Not just tactical questions. Black Sabbath is not proof, God forbid, that Israel is not a safe haven for Jews and that Zionism has failed. Israel was and remains a strong country, with the means to protect it from existential threats. The fact that Hamas terrorists managed to surprise us and kill us on a horrific scale means – tactically – that the security establishment's risk assessment was incorrect. This is probably because the IDF's imagination did not take into account that after all the measures taken on the Gaza border, the monstrous option would be realized.
Members of investigative committees usually prefer tactical issues, because many of them understand them and will therefore focus on them. Many questions will be asked about that night, about the urgent consultation with the head of the Shin Bet that did not lead to action, and about all the security measures that we dug and built, which did not deal with the most primitive option. But the two essential questions will not be addressed to members of the security establishment (who will pay a heavy personal price) but to statesmen.
Erdogan: Hamas Is Not A Terrorist Organization | Arab networks
The first will touch on "conflict management": the assessment that the gaps between Israel and the Palestinians are too large to bridge, and therefore it is better to reduce the flames, deal with the problems individually, and return economic answers to the national demands of the Palestinians. The second will address the new "patent" of "peace for peace" and the postponement of handling the conflict to the end of the line. The plan declared that after extending the Abraham Accords to many more Arab countries, we would leave the Palestinians without allies, and then they too would have to settle for "peace for peace."
What happened proved the folly of both of these assessments. No one knows, let alone how to "manage" a conflict. It's not really about management, it's about kicking the can down the road to the next government, praying that nothing bad happens on your watch. Rejecting the solution exacerbates the problem, and those responsible must be held accountable. As for the flanking of the Palestinians through the other Arab states, the conduct of the UAE provided the most blatant answer to this manipulation. In few countries I found greater hostility than I found there regarding the Palestinians, but the UAE finds itself leading the criticism of Israel at the UN, and not only there, because of public opinion.
The unbearable ease with which the Arab street has embraced the Hamas lie about an alleged Israeli attack on the Gaza hospital is the whole story. The idea that it will be possible to form an Arab coalition against the Palestinians (which, of course, will not solve the problem of losing the Jewish majority) is proof of a misunderstanding of the regional reality. The Palestinian question was and remains the problem of our problems, and its solution is known even to those who oppose it. Those who did not understand this led Israel in a dangerous direction. If after the war we deal with the tactical problems and ignore the essential questions, we have done nothing.
The friend who disappointed. I was shocked to hear UN Secretary-General António Guterres say that the October 7 attack "was not carried out in a vacuum." Such a statement, which provides a kind of explanation for the Nazi acts that were committed, even if they do not justify the insane cruelty, gives it understanding, and it is impossible to understand them in any context. In a subsequent tweet, he tried to correct his remarks, but the serious mistake was made from the UN podium, and the tweet will not be enough.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, photo: AP
I just ask myself who is the fool who prevented him from coming, a few days ago, for a solidarity visit to Israel, and seeing with his own eyes the terrible things that took place here. What did we gain by rejecting the secretary-general's request? Our friendship has been going on for decades. Guterres is an admirer of Israel, and calling him an "anti-Semite" is baseless slander. When we do the check as to our mistakes, it will also be worthwhile to check for this mistake.
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