Many Israelis blame Prime Minister Netanyahu for his failure to prevent the October 7 attack. His attention was focused on his controversial reform of the country’s justice system, which was seen by a significant portion of the population as an attempt to avoid prison for corruption.
Although the intelligence services were aware of the detailed plans of the Hamas operation, the government was unable to hinder them.
Since then, the management of the Israeli response, which has focused on revenge rather than an achievable solution, has made the situation worse. There were almost daily protests in Jerusalem demanding Netanyahu’s resignation. After the ceasefire with Hamas was broken, it is accused of resuming the war instead of doing everything possible to save the lives of the Israeli hostages still held.
His future will be determined by his actions in the coming days. Netanyahu needs a boost. He would push for the army to make the assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar a priority.
Whatever happens, this war will end his political career. It reveals the complete failure of Netanyahu’s leadership and the incredible failures of the intelligence services. A surprising level of stupidity and arrogance (tacit assurance of Israel’s superiority over its enemies) that has so far caused more than 1,200 Israeli and more than 15,000 Palestinian deaths, including more than 5,000 children. The Gaza Strip was leveled by thousands of Israeli bombs.
Bush JR no better than Bibi Netanyahu
The Americans experienced something similar during the attacks of September 11th. Beginning in the spring of 2001, the CIA began warning the White House of an impending terrorist attack. Just a month before the attacks, on August 6, Bush Jr. and his team received a briefing from CIA Director George Tenet entitled “Bin Laden is Determined to Attack the United States,” which described how he would hijack airplanes wanted and that New York was a possible destination. Bush did nothing.
An FBI analyst in Minneapolis was even alarmed by the presence of an Arab with a terrorist profile who was taking flying lessons that focused primarily on learning how to take off. She informed her superiors in Washington, who did not take her concerns seriously.
Bush Jr. also responded foolishly by attacking an enemy of bin Laden’s, Saddam Hussein, who had nothing to do with it. Remember George W. Bush smiling at the “Mission Accomplished” poster. Twenty years later, American soldiers are still fighting in Iraq.
Preventative leaks required
It appears that this was tipped off to the New York Times and Israeli media by an analyst who was outraged by her superiors’ inaction to take action to counter the impending attack. Well done. It is unfortunate that she did not release the information sooner.
After Hamas’s attack plan was made public, it reportedly refrained from proceeding, assuming Israel would immediately take defensive measures.
This is a new and powerful argument for insiders to leak classified information to the media when their superiors’ inaction endangers public safety or the security of the state.
We have experienced a similar situation in Canada in recent months. If a member of CSIS had not leaked detailed information about Chinese interference in Canada to the Globe and Mail and Global News, it would have happened without the Trudeau government doing anything to stop it.
And as the affair made headlines, Justin Trudeau tried to shift blame by hiring a Chinese sympathizer to investigate. Fortunately, opposition in the House of Commons and in the media forced him to appoint an independent judge to lead the investigation.