Can you imagine being the risk officer (perhaps the Chief Risk Officer, CRO) for any of these?
- The leaders of Hamas in Qatar
- The leaders of Hamas in Gaza
- Netanyahu
- The Israeli Defense Minister
- The head of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)
- The head of IDF in Gaza
- Individual IDF commands in Gaza
- The head of Hezbollah in Lebanon
I think we can all agree that they would have terrible but essential responsibilities, helping their leaders make the best possible decisions to achieve objectives.
Set aside your views on who (if anybody) is in the right and consider what faces an IDF risk officer. (I searched but couldn’t find any reference to the IDF having a risk office.)
Leadership (from Netanyahu down) has set multiple objectives, including:
- Rescue the hostages.
- Destroy Hamas.
- Prevent another Hamas or similar attack in the future (given that there are other militant groups and Hamas leadership is, at least in part, outside Gaza).
- Minimize IDF losses, both from death and injury (including PTSD).
- Minimize the loss of non-combatants.
- Protect IDF and Israel’s reputation.
- Comply with Israeli and international law.
- Keep the US and other allies aligned with Israel.
You can’t do that by managing or mitigating one risk at a time.
These objectives are in conflict with each other!
For example, in an article from the…
