ABSTRACT

The deployment of special forces in hostile or politically volatile environments in search of strategic/operational intelligence, though not a 21st century novelty, appeared as a distinct military activity in literature only in the early 2000s under the label ‘Special Reconnaissance’ (SR). This article argues that the concept of SR (a) originated in the biblical Israelite military tradition and is depicted in the Bible as the lapis angularis of military strategy and a practice capable of dictating military and political norms; (b) has been used as a key element of the Israel Defence Forces’ (IDF) modus operandi since 1948 thenceforth functioning in an analogous manner. To support these arguments, the theoretical and practical characteristics of Moses’ intelligence mission to Canaan as well as the IDF’s proclivity to SR are scrutinised under the general theoretical framework of political realism that assumes rational and pro-state interest course of actions. Accordingly, SR emerges as a distinctive common instrument of biblical and contemporary Israeli strategy, a fact that underlines the uninterrupted socio-political and cultural links between the past and the present of the Israeli ontology, this time via the wider concept of the Israeli military ethics.

摘要

寻找敌对或政治动荡的环境中的特种部队，以寻求战略/作战情报，尽管不是21世纪的新奇事物，但直到2000年代初才以“特殊侦察”（SR）的标签在文学中表现出独特的军事活动。本文认为，SR（a）的概念起源于圣经中的以色列军事传统，在圣经中被描述为青金石军事战略和能够决定军事和政治规范的做法；（b）自1948年以来一直被用作以色列国防军（IDF）行动方式的关键要素，此后以类似方式发挥作用。为了支持这些论点，在假定理性和亲国家利益行动方针的政治现实主义一般理论框架下，对摩西派往迦南的情报任务的理论和实践特征以及IDF对SR的倾向进行了审查。因此，SR成为一种独特的圣经和当代以色列战略共同工具，这一事实强调了以色列本体论的过去与现在之间不间断的社会政治和文化联系，这一次是通过更广泛的以色列军事伦理学概念。