Over the past two years of war in the Middle East, I have often quoted the famous Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz. Among his most famous insights about the art of war was that an army should attack its opponent at its opponent’s center of gravity. On October 7, 2023, it appeared to me that Hamas had done what terrorist groups are so good at doing, which is to add a type of jujitsu into the art of war.
Today you do not attack your enemy at their center of gravity because if you do, in this non-Napoleonic era, you are likely to lose. Instead you try to unsettle your enemy’s advantages by tackling them at their weakest points—by hitting them at their most vulnerable place, throwing them off balance. That is what Hamas terrorists did two years ago this morning when they struck not the headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) or the nuclear plant at Dimona, but peaceful kibbutzim and a dance party.
It has been my privilege during the past two years to spend a lot of my time with the people of Israel and with Jewish communities around the world. That has, among other things, given me the opportunity to rethink, listen to other voices, and make alterations or refinements to points I have tried to make. One such example came recently, after a woman who had read my book on this conflict reacted to my Clausewitz point. “You know, I think you’re wrong,” she said. “I think they did hit us in our center of gravity that day. Not in the military sense but in our soul.” And I think she was right.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member