A year and a half before Hamas and Tehran launched their murderous Oct. 7, 2023, pogrom, the Israel Defense Forces Military Intelligence Directorate obtained a 40-page Hamas document. It “laid out almost exactly how Hamas eventually wound up carrying out the attack,” the Times of Israel reported, a rocket barrage, drones to knock out security cameras and thugs pouring into Israel on paragliders, motorcycles and on foot.
IDF intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, Gaza Division commander Brig. Gen Avi Rosenfeld and then IDF Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Eliezer Toledano all read the report. They buried it, keeping IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the Israeli Air Force and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the dark.
Over the next year, Halevi and other IDF officials along with the leaders of Mossad and Shin Bet, Israel’s security agencies, kept assuring Netanyahu that Hamas was not a serious threat.
The IDF intelligence directorate did send four warning letters to Netanyahu. But not about Hamas. They told Netanyahu he should stop pushing his controversial judicial reform plan because it created divisions that would embolden Israel’s enemies to attack.
Then on the night of Oct. 6, IDF and Shin Bet officials considered growing signs that Hamas was about to attack. At 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 7 they updated Halevi’s office and the IDF Southern Command. At 3 a.m. the head of the IDF Intelligence Directorate, on vacation, was informed. At 3:30 a.m. Halevi set up a 5 a.m. phone conference and decided to meet again at 8.
But no one woke up Netanyahu to inform him. Hamas attacked at 6:30 a.m.
Why wasn’t Netanyahu informed? Probably just a drill, they thought. That right-winger Netanyahu might order an immediate military counterattack, a “provocation” that could lead to conflict, upsetting the Joseph Biden administration’s drive for an accommodation with Iran. They put their partisan political considerations above their responsibility to the prime minister. That would normally be considered treason.
These officials were also acting as transmission belts for the chief executive of U.S. imperialism. The U.S. rulers’ starting point is not the defense of Jews, Israel or anyone else. It’s defending their own economic, political and military interests.
Netanyahu wants and needs U.S. imperialism’s aid. But he knows that Israel must be prepared to fight on its own, or the result could be a world without Israel. If Netanyahu had caved to White House demands to ease up on Israel’s war on Hamas, to not escalate attacks on Hezbollah, to not strike any Iranian nuclear sites, their enemies would have been emboldened. Hamas would be carrying out new Oct. 7s, Hezbollah would still be firing missiles into Israel and Bashar al-Assad would still be in power.
Israel is a class-divided country. For a layer of the faction-ridden capitalist class, their representatives in the government and the “woke” middle class, Israel’s savior is “democratic” U.S. imperialism — a dangerous illusion — and Netanyahu’s refusal to back down is an obstacle to peace. They want him out. The current corruption trial against Netanyahu, taking place in the middle of a war for survival, should be viewed in this context. It’s a political witch hunt.