The NY Times has a disturbing article assessing how badly Israeli Defense Forces responded to the attack by Hamas.
There were multiple failures at many levels. To summarize just a few:
- The military had convinced itself Hamas was not a threat.
- They did not have any plans on how to respond to an invasion, so they never trained for one.
- For hours commanders seriously underestimated how big the invasion was.
- Communications broke down; the military was relying on social media reports.
- Placement of bases, military infrastructure and personnel placed them at a disadvantage from the start of the invasion.
- The military was concentrating on the West Bank, not Gaza.
- Hamas did a brilliant job planning on how to exploit Israeli vulnerabilities — and did so.
There’s much more at the link.
While fear, anger, and a desire for revenge are driving the ongoing Israeli assaults on Gaza, from reading The NY Times report it’s not hard to conclude a deep sense of shame is also at play. The Israeli Defense Forces failed in their most basic mission: protect Israeli citizens. How much of their current actions is a result of that shame?
There is going to have to be a reckoning over this; the Times article makes that clear — but it will not happen while the fighting continues.
Netanyahu, whose leadership set the stage for this, is not going to step down as long as the military is in Gaza. There is every reason to ask if he isn’t putting his own political survival ahead of everything else.
He was attempting to corrupt the Israeli judicial system to remain in power before the invasion. He may be gambling he can keep fighting going long enough to declare a ‘win’ and avoid paying for his failures.
Given the massive failures here, there has to be a desperate search for scapegoats going on behind the scenes. The military has lost the credibility it might have had to provide corrective pressure where it’s needed.
In the bigger picture, strategic and tactical experts are going to be analyzing this for years to come. How a military with a reputation for competence and toughness failed so badly should have everyone else looking at their own forces for similar vulnerabilities.
This is a long way from being sorted out.