Originally published at: NYT: Israel was forewarned of Hamas' attack plan but ignored it | Boing Boing
…
2 Likes
subtitle How To Make A Tragedy Even Worse
9 Likes
To be clear, this policy failure to act on the intel likely occurred as a result of political calculation on Netanyahu’s part. Bibi (Israel’s self-described “Mr. Security” during his 15 years as PM) was more interested in diverting troops to the West Bank to protect his violent ultra-nationalist illegal settler buddies (whose reps were helping him undermine the judiciary) than he was in protecting the border with Gaza.
22 Likes
And so the ghastly parallels to 9/11 limp along; but mostly remain about a insane ill-planned testosterone-poisoned political response -sigh-
September 11 intelligence before the attacks
In December 1998, the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center reported to President Bill Clinton that al-Qaeda was preparing for attacks in the U.S. that might include hijacking aircraft
(…and then on to Israeli intelligence having attempted a warning of 9/11)
20 Likes
Part failure, part miscalculation, maybe. As in “if and when this actually happens, we can easily deal with it at short notice and exploit it politically”. But who knows. We’ll probably have to wait a couple of years for the book tours plugging memoirs.
14 Likes
This whole thing just gets more tragic the longer it goes. 
4 Likes
I strongly believe Bibi was happy to let this happen. It would distract Israel from what he was doing to the courts, in the West Bank, etc.
I believe Bibi didn’t think Hamas would be as successful (an awful word in this case, but I can’t find a better one) as they were, but I am not sure how much he cared.
I acknowledge these beliefs to be just to one side of a conspiracy theory.
13 Likes
The reports of surveillance operators being ignored(with a side of ‘because they’re just chicks being hysterical, amIright’) are on a shorter timeframe; but also pretty damning.
11 Likes
There was no real intelligence failure here, based on what we do know. As evident from the article, the data and analysis described exactly what came to pass. The only thing missing was the exact date, and even there he doesn’t get a pass. Anyone experienced in national defense matters could reasonably be expected to understand that if the enemy is conducting extensive exercises for a land operation (as opposed to the usual rocket attacks), it’s going to happen sooner rather than later. The wise policy decision would have been (among other measures) to beef up the southern border with more troops rather than diverting them.
This helps explain the bizarre statements early on from Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet allies that Israel’s security services were under the control of “deep state leftists”.. This has become the usual right-wing response everywhere when they discover the hard way that reality, even in military and intel matters, has a liberal bias.
I wouldn’t go quite so far as that, since this has effectively made him a dead man walking politically speaking (and also set up his effective partner in opposing a two-state solution – Hamas – for elimination). However, I do agree that – swayed by the other priorities you mentioned – he deliberately chose to downplay the threats implied by these reports.
He was facing corruption charges, he needed to undermine the independent judiciary, and the people he needed to support him in that effort were ultra-nationalist settlers on the West Bank, as opposed to the kind of people who live on collective farms or who attend rock music festivals. He allocated troops accordingly, intel reports be damned.
18 Likes
Wouldn’t be the first time a country’s leadership let the country be attacked so it could respond with force.
10 Likes
Boy it really seems like Bibi let this happen to have an excuse to go full genocide on Gaza (and do whatever they wanted to the West Bank). Whether it was deliberate or due to “other priorities” it amounts to the same thing when you have these kinds of specifics and still ignore them.
The Egyptian (et al.) warning gave them a pretty specific window at least, though. It turns out they knew what was coming and generally when and still did nothing, which is doubly damning.
12 Likes
I feel Netanyahu will eventually be known as the worst leader of any modern democracy during the first quarter of this century.
It’s a sobering thought for other nations on what happens when the authoritarian loonies seize control and start playing fantasy chess with human life.
5 Likes
Well, unfortunately, he’s got lots of competition.
10 Likes
I appreciate that you tried to narrow down the definition - but even still this would be a huge stretch given what we’ve seen in the first 25 years of this century.
7 Likes
No surprise here. Netanyahu was looking for any excuse to ramp up his attacks on the Palestinian people, and Hamas stepped up to give him exactly what he wanted. Israeli citizens would die, but it was a sacrifice that Bibi was willing to make.
6 Likes
This horrible period has brought a lot of new eyes to the issue. While trying to explain the nuances to my children, who are Jewish and have pretty strong ties to Israel, I was telling them about the basics of 2 State, Rabin’s assassination, the rise of ultra-nationalist settlers, etc. Basically, how this has all metastasized over the last 25 years. Whenever we have these discussions, I always fact-check myself in real-time and was shocked to realize that Netanyahu has held power for more than half of the period between Rabin’s assassination and now. That, in itself is just a horrifying statistic.
4 Likes
Not helping Israel one bit was Netanyahu pulling troops from the Gaza border to enable settler mayhem in the West Bank. There was a 5 hour delay from the first news of the attack to a response.
Right wing screeds they claim democracy/rule of law must be sacrificed to ensure security. In reality they never provide it.
(I owe a round of cokes)
5 Likes
he won’t step down until the war’s over. so he just has to make sure the war never ends. and he’s got plenty of help on that
3 Likes
Haaretz A Brief History of the Netanyahu-Hamas Alliance
It’s from 20 October.
Much ink has been spilled describing the longtime relationship – rather, alliance – between Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas. And still, the very fact that there has been close cooperation between the Israeli prime minister (with the support of many on the right) and the fundamentalist organization seemingly evaporated from most of the current analyses – everyone’s talking about “failures,” “mistakes” and “contzeptziot” (fixed conceptions). Given this, there is a need not only to review the history of cooperation but also to conclude unequivocally: The pogrom of October 7, 2023, helps Netanyahu, and not for the first time, to preserve his rule, certainly in the short term.
The MO of Netanyahu’s policy since his return to the Prime Minister’s Office in 2009 has and continues to be, on the one hand, bolstering the rule of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and, on the other, weakening the Palestinian Authority.
2 Likes
Looking out for the ADL 2-Statey Secular Representative yet Judea-Positive ad. “Like Spain! But the Tech Bronettes haggle more when not representing EU!” (Now 15% less fenced dystopia! Er…)
Maybe as a bonus we could have an ad for an air filter or home firewall device or pasta with a citrus glaze and/or sweet beans etc.
“Hey, e-mail and the automated machine guns are down, I just checked.”
