John Ikenberry (ed.), AmericaUnrivaled: The Future of the Balance of Power (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2002)
4. Kenneth N. Waltz, "Structural Realism after the Cold War," International Security, 25 (1) (Summer 2000), 5-41.
5. Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press, "The Rise of U.S. Nuclear Primacy," Foreign Affairs, 85 (2) (March/April 2006), 42-54.
6. Mao Tse-tung, translated by Samuel B. Griffith II, On Guerilla Warfare (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000).
7. On Iraq, see Brigadier Nigel Aylwin-Foster, "Changing the Army for Counterinsurgency Operations," Military Review, LXXV, (6) (November-December 2005), 2-15
8. Daniel Byman, "Five Bad Options for Iraq," Survival, 47 (1) (Spring 2005), 7-32
9. Kenneth M. Pollack, A Switch in Time: A New Strategy for American in Iraq (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2006).
10. On Afghanistan, see Seth G. Jones, "Averting Failure in Afghanistan," Survival, 48 (1) (Spring 2006), 111-128
11. Hy S. Rothstein, Afghanistan and the Troubled Future of Unconventional Warfare (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2006).
12. Louis Beam, "Leaderless Resistance," Seditionist, Issue 12 (February 1992), 5.
13. John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt "The Advent of Netwar," in Arquilla and Ronfeldt, (eds.), In Athena's Camp: Preparing for Conflict in the Information Age (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1997), 280.
14. William M. Evan, "An Organization-Set Model of Interorganizational Relations," in Matthew Tuite, Roger Chisholm, and Michael Radnor (eds.), Interorganizational Decisionmaking (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1972), 181-200.
15. John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt (eds.), Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2001).
16. See, for example, Bruce Hoffman, John C. de Jarnette, Seth G. Jones, John Strycula, William D. Wunderle, Michael Hynes, and Anna-Britt Kasupski, The Implications of Network-Centric Insurgencies on U.S. Army Operations, DRR-3847-A (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2006).
17. For background, see Crisis Group Middle East Briefing No. 4, Radical Islam in Iraqi Kurdistan: The Mouse That Roared?, 7 February 2003.
18. International Crisis Group, In Their Own Words: Reading the Iraqi Insurgency, No. 50 (Washington: ICG, February 2006).
19. Olivier Roy, Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan, Second Edition (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990)
20. Ahmed Rashid, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000)
21. William Maley (ed.), Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban (New York: New York University Press, 2001).
22. Interview with senior Afghanistan government officials, Kabul, December 2005.
23. Many of these foreign fighters are silafi jihadists. On salafism, see Gilles Kepel, Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2002), 219-222
24. Guilain Denoeux, "The Forgotten Swamp: Navigating Political Islam," Middle East Policy, IX (2) (June 2002), 69-71.
25. Yagil Henkin, "Urban Warfare and the Lessons of Jenin," Azure, No. 15 (Summer 2003), 51-52.
26. The Israeli government identified the terrorist as Abdel-Basset Odeh, a member of the Hamas Izz al-din al-Qassem Brigades, from the West Bank city of Tulkarem. Passover Suicide Bombing at Park Hotel in Netanya, March 27, 2002 (Tel Aviv: Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2002).
27. Michael C. Desch (ed.), Soldiers in Cities: Military Operations on Urban Terrain (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2001)
28. Ralph Peters, "Our Soldiers, Their Cities," Parameters, 26 (1) (Spring 1996), 43-50
29. Lieutenant Colonel T. R. Milton, "Urban Operations: Future Warfare," Military Review, 74 (2) (February 1994) 37-46
30. Russell W. Glenn (ed.), The City's Many Faces (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2000)
31. Russell W. Glenn et al., Honing the Keys to the City: Refining the United States Marine Corps Reconnaissance Force for Urban Combat Ground Operations (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2003).
32. Barry R. Posen, "Urban Operations: Tactical Realities and Strategic Ambiguities," in Desch, Soldiers in Cities, 149-166.
33. Population density and unemployment rates within Palestine refugee camps are among the highest in the world, resulting in chronic poverty, overcrowding, and a low standard of living.
34. Figures are from "West Bank Refugee Camp Profiles," United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNRWA. Available at (www.un.org/unrwa).
35. IDF Division Threat Assessment, provided to the author by IDF officials.
36. For a description of the Palestinian security services see Building A Successful Palestinian State (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2005), 38-39
37. Gal Luft, "Palestinian Military Performance and the 2000 Intifada," Middle East Review of International Affairs, 4 (4) (December 2000), 1-8
38. Luft, "Reforming the Palestinian Security Services," Peacewatch, No. 382, 15 May, 2002
39. Ed Blanche, "Arafat Revamps his Security Apparatus and Tightens His Grip," Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst, 1 July, 2002
40. Gal Luft, "The Palestinian Security Services: Between Police and Army," Middle East Review of International Affairs, 3(2) (June 1999 , 47-63
41. "Security and Foreign Forces: Gaza and the West Bank," Jane's Sentinel Security Assessment.
42. Interview with senior IDF officials, Tel Aviv, July 2005.
43. See, for example, Amos Harel and Arnon Regular, "IDF Cameraman, Five Palestinians Killed in Rafah," Ha'aretz, 21 April 2003
44. Margot Dudkevitch, "IDF Photographer, Five Palestinians Killed in Rafah," Jerusalem Post, 21 April 2003.
45. Matt Rees, "The Battle of Jenin," Time, 8 May 2002.
46. Most of the IDF casualties in Operation Defensive Shield came from soldiers killed by either booby traps or shots from snipers. Thirteen IDF soldiers were killed in a single firefight during Operation Defensive Shield when they were caught in an exposed alleyway in Jenin. Hirsh Goodman and Jonathan Cummings (eds.), The Battle of Jenin: A Case Study In Israel's Communications Strategy, Memorandum No. 3 (Tel Aviv: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, 2003), 15.
47. Vernon Loeb, "Lessons from Israel: Drones and Urban Warfare," Washington Post, 23 September, 2002.
48. Goodman and Cummings, The Battle of Jenin; Jenin: IDF Military Operations 14(3) (New York: Human Rights Watch, May 2002)
49. Shielded From Scrutiny: IDF Violations in Jenin and Nablus (NewYork:AMnesty International, 2002)
50. Operation Defensive Shield: Soldiers' Testimonies, Palestinian Testimonies (Jerusalem: B'Tselem, 2002).
51. Interview with senior IDF officials, Tel Aviv, July 2005.
52. "Prime Minister Sharon's Address to the Knesset," Jerusalem, 8 April 2002 (Tel Aviv: Prime Minister's Public Affairs Department, 2002).
53. Interview with senior IDF officials, Tel Aviv, July 2005.
54. One of the lessons the IDF learned from Operation Peace for Galilee was that artillery was too destructive and caused too many noncombatant casualties.
55. The IDF has found that the preferred weapons for attack helicopters are Hellfire and TOW missiles because of their accuracy and stand-off capability.
56. Interview with senior IDF officials, Tel Aviv, July 2005.
57. "Palestinian Fighter Describes 'Hard Fight' in Jenin," CNN, 23 April 2002.
58. Interview with senior IDF officials, Tel Aviv, July 2005.
59. Matti Friedman, "And the Tanks Rolled into Nablus," The Jerusalem Report, 6 May 2002, 18.
60. Joshua Hammer and Elizabeth Rubin, "Nablus Dispatch: Halftime," New Republic, 22 April 2002.
61. Friedman, "And the Tanks Rolled into Nablus," 18.
62. Arieh O'Sullivan, "IDF tightens hold on Jenin, Nablus," Jerusalem Post, 8 April 2002, 1.
63. Interview with senior IDF officials, Tel Aviv, July 2005.
64. John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt, Swarming and the Future of Conflict (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2000).
65. Sean J. A. Edwards, Swarming on the Battlefield: Past, Present, and Future (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2000)
66. Arquilla and Ronfeldt, In Athena's Camp.
67. Yagil Henkin, "Urban Warfare and the Lessons of Jenin," Azure, No. 15 (Summer 2003), 51.
68. Rees, "The Battle of Jenin."
69. On Jenin, see Maj. Jeffrey S. Settle, Shock Effect or Ships Passing in the Nights: The Role of Armored Forces in Fourth Generation Warfare (Fort Leavenworth, KS: United States Army Command and General Staff College, 2003)
70. David Eshel, "The Battle of Jenin," Jane's Intelligence Review, 1 July 2002
71. Henkin, "Urban Warfare and the Lessons of Jenin";
72. Matt Rees, "The Battle of Jenin," Time, 8 May 2002.
73. Interview with senior IDF officials, Tel Aviv, July 2005. On those captured, see Joel Brinkley, "Mideast Turmoil: Nablus," New York Times, 11 April 2002, 15
74. Beatriz Lecumberri, "Israeli F-16 s Blitz Nablus After 13 Soldiers Killed in Jenin Ambush," Agence France Presse, 9 April 2002.
75. The data are Israeli intelligence estimates. Author interview with a high-level Israeli national security official, who served during Operation Defensive Shield.
76. Mia Bloom argues, for example, that support among a terrorist group's domestic population has a significant impact on if - and when - it utilizes suicide terror. Mia Bloom, Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004).
77. Operation Defensive Shield: Special Update, March 29, 2002-April 21, 2002 (Tel Aviv: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2002).
78. Bloom, Dying to Kill, 38.
79. Approximately 183 were killed because of Palestinian terrorist attacks in 2001 and 215 in 2003; most attacks occurred in Israel. RAND-MIPT Terrorism Incident Database.
80. Israel's Security Fence (Israeli Ministry of Defense, 2005)
81. Seam Zone (Israeli Ministry of Defense, 2003).
82. Makovsky, "How to Build a Fence," Foreign Affairs, 83(2) (March/April 2004), 50-64.
83. There is some evidence that the 14 March, 2004 terrorist attack at Ashdod Port, Israel was conducted by bombers who entered the port in a container, which had food and mattresses in it. The container was believed to have passed through the Karni Crossing in the Gaza Strip and contained marble and ceramics. Its final destination was Haifa.
84. David Makovsky, A Defensible Fence: Fighting Terror and Enabling a Two-State Solution (Washington, DC: Washington Institute, 2004)
85. Makovsky, "How to Build a Fence"
86. Elizur, Yuval, "Israel Banks on a Fence," Foreign Affairs, 82(2) (March/April 2003), 106-119
87. Seam Zone (Israeli Ministry of Defense, 2003)
88. The Separation Barrier: Position Paper (Jerusalem: B'Tselem, 2002)
89. Edward R. F. Sheehan, "The Map and the Fence," New York Review of Books, 50(11), 3 July 2003
90. Shlomo Brom, "The Security Fence: Solution or Stumbling Block?", Strategic Assessment: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, 6(4) (February 2004).
91. RAND-MIPT Terrorism Incident Database.
92. David Buffaloe, Conventional Forces in Low-Intensity Conflict: The 82 d Airborne in Firebase Shkin, Landpower Essay No. 04-2 (Arlington, VA: Association of the United States Army Institute of Land Warfare, October 2004), 1.
93. Colonel C. E. Callwell, Small Wars: Their Principles and Practice (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1976), 382.
94. The Israeli Army's small commando units, known as Mist'aravim, also operated undercover inside the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Seymour M. Hersh, "Moving Targets: Will the Counter-Insurgency Plan in Iraq Repeat the Mistakes of Vietnam?" New Yorker, 15 December 2005.
95. Mao Tse Tung, Guerrilla Warfare (London: Cassell, 1962), 31.
96. Interview with senior IDF officials, Tel Aviv, July 2005.
97. Frank Kitson, Low Intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency, and Peacekeeping (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1971), 165.
98. Clive Jones, "'One Size Fits All': Israel, Intelligence, and the al-Aqsa Intifada," Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 26 (2003), 273-288.
99. Kitson, Low Intensity Operations, pp. 96-97.
100. On the importance of popular support, see David Galula, Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice (St. Petersburg, FL: Hailer Publishing, 1964)
101. John A. Nagl, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005)
102. Kitson, Low-Intensity Operations.
103. Roger Trinquier, Modern Warfare (London: Pall Mall Press, 1964), 7.
104. Kitson, Low-Intensity Operations, 50-51.
105. Bloom, Dying to Kill, pp. 19-44.
106. On Palestinian suicide bombing, also see Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism, Second Edition (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006)
107. Robert Pape, Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (New York: Random House, 2004)
108. Christoph Reuter, My Life Is a Weapon: A Modern History of Suicide Bombing (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004).
109. Nichole Argo, "Understanding and Defusing Human Bombs: The Palestinian Case and the Pursuit of a Martyrdom Complex - A Working Paper," Paper prepared for presentation to the International Studies Association Meeting, Montreal 17-20 March 2004.
110. Hirsh Goodman and Jonathan Cummings (eds.), The Battle of Jenin: A Case Study In Israel's Communications Strategy, Memorandum No. 3 (Tel Aviv: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, 2003)
111. Jenin: IDF Military Operations, 14(3) (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2002)
112. Shielded From Scrutiny: IDF Violations in Jenin and Nablus (New York: Amnesty International, 2002)
113. Operation Defensive Shield: Soldiers' Testimonies, Palestinian Testimonies (Jerusalem: B'Tselem, 2002).
114. See, for example, Jenin: IDF Military Operations, 14(3) (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2002), 3-5
115. Shielded From Scrutiny: IDF Violations in Jenin and Nablus (New York: Amnesty International, 2002), 69-70
116. Operation Defensive Shield: Soldiers' Testimonies, Palestinian Testimonies (Jerusalem: B'Tselem, 2002).
117. Nagl, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife.