Israel’s military leadership has been under heightened public scrutiny this week after a series of devastating revelations in the Israeli media and the New York Times suggesting that senior officers had ignored or dismissed intelligence reports about the likelihood of a major Hamas attack.
According to these reports, the Israeli military received a copy of a battle plan that Hamas ultimately used in its attack on Israel on October 7, but officials incorrectly assumed that Hamas would not be able to implement it. A commander also dismissed a subordinate’s warning in July that the group was conducting exercises and building capacity to put the plan into action.
The news raised expectations among political commentators that high-ranking military and security chiefs would either resign after the war or be fired because of intelligence failures.
Supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seized on the reports and used the allegations of military failure to deflect accusations that Mr. Netanyahu himself was partly responsible for what many Israelis consider the country’s worst security failure in 50 years.
Still, the revelations did not immediately lead to a major public outcry: Analysts say it was clear to Israelis from the first hours of the Oct. 7 attack, which killed an estimated 1,200 people and led to the kidnapping of about 240 others Attack was at least partly the result of catastrophic intelligence failures.
While the war continues, many Israelis are also focused on maintaining a united front against Hamas.
“I close my eyes to these questions for now,” said Ayelet Samerano, whose son Yonatan was shot dead by Palestinian gunmen on October 7 and taken to Gaza. Israel is in an “existential war,” she said in a telephone interview. “I believe we will find out all the answers – after the war.”
Many Jewish Israelis are also reluctant to blame the military, a vaunted institution central to their identity: It is a melting pot in which most Jewish Israelis serve as conscripts and which they view as a sacred national project is essential for the defense of their state.
Opinion polls suggest that trust in the military remains high even after the attack. A survey conducted in mid-October found that 87 percent of Jewish Israelis surveyed said they trusted the Israeli military, slightly higher than in June.
The attack destroyed a central part of Israel’s social contract: the idea that the army – still with vivid memories of the Holocaust – could keep its citizens safer than Jews living abroad.
As the military struggled to repel the attack on Oct. 7, residents of the villages targeted by Hamas repeatedly expressed shock at being left defenseless by the military, according to numerous text messages survivors shared with the Times.
“Where is the army???” wrote one survivor on the morning of October 7th.
But that shock has not yet translated into widespread public protest against Israel’s political and military leadership, including Mr. Netanyahu, said Eran Etzion, a former deputy national security adviser.
Thousands of would-be protesters are also currently on reserve duty across the country, Mr. Etzion added.
“Don’t be fooled – the anger is there. It’s just a question of when it will start,” he said. “The idea is that we fight first and then take to the streets.”