From Ice-Breaker to Missile Boat: The Evolution of Israel’s Naval Strategy

Author Moshe Tzalel
Publication information Greenwood Press, 2000, 184 pages

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Narrative

In From Ice-Breaker to Missile Boat, The Evolution of Israel’s Naval Strategy, Moshe Tzalel took a critical look at the naval branch of the Israel Defense Forces to consider its history, its performance, and its overall importance to maintaining national security.
From a collection of illegal immigrant ships operated prior to the birth of the state, the Israelis have, since the 1960s, established a modern navy.
Moshe Tzalel argued that the modernization and expansion of the Israeli Navy has been driven more by an excess of funds and the lack of clearly defined priorities than by a real necessity.
He examined each step of naval development by direct correlation to the perceived need for each new phase and the circumstances that led naval and military leaders to make specific choices, and he discussed the benefits of these choices on the field of battle.
He hoped to map the complex relationship between the navy men, the Israeli government, and public sentiment.
Although Israel managed to create a new and impressive class of warship, the Sa'ar FAC(M) and its larger derivatives, Moshe Tzalel contended that the military logic behind such naval construction was faulty, and that the nation's submarine flotilla constitutes a sheer waste of monetary and human resources.

References

  1. תלם Blumental Telem, Benyamin Benjamin 'Bini'