A warning to America
LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER: Margaret Sullivan, pro-democracy media critic, joins me for our "A Conversation with..." event TONIGHT from 8 - 9 pm EST
Below is an editorial from Haaretz, the third largest newspaper in Israel. It is a brutal denunciation of the selfishness, incompetence, arrogance, corruption, self-dealing, extremism, and division of Benjamin Netanyahu’s premiership. The surprise attack against Israel is the greatest security failure in the history of the Jewish state. It is also the most violent day for Jews since the Holocaust and destruction of Nazi Germany. The result of the unpreparedness has been mass death, societal chaos, and war.
Every American should read these words. They are a warning to America about the cost of broken politics. They are a warning about the price to be paid by the whole of society for the narcissism, hypocrisy, and unrelenting ambition for power by a single man.
The disaster that befell Israel on the holiday of Simchat Torah is the clear responsibility of one person: Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister, who has prided himself on his vast political experience and irreplaceable wisdom in security matters, completely failed to identify the dangers he was consciously leading Israel into when establishing a government of annexation and dispossession, when appointing Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir to key positions, while embracing a foreign policy that openly ignored the existence and rights of Palestinians.
Netanyahu will certainly try to evade his responsibility and cast the blame on the heads of the army, Military Intelligence and the Shin Bet security service who, like their predecessors on the eve of the Yom Kippur War, saw a low probability of war with their preparations for a Hamas attack proving flawed.
They scorned the enemy and its offensive military capabilities. Over the next days and weeks, when the depth of Israel Defense Forces and intelligence failures come to light, a justified demand to replace them and take stock will surely arise.
However, the military and intelligence failure does not absolve Netanyahu of his overall responsibility for the crisis, as he is the ultimate arbiter of Israeli foreign and security affairs. Netanyahu is no novice in this role, like Ehud Olmert was in the Second Lebanon War. Nor is he ignorant in military matters, as Golda Meir in 1973 and Menachem Begin in 1982 claimed to be.
Netanyahu also shaped the policy embraced by the short-lived “government of change” led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid: a multidimensional effort to crush the Palestinian national movement in both its wings, in Gaza and the West Bank, at a price that would seem acceptable to the Israeli public.
In the past, Netanyahu marketed himself as a cautious leader who eschewed wars and multiple casualties on Israel’s side. After his victory in the last election, he replaced this caution with the policy of a “fully-right government,” with overt steps taken to annex the West Bank, to carry out ethnic cleansing in parts of the Oslo-defined Area C, including the Hebron Hills and the Jordan Valley.
This also included a massive expansion of settlements and bolstering of the Jewish presence on Temple Mount, near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as boasts of an impending peace deal with the Saudis in which the Palestinians would get nothing, with open talk of a “second Nakba” in his governing coalition. As expected, signs of an outbreak of hostilities began in the West Bank, where Palestinians started feeling the heavier hand of the Israeli occupier. Hamas exploited the opportunity in order to launch its surprise attack on Saturday.
Above all, the danger looming over Israel in recent years has been fully realized. A prime minister indicted in three corruption cases cannot look after state affairs, as national interests will necessarily be subordinate to extricating him from a possible conviction and jail time.
This was the reason for establishing this horrific coalition and the judicial coup advanced by Netanyahu, and for the enfeeblement of top army and intelligence officers, who were perceived as political opponents. The price was paid by the victims of the invasion in the Western Negev.
Even more incredible are multiple published reports of detailed warnings that were given to Netanyahu by the Egyptian government, including directly from Egypt’s Intelligence Minister General Abbas Kamel. Ten days before the attack, he told Netanyahu that Gazans were likely to do “something unusual, a terrible operation.”
Another Egyptian intelligence officer told The Associated Press that Jerusalem had ignored repeated warnings that Hamas was planning “something big.” He said Israeli officials were focused on the West Bank, and played down the threat from Gaza.
We have warned them an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big. But they underestimated such warnings.
In an address to the nation yesterday, Netanyahu denied the reports, and called them “fake news.” And, a statement issued from his office earlier in the day said the following:
No early message came from Egypt and the prime minister did not speak or meet with the intelligence chief since the establishment of the government — not indirectly or directly.”
The attack is the stupendous viciousness unleashed by barbarians and savages who are the tip of an Iranian spear that seeks the absolute annihilation of Israel and the Jews. As on 9/11, the savagery was an attack on humanity and civilization that killed citizens from around the world, including many Americans, some of whom are currently being held captive in the Gaza Strip.
Presently, the USS Gerald R. Ford, the most sophisticated and deadly surface warship ever built on Earth is carrying more than 80 aircraft towards the Eastern Mediterranean. It is the lead ship of a carrier strike group that is comprised of the Ticonderoga Class guided missile cruiser USS Normandy, and the Arleigh Burke guided missile cruisers USS Roosevelt, USS Thomas Hudner, USS Ramage, and USS Carney. Aboard these American warships are more than 7,000 of America’s sons and daughters of every imaginable race, creed, religion and background. They are the US Navy, and are steaming towards the chaos, towards the hostages, towards the state of Israel.
There was once a ship named St. Louis filled with Jews, abandoned and despised by the world’s democracies in the face of Nazi savagery. Today, the ships are moving towards Israel, not away. The United States must make clear that there are consequences for attacking and killing Americans.
The situation in Israel is volatile politically, militarily, economically and culturally. The events are unprecedented and historic. Iran has ringed Israel on three sides with terror groups which claim God’s providence to commit genocide, rape indiscriminately and murder. They have a singular goal, which is the destruction of Israel. This attack has fundamentally confirmed this essential point.
Soon, this war will expand to the West Bank, and the northern Lebanese border where Hezbollah will soon join the fighting at Iran’s instigation.
The attack was aimed at scuttling any hope of normalization between the Jewish state and the Arab nations, which was built on the delusional proposition that the Palestinian people can be excluded from the equation of peace after 75 years. The Iranians have a plan. They have a strategy. The attack wasn’t an end. It was a means to an end.
This war will expand. Quickly. Let us pray for peace, but understand that there can be no peace with Hamas and Hezbollah savages. There can be no peace with the Ayotollahs. The cost will only grow higher from here.
REMINDER: Register for tonight’s “A Conversation with…” event
Please join me for a conversation with my special guest and fellow SubstackerMargaret SullivanTONIGHT from 8 - 9 pm EST. Margaret is a pro-democracy media critic whose podcast is “American Crisis: Can Journalism Save Democracy?” Formerly the public editor atThe New York Times, she is a Guardian columnist and a visiting professor at Duke University. We’ll definitely have lots to talk about!
NOTE: This event is exclusive to paid subscribers. For those who aren’t, I hope that you will consider upgrading your subscription in order to join The Warning community for it — plus full access to all of my daily essays and video commentaries, and the ability to comment and engage in dialogue within this passionate community. Once you become a paid subscriber, a link to pre-register for this event will be provided.
For those who are paid subscribers, please pre-register at the link below if you haven’t already.
Thanks for your support, and look forward to seeing you there!
Steve