We knew the “Prime Minister for Life” had already sacrificed Israeli unity in his quest to cling to power. We didn’t know he also had allowed Israel’s biggest intelligence failure in 50 years.
How could this happen? On the 50th Anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, on the eve of Simchat Torah, how could Israeli intelligence and the IDF not have been prepared for something big?
Hundreds are dead. Thousands are wounded. Soldiers have been taken prisoner. Civilians taken hostage. Massive damage. Israel’s normalcy shattered. Hamas empowered and emboldened. The vaunted Abraham Accords in tatters.
This is a catastrophe for Israel we haven’t seen for decades. It was allowed because Netanyahu and his cabinet cronies have focused all their efforts on their un-democratic power grab and neglected their first job: maintaining the security of Israel.
The buck stops with Bibi. As soon as the crisis ends, he needs to step down and his entire cabinet needs to follow him. Israel needs a new unity government, led by statesmen and respected former military leaders.
Netanyahu must then be relegated to the trash heap of history for allowing the slaughter of his people, the shattering of normalcy and the crushing of hope — all in the name of power.