Intelligence failures result in quick investigations of Israeli generals, but little pushback
Israel’s military leadership faced increased public scrutiny this week after a series of damaging revelations in the Israeli media and The New York Times suggested that senior officers had ignored or dismissed intelligence reports on the likelihood of a major Hamas attack.
According to these reports, the Israeli military obtained a copy of a battle plan that Hamas ultimately used during the October 7 attack on Israel, but officers incorrectly assessed that Hamas would be unable to carry it out. A commander also dismissed a subordinate’s warning in July that the group was conducting exercises and building capacity to put the plan in motion.
The news raised expectations among political commentators that senior military and security chiefs would either resign or be fired after the end of the war over intelligence failures.
Supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seized on the reports, using the accusations of military incapacity to deflect from accusations that Netanyahu himself was partly responsible for what many Israelis consider the country’s worst security failure in fifty years.
Yet the revelations did not immediately spark public outrage: Analysts say it has been clear to Israelis since the opening hours of the October 7 attack, which killed an estimated 1,200 people and led to the kidnapping of about 240 others, that the attack was , at least in part, the result of catastrophic intelligence failures.
While the war is still ongoing, many Israelis are also focused on maintaining a united front against Hamas.
“I am closing my eyes to these questions for the time being,” said Ayelet Samerano, whose son, Yonatan, was shot by Palestinian gunmen on October 7 and taken to Gaza. Israel is engaged in an “existential war,” she said in a telephone interview. “I believe we will learn 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 crucible in which most Jewish Israelis serve as conscripts, and which they view as a sacred national project essential to the defense of their state. .
Opinion polls show that, even after the attack, confidence in the military remains high. a questionnaire A survey conducted in mid-October found that 87 percent of Jewish Israelis interviewed said they trusted the Israeli military, slightly more than in June.
The attack destroyed a central part of the Israeli social contract: the idea that the military – within the living memory of the Holocaust – could keep its citizens safer than Jews living abroad.
As the army struggled to repel the Oct. 7 attack, residents of the villages targeted by Hamas repeatedly spoke of their shock at being left defenseless by the army, according to dozens of text messages shared with The Times were shared.
“Where is the army???” wrote one survivor on the morning of October 7.
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 potential protesters are also currently on reserve duty across the country, Mr Etzion added.
‘Don’t be fooled: the anger is there. The only question is when it will ignite,” he said. “The idea is that we fight first and then take to the streets.”