The Israeli military has decided to boost its language intelligence programs as a key lesson of the ongoing war with the Iranian regime and its regional terrorist proxies Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis. While modern warfare has become highly digitalized, the Israeli military has concluded that human expertise remains irreplaceable.
The IDF will specifically focus on training its soldiers in various Arabic dialects as well as Farsi. In addition, soldiers enrolled in the language programs will also receive more in-depth knowledge about the various cultures in the Middle East.
Since the Iranian ayatollah regime is the head of the anti-Israel axis, mastering the Farsi language has become increasingly important to the Israeli military and intelligence agencies.
Lt. Col. H, the head of the IDF’s signal intelligence field and the commander of the Intelligence Corps’ school of languages, consequently emphasized the need for specialized Israeli soldiers to speak Farsi.
“We understood back then that we would need soldiers who could speak Farsi,” he explained. “We understand that we must grow our numbers and have added people who had no background in the language and taught them to speak it perfectly.”
While the Israeli military and intelligence agencies have taught Arabic for years, Israel’s current multi-front challenges have increased the need for more specialized nuanced skills in various Arabic dialects spoken in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, the Palestinian Authority and among Bedouin communities. The ongoing threat from the Iranian-backed Yemen-based Houthi militia, has also increased the need to master the Arabic dialect spoken in Yemen.
In addition to teaching Arabic and Farsi, the Israeli military’s expanded courses will also focus on the history and diverse cultures of various Middle Eastern countries.
“We want the course to be as relevant and up-to-date as possible, even if it means we would use a conversation that was just intercepted or intelligence that was just received. This keeps both students and teachers in operational preparedness,” Lt. Col. H explained.
A., one teacher, explained the challenge of teaching Farsi to Hebrew-speaking Israeli soldiers.
“Farsi, unlike Arabic, is difficult to teach because it is not related in any way to Hebrew,” A. assessed.
“Farsi is a rich, ancient language that has changed and developed over the years,” he continued, stressing that “language is culture.”
Furthermore, A. stressed the grammatical differences between Hebrew and Farsi.
“Grammatically, Farsi is very different from Hebrew. There are no past, present, and future tenses, only different uses of verbs.”
He placed the complex language skills in the context of an intelligence operative.
“A good intelligence operative must know not only the language but also a lot of theory, culture, Middle Eastern studies, about the military, government, holidays and the basic values and world views,” A. explained.
“It’s important to keep humble. There is much that we know, but much we don’t. It is important to ask questions, to doubt and to double-check things we are unsure about. As teachers, we encourage our students to continue studying. There is much more to learn, not only for the work in intelligence,” he added.
A sizable number of Iranian Farsi-speaking Jews live in Israel and in the United States, especially in California.
