What parts of the IDF Nagel report helps to fix and what parts it does not

Nagel's report will help on a variety of tactical issues and even some strategic issues, but the missing pieces could come back to haunt the country someday if they are not addressed soon.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB JANUARY 6, 2025 21:01

The government commission headed by former national security council chief Jacob Nagel issued its report for reframing the future of the IDF. (photo credit: MAAYAN TOAF/GPO)

If the country wanted a full blueprint for what to fix and change about the IDF after the October 7, 2023 disaster, it will have to wait longer.

Former national security council chief Jacob Nagel did a valuable service for the country on Monday submitting his thoughtful report on how to improve the IDF going forward for the next 5-10 years.

But he was simply not given a full enough mandate to get to the heart of all of the issues which the country must confront to fully avoid such future disasters.

Many of his statements about how to make a better future for the IDF and defense establishment are important.

His concept that Israel must be more proactive to prevent threats from building up near its borders as opposed to focusing on a deterrence and defense concept, and that Israel must fund and train itself in this new direction, is crucial.

IDF SOLDIERS operate in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, in November. Israel's lack of a specific day-after plan for Gaza has left the Jewish state and its military in a quagmire, says the writer. (credit: Oren Cohen/Flash90)

When he highlights how much more work Israel has to do in space, cyber, artificial intelligence, and general technological warfare, he is sounding the right alarms.

Additionally when he highlights the imperative need for Israel to be more independent in manufacturing its own weaponry, Nagel's report will hopefully move forward a much needed paradigm shift.

But how can Israel be ready to defend itself in the future when no one knows what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top ministers knew and did not know which could have impacted October 7?

How can Israel be secure if there are not new parameters in place to make sure that top Israeli political officials do not get sucked in by group think (which happened to the IDF and has led to a huge growth and empowering of a division to better second guess conventional thinking) and their preconceived political notions?

A new national security strategy, funding, and force buildup cannot be completely divorced from Israel's long term diplomatic goals?

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Where does Israel want to be with Gazan Palestinian, West Bank Palestinians, the different groups in Lebanon, and the different groups in Syria in a year, five years, or 10 years?

Nagel said that the prime minister's office must have better control of the defense establishment's budgeting process, but what good will that do if the prime minister himself is above reproach?

It may be that the IDF and Shin Bet are more to blame for October 7 or that the prime minister and the government are more to blame, or they may hold equal blame, but it is not fully possible to understand what the future must look like without understanding the past.

And can any of the top officials in politics or defense who were in charge on October 7 truly be the right figures to frame the country's defense for the next 10 years, even if they have had significant successes during this war?

Haredim integration into the IDF

Similarly, Nagel pressed for full integration of Haredim into the IDF. But he said to do so gradually, and if gradually means seven years as suggested by Defense Minister Israel Katz, and clearly supported by Netanyahu, most experts doubt that the integration will ever happen. It seems that Nagel viewed getting too deep into such a timeline might also be beyond his mandate.

Earlier in the war, Netanyahu said he would have a probe as soon as the war is over. But at some point he took on the mantra that the war will not end at any point in the foreseeable future. That seems to mean he will also never be probed or not while he is in power. In contrast, the IDF probes, however unreasonably delayed, are expected to be issued in the near future.

Nagel's report will help on a variety of tactical issues and even some strategic issues, but the missing pieces could come back to haunt the country someday if they are not addressed soon.