Table Against Mine Enemies: : Israel on the Lawfare Front

The world is in the midst of a revolution in military affairs, caused by

• a shift from symmetric to asymmetric war
• the digitization and globalization of information, and
• the automation of war by robotics and cyber aggression.

In this modern environment, a new weapon known as lawfare plays an essential role. Lawfare is the use, or more correctly the misuse, of law as a weapon of combat to embarrass Western countries, to constrain their armies, and in this way to achieve military objectives. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the world''s leading conflict on this new battlefront. Drawing on the personal stories of soldiers in the Israeli and US armies, as well as the filings at the International Criminal Court, A Table Against Mine Enemies:

• defines lawfare and related terms through personal stories;
• explains the four fundamental laws of war on which lawfare attacks are based;
• details Israel-based examples of lawfare in the separation barrier, the disputed territories, and flotilla attempts to break the blockade against importation of weapons to Gaza; and
• presents scenarios for the future of war and of lawfare, based on advanced electronics, robotics, cyber attacks, and machine autonomy.