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Israel’s navy management confronted heightened public scrutiny this week after a string of damaging revelations within the Israeli media and The New York Occasions steered that senior officers had ignored or dismissed intelligence studies concerning the chance of a serious Hamas assault.
In response to these studies, the Israeli navy obtained a replica of a battle plan that Hamas finally used throughout its Oct. 7 assault on Israel, however officers wrongly judged that Hamas can be unable to hold it out. A commander additionally dismissed a subordinate’s warning in July that the group was operating drills and constructing the capability to set the plan in movement.
The information raised expectations amongst political commentators that, after the battle ends, senior navy and safety chiefs will both resign or be fired over the intelligence failures.
Supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seized upon the studies, utilizing the allegations of navy failure to deflect from accusations that Mr. Netanyahu was himself partly accountable for what many Israelis contemplate the nation’s worst safety failure in 50 years.
Nonetheless, the revelations didn’t instantly result in main public outcry: Analysts say that it has been apparent to Israelis for the reason that opening hours of the Oct. 7 assault, which killed an estimated 1,200 folks and led to the kidnapping of roughly 240 others, that the assault was the end result, not less than partly, of catastrophic intelligence failures.
Whereas the battle remains to be going, many Israelis are additionally targeted on sustaining a united entrance towards Hamas.
“I’m closing my eyes to those questions for now,” mentioned Ayelet Samerano, whose son, Yonatan, was shot by Palestinian gunmen and brought to Gaza on Oct. 7. Israel is engaged in an “existential battle,” she mentioned in a telephone interview. “I consider we’ll study all of the solutions — after the battle.”
Many Jewish Israelis are additionally reluctant accountable the navy, a vaunted establishment that’s central to their identification: it’s a melting pot through which most Jewish Israelis function conscripts, and which they contemplate a sacred nationwide undertaking that’s important to defending their state.
Opinion polling signifies that, even after the assault, belief within the navy stays excessive. A survey carried out in mid-October discovered that 87 p.c of Jewish Israelis interviewed mentioned they trusted the Israeli navy, barely increased than in June.
The assault shattered a central a part of the Israeli social contract: the concept that — inside residing reminiscence of the Holocaust — the military may hold its residents safer than Jews who dwell overseas.
Because the navy struggled to repel the assault on Oct. 7, residents of the villages focused by Hamas repeatedly spoke of their shock at being left defenseless by the navy, in line with scores of textual content messages shared by survivors with The Occasions.
“The place is the military???” one survivor wrote on the morning of Oct. 7.
However that shock has not but translated into widespread public protest towards Israel’s political and navy management, together with Mr. Netanyahu, mentioned Eran Etzion, a former deputy nationwide safety adviser.
Hundreds of would-be protesters are additionally presently engaged in reserve responsibility throughout the nation, Mr. Etzion added.
“Don’t be fooled — the fashion is there. It’s only a query of when it can ignite,” he mentioned. “The thought is we’ll battle first, after which we’ll take to the streets.”
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