On video: Gallant: "Hamas is looking for a replacement for Sinwar"/ Defense Minister Communications
An unprecedented wave of responses flooded me over the weekend, after the investigation into the 8200 failure was published on October 7th.
For those who don't know, 8200 is the largest unit in the IDF. There are tens of thousands of its graduates roaming around Israel. They are the ones who established the high-tech here, the cyber, they are the ones who lead Israel to the top of the world when it comes to high technology and excellence.
Hundreds of them wrote to me, in all ways , the platforms and the possibilities. They feel the pain of failure, love the special unit in which they grew up, offer suggestions for correction, comment, enlighten and above all mourn.
To complete the picture, I bring here what Y., commander of 8200, wrote to all the thousands of soldiers and officers of the unit in September 24, 2023, the eve of the last Yom Kippur, only 11 days before the massacre of October 7.
Here it is, the census's letter to 8200, in its entirety. Reading it in retrospect gives chills:
"Sweet for Yom Kippur regarding the personal obligation to warn and also regarding the matter of let's not say to ourselves 'this wouldn't have happened to me.
' We failed in this mission. Since that agonizing failure, we have known successes and failures. Sometimes we met the task that required us to be the alerter at the gate, and sometimes we failed in our ability to provide the alert in time. The
global challenge of alerting is.
One of the famous failures of the American intelligence system is 'Pearl Harbor'. The Japanese Navy attacked the American Navy and the complete surprise led the United States to join World War II. This abject failure led to the establishment of the CIA. The Americans famously said that "following Pearl Harbor we established the CIA and since then once every three years we experience another Pearl Harbor". free, we have established an amazing intelligence agency and we continue to fail miserably.
Moshe Dayan and Ariel Sharon in the Yom Kippur War/official website, Uri Dan
The importance of the warning cannot be overstated.
The challenge of meeting this task cannot be overstated.
As a young intelligence officer, I felt as if I were a kind of reincarnation from that Yom Kippur Eve failure and from that difficult war.
I obsessively read every book, every article.
I felt like I was there.
Then about twenty years ago I decided to go and meet the entire high command of the intelligence wing that was in that war - Eli Zaira who was the head of the AMN, Aryeh Shaliu who was a research sergeant, Yoel Ben Porat who commanded our magical unit and many others.
I came back from every meeting shaken.
I remember feeling "wow, they're amazing and smart" and I didn't feel like they were some arrogant bunch.
I came back from every meeting with the feeling "If they failed, it could happen to us too. It could happen to me too."
Chief of the Military Intelligence Service in the Yom Kippur War, Eli Zaira/Walla!
NEWS, photo: IDF spokesman courtesy of the IDF Archives at the Ministry of Defense
We all have a lot to learn from that war.
I would like to take advantage of the special moments of the eve of Yom Kippur so that the greatest duty - the duty of personal warning - resonates with all of us.
This duty is imposed on every male and female soldier, every male and female servant, regular or reserve, uniformed or civilian.
A few weeks ago I opened my email box like every day and saw an email from our reservist with the title "The personal warning duty".
I was excited.
A reserve officer of the unit arrived for several days at one of our bases and felt an opportunity and an obligation to alert the unit's commander about a complex intelligence-operational issue, which in his view could lead to a failure to alert and damage to human life if not addressed.
The Chinese farm in the Yom Kippur War/official website, Uri Dan, in the camp
This is the culture we expect from ourselves.
This is the right of every servant, and this right has become a duty.
The duty of personal notification.
A few hours before the start of the holiday, I would like to remind all of us that this may happen to us too.
Talented commanders and talented commanders failed to warn.
We have an obligation towards the State of Israel to provide good warning and to do so in time.
Therefore, we are committed to encouraging a culture of discourse and different opinion.
Educate and give a personal example in the form of the courage to express an opinion.
In every generation we must, every intelligence man and every intelligence woman, feel as if we served during the failure of Yom Kippur, as if we were there and failed to prevent the surprise.
The memorial to the victims of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor/AP
Only two generations have passed since the failure of Yom Kippur and I, who was born to a father who fought on the Egyptian front in that war and enlisted in Israeli intelligence about twenty-five years after it, move through the spaces of time and feel that I was part of the warning events that failed.
I failed and I learned and I continue to learn.
I was in American intelligence when we failed to alert Pearl Harbor.
I served in the Amman during the Rotem incident in February 1960 and we failed to warn about the entry of Egyptian divisions into Sinai.
I failed to warn about the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and we almost brought a nuclear war on the world, I failed to warn about a coup in Iran in 1979 and did not provide a warning before the collapse of an alliance The Soviets in 1989.
Former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein speaks during his trial in Baghdad/Reuters
I failed to warn about Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, and I didn't warn about the downing of the Twin Towers through a terrorist attack that didn't look like it in 2001.
I was there when we failed to issue a warning before the kidnapping of the soldiers in Mount Dov in 2000, and I did not issue a warning that Hamas was going to win the Palestinian Authority elections in 2006.
I was there when they didn't give a warning about the kidnapping in 2006 and I took part in the failure to give the warning about the coup in Egypt in 2011.
On a personal note - in my many years in Israeli intelligence, I failed to warn more than once.
One of those times was on the afternoon of Yom Kippur exactly twenty years ago, when Hezbollah carried out a sniper attack in front of Metula during the closing prayer in synagogues across the country and David was killed.
The duty of personal warning is our commitment to the generation of Yom Kippur commanders, who faced major challenges and chose to continue growing.
The duty of personal warning is our commitment to the Israel Defense Forces.
Protest events in Tahrir Square in Cairo/GettyImages
The duty of personal warning is our obligation towards all citizens in the dear and beloved State of Israel.
The duty of personal warning is our obligation to ourselves.
I wish and expect from us that in the coming year each and every one of us will know that "it might happen to me" and therefore we will encourage a different opinion and adhere to the spirit and culture of the duty of personal warning.
Unit 8200/image processing, IDF spokesman
Ladies and gentlemen,
in a few hours the commotion will stop
and the silence will be sanctified.
These are hours for personal and national soul-searching.
I would like to wish a good signature for a long good life and peace,
to each and every one of my servants of the unit in regular and reserve
to the members of the dear families
to the whole House of Israel
and to every man and woman on earth.
Brigadier General 10"
That's the end of the letter.
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