Two facts related to the fighting strategy adopted by the Israel Defense Forces (idf) following the first Israeli-Arab War of 1948 are well accepted. The first is that after the war, the idf adopted a ‘defensive-offensive’ strategy. The second is that in 1953 this strategy was replaced by an ‘offensive-defensive’ strategy. Over the years, researchers have suggested several explanations for this change. However, opinions remain divided. This article argues that although the ‘offensive-defensive’ strategy was preferred particularly by officials in the planning and operational departments, they reluctantly chose the ‘defensive-offensive’ strategy for economic and strategic reasons. Only a few years later, however, after re-evaluating the premises on which the ‘defensive-offensive’ strategy had been based, the idf switched gears and returned to the strategy it had wanted from the beginning: to strike first.

以色列国防军（idf）在1948年第一次以巴战争之后采取的战斗策略有两个事实已被广泛接受。首先是战后，以色列国防军采取了“防御-进攻”策略。第二个是在1953年，该策略被“进攻-防御”策略所取代。多年来，研究人员为这种变化提出了几种解释。但是，意见分歧。本文认为，尽管计划和运营部门的官员特别喜欢“进攻-防御”策略，但出于经济和战略原因，他们勉强选择了“防御-进攻”策略。然而，仅在几年后，在重新评估“防御-进攻”战略所依据的前提之后，以色列国防军改变了方向，并从一开始就恢复了它想要的战略：先罢工。