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Problems and Solutions
BY MOSHE KATZ
CEO
ISRAELI KRAV INTERNATIONAL
May 7, 2025, Israel
"You must know what is the problem before you can say what is the solution."
General Moshe Dayan
With martial arts we often, or always, begin with a drill, a technique, a kata, a poomsae, a Kon toh, whatever you want to call it. In other words, we are beginning with a solution. We are beginning with a physical self-defense move to stop someone from doing something to us or others. No one really stops to think about this. We are learning to defend ourselves, we are learning techniques.
Now techniques are certainly important. We must develop our tools; our punches, our kicks, our blocks, our fighting stance etc., but is that the goal? No, it is not. These tools are just a means to an end, and we must constantly evaluate if the tools we have at hand are the correct ones to, wait for it, resolve our problem. We must not get stuck on the "means" and forget our goal. Is your goal to earn a college degree so that you can brag about it, put it on display and act all intelligent? if so, fine. Is your goal to earn a college degree to put another "V" on your bucket list and feel a sense of accomplishment? If so, great. But if your goal in earning a college degree is to be able to use it to open doors, get a job and earn a living, then you must think about this a great deal and ask yourself if this degree is the correct one to achieve that goal.
We must remain focused; why is it that we take certain actions? What do we wish to achieve?
But yet there is another question, a more important one, that we must ask first.
We have had trouble with the population of Gaza since...as far back as anyone can remember. I know that the British, Australians and New Zealanders (Anzac) fought there in World War One, back in 1917-1918. The British offensive began with two defeats at Gaza before Allenby arrived to take over and successfully broke the Ottoman lines, eventually leading to the conquest of Palestine/Land of Israel. Since 1948 Gaza has been Israel's headache. Every solution, carrot and stick, have been tried, and clearly, so far, nothing has worked.
Going back a few years, General Moshe Dayan made the following observation. At the time, Israels' strategy, get a hold of this, was to drastically improve the standard of living in Gaza. Yes, that was indeed the policy, but how was it viewed? Every major Arab leader, any municipal leader who decided to try and work with the Israelis, was killed, murdered. This strategy by Israel, building new buildings, and new neighborhoods, providing work and food, was viewed by the Arabs as a "Zionist plot" to trick the Arabs of Gaza into permanently staying in Gaza whereas the plan was to use them as pawns against Israel. i.e. Keep the Arabs in Gaza at a poverty level, keep them miserable, and then instigate a revolt against "Israeli Occupation". Thus, the help Israel was offering was seen as a ploy to calm them down and reduce the violence. In fact, that was true, Israel was trying to find a solution to pacify them, to live in peace with them, and not have them as constant enemies. The "Carrot" approach failed time and time again. The Gaza situation is very complicated. The Arab leaders did not want to see the residence in Gaza as permanent. Their goal was to return to Jaffa, Haifa, Jerusalem etc and kick out the Jews. Therefore, Israeli attempts to improve their standard of living in Gaza was seen as an attempt to keep them there, to satisfy them so that they would give up their dream of destroying the State of Israel. The generous approach, the Humanitarian approach, failed. When this was being attempted, the improved standard of living strategy, General Moshe Dayan was asked if this was a good solution to the problem. I found his answer profound.
He said, "You must know what is the problem before you can say what is the solution."
Now what does that mean and how is it relevant to Krav Maga? (I have already hinted above).
Most training begins with solutions, but it does not seem that way. Afterall, if you are doing a defense vs a knife attack, how is that beginning with a solution? You are defending against an attack, so you are beginning with the problem, the knife attack, and then working on a solution.
Well, not quite so.
The problem, in this example, is not the knife. Why is a knife a problem? If your friend has a knife on him, is that a problem? No, of course not. So what, in fact, is the problem?
The problem is that a person wants to kill you. The problem is that you do not want to die or get stabbed, but he is determined to hurt you. That is the problem, not the fact that an individual has a knife, or a gun. Therefore, as Moshe Dayan pointed out, we must first know what the real problem is here, before we can even talk about solutions.
With Gaza, the real problem was not, is not, the poverty, thus his plan of improving the standard of living was not going to succeed, and I suspect that he knew that. His little statement was a cryptic way of saying that this solution will not work because it is not addressing the real problem, the real issue. And the same is true with self defense.
If you train to block a knife attack, or disarm a gun threat, that may not be the correct solution. You will not know this until you determine what the real problem is. If you train only to block a knife attack, you are not necessarily identifying the problem. What is your goal? To get home safely. In that case your best solution may not be the knife defense, or disarm, but rather to find a way to get away quickly without harm. Focusing only on a physical self-defense move may put us in more harm than we need be in. Identify the real problem first, the real problem is a man wants to hurt me. Now we can look at possible options to avoid that; these may include talking, walking, running, distraction, or a physical self-defense technique. But if we focus only on the solution without focusing on the real problem, we are missing out on other options.
Did Israel offer a good solution? Yes, the solution was good, but it did not work because Israel did not correctly recognize the problem. Thus, a good solution is not the correct solution. The solution would have been perfect if the issue were simply poverty. But if the issue were the desire to use poverty as a means to instigate a war, then the economic solution was not correct.
Likewise in self-defense, we must not limit ourselves to physical drills. We must look at real-life scenarios and analyze which approach should be used; a preemptive attack, a more defensive move, a block, a kick, we cannot determine the best solution until we fully understand the problem, as Moshe Dayan said.
I believe there is much wrong with martial arts training. We must find ways to update our training, our goal is survival, and I feel that many systems are missing the point. Identify the problem, perhaps a large muscular man against a petite female, and then seek a solution. Too many systems start with a solution without ever truly understanding the problem.
Moshe Katz, 7th dan Black Belt, Israeli Krav Maga. Certified by Wingate Institute. Member Black Belt hall of fame, USA and Europe.
Understand the Israeli Fighting Mentality - Israel a Nation of Warriors by Moshe Katz
What is the cultural background of Krav Maga? What makes it unique? What makes the Israeli military so effective? Why are Israeli security systems used all over the world?
What are the Biblical origins of Krav Maga and who was the first Krav Maga instructor?
What weapons and military strategies did our Biblical ancestors use?
How has Krav Maga developed in Israel and what are its goals?
All that and more in this unique book.
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