Urban Warfare Symposium- Selected Web Resources and Articles
Compiled by Bob Schwartz, Senior Policy Advisor,
Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest
Updated- June 30, 2015
Podcasts of Urban Warfare Symposium Panels
Panel I: Operational Challenges- Broadcast June 14th, WYCC Channel 20, Chicago PBS
Panel II: Ethical Challenges- Broadcast June 21st, WYCC Channel 20, Chicago PBS
Panel III: Legal Challenges- Broadcast June 28th
Major New Reports on Operation Protective Edge Released After Symposium
The United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza ConflictUN Human Rights Commission
Statement by PM Netanyahu on the UNHRC Commission of Inquiry report- June 22, 2015
Israeli response to the UNHRC Commission of Inquiry- June 22, 2015
The 2014 Gaza Conflict: Factual and Legal Aspects- Executive Summary- June 14, 2015
The 2014 Gaza Conflict- July 7-August 26, 2014- Factual and Legal Aspects- Full Report
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel Ministry of Justice, IDF Military Advocate General Corp.
Major New In-Depth Analyses of the U.N. Gaza Report
Filling in the Blanks: Documenting Missing Dimensions in UN and NGO Investigations of
the Gaza Conflict- Joint Report by NGO Monitor and UN Watch.
Edited by Gerald M. Steinberg and Anne Herzberg
High Level International Military Group: The Gaza Conflict In 2014- Key Preliminary
Findings
Response to the U.N. Gaza Report: Panel of Experts- Side event at United Nations Human
Rights Council co-sponsored by UN Watch & NGO Monitor. Full video of the 2-hour panel is here.
Analysis of the U.N. Report on the 2014 Gaza Conflict: The Distorting Effects of Flawed
Foundations – Professor Jeffrey Corn, Col. USA (ret.) June 2015- JINSA
What to Make of the UN's Special Commission Report on Gaza? By Benjamin Wittes,
Yishai Schwartz,- The Lawfare Project, Wednesday, June 24, 2015
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Operational Challenges
Israel Under Fire: Operation Protective Edge- Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Resource
page for documents and reports including recent UN Report.
Special Report: Operation Protective Edge- IDF Special Report – Videos and Articles –
IDF Blog (Note: this page is heavy with content and takes time to download but worth it.)
2014 Gaza War Assessment: The New Face of Conflict- Jewish Institute for National
Security Studies (JINSA). See the discussion by Task Force members online at C-Span
The Lessons of Operation Protective Edge- Anat Kurz and Shlomo Brom, eds.,
Institute for National Security Studies, 2014.
The Gaza War 2014- The War Israel Did Not Want and the Disaster it Averted- Jerusalem
Center for Public Affairs. Hirsch Goodman and Dore Gold New
IDF Confirms That Hamas Planned Massive Tunnel Attack- Times of Israel 10/24, 2014.
New simulators to train IDF soldiers for tunnel warfare- Globes, May 4, 2015
US, Israel to cooperate on tunnel warfare R&D- Ynet News, 6/18/15 New
Plan for US-Israel anti-tunnel R&D project clears first House hurdle Times of Israel, April
30th, 2015. Note: HB 1349- US-Israel Anti-Tunnel Defense Cooperation Act,
(https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/1349) was included in National Defense
Authorization Act for 2016, which passed the House on May 15th, NDAA now goes to Senate.
Irregular Adversaries and Hybrid Threats-An Assessment, 2011- Joint Irregular Warfare
Center, US Joint Forces Command
The Impact of Cyberspace on Asymmetric Conflict in the Middle East- By Gabi Siboni /
April 29, 2015 – Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.
Ethical Challenges
The Ethics of Protective Edge- Professor Asa Kasher, Jewish Review of Books, Fall, 2014.
The Moralist- Editor’s Notes- Interview with Asa Kasher by David Horowitz, Jerusalem
Post, April 22, 2011
‘Israel & the Rules of War’: An Exchange- Asa Kasher and Major General Amos Yadlin.
New York Review of Books- June 11, 2009
IDF Code of Ethics- IDF Blog
"Just War and Cyber Conflict: Can there be an 'Ethical' Cyber War?" By Dr. George
Lucas. Sr. Fellow, Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership. (delivered at the U.S. Naval
Academy). Transcript New
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Legal Challenges
The IDF military Advocate General Corps.
Decisions of the IDF MAG Regarding Exceptional Incidents that Allegedly Occurred
During Operation 'Protective Edge'- Update No. 4 – June 11, 2015 IDF MAG Corps New
Attorneys at War - Inside an elite Israeli military law unit. Weekly Standard, Jun 15, 2015,
by Willy Stern. New
Top IDF Attorney: I will Never Call IDF the Most Moral Army in the World- Ha’aretz, April
19, 2015.
Challenges Posed by International Law in the Context of Urban Warfare- Major General
Dan Efroni, IDF MAG- INSS, Military and Strategic Affairs, April 2014 Special Issue.
Transnational Asymmetric Armed Conflict Under International Humanitarian Law:
Key Contemporary Challenges- Eliav Lieblich with Owen Alterman, INSS- Jan., 2015
Full Text: UN Board of Inquiry on Gaza April 27, 2015
Fundamentally Flawed: AIDA NGO Network’s Gaza Analysis- April 15, 2015, NGO
Monitor.
A Troubling Picture of UN Complicity in Palestinian War Crimes- Anne Herzberg, May 04,
2015, Ynet
The Tyranny of Context: Israeli Targeting Practices in Legal Perspective (April 12, 2015).
Schmitt, Michael N. and Merriam, John J., University of Pennsylvania Journal of International
Law, Forthcoming
This is how we fought in Gaza- Breaking the Silence (NGO) May, 2015
How (and How Not) to Investigate an Armed Conflict: Reflections on Three Recently
Released Gaza Reports- Yishai Schwartz, The Lawfare Project
Former AP Journalist Blasts Breaking the Silence Report on Israeli Conduct in Gaza- The
Algemeiner, May 5, 2015.
Reference- U.S. New
Pentagon Releases Law of War Manual - Tyrone Marshall (U.S. Department of Defense)
Pentagon officials on June 12 released the Defense Department's first 1,200-page law of
war manual, culminating a multiyear effort to compile legal principles governing warfare.
See also Text: Law of War Manual 2015 (U.S. Department of Defense)
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Government Agencies and Selected Private Organizations- Israel and U.S.
Israel
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Israel Defense Forces- (blog)
Israel Home Front Command
Embassy of Israel to the United States
Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest
International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (IDC Herzliya) New
Institute for National Security Studies
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs- New
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs produces an Israel News Digest Daily Alert for the
Conference of Presidents of Jewish Organizations
United States
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA)
Pritzker Military Museum & Library
Stockdale Center For Ethical Leadership US Naval Academy New
Stockton Center for the Study of International Law- U.S. Naval War College New
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