It was 50 years ago to the day, when Israel was surprised and caught unprepared for the Yom Kippur War that ended after nineteen days leaving the nation traumatized yet ending with Israel’s military victory over combined Arab forces from the south and the north with IDF forces reaching the entrances of Damascus and Cairo.
Over the past day we have experienced a sense of “Déjà vu”. The mighty IDF was caught unprepared again, enabling Hamas terrorists to enter Israel freely on land, by air via gliders, and from the sea; opening fire and killing civilians in their homes, on the streets, in cities, in kibbutzim, and succeeding in taking dozens of Israeli captives - including women, children and the elderly – who are believed to have been taken as hostages back into the Gaza Strip.
Today, we began with services of Shemini Atzeret / Simchat Torah. Religious Israelis spent the early morning hours in their synagogue praying and then it began. Sirens in Jeusalem andt the pounding sound of the Iron Dome hitting missiles. News began to trickle into shuls about what was happening in the south and in the Gaza envelope, and young worshippers were soon being called out and instructed to leave and join their military units immediately. Reservists soon joined them. Hakafot were cancelled, prayers took place in shelters. Some remained in the shelters to say psalms.
No different than 50 years ago on Yom Kippur.
As of 22:00 Saturday evening, multiple heavy barrages of rockets were fired as had been occurring since the morning hours towards southern Israel, the center of the country and as north as the Netanya area with multiple interceptions of the Iron Dome missile defense system heard far and wide. Authorities have confirmed that as of this hour, more than 300 civilians have been murdered and tens of others were captured in a “blitz offensive” by Hamas on southern and on central Israel. At least 1,100 have been wounded, many seriously. So far, fifteen names of those murdered in Moshav Netiv Ha'asara have been made public. The numbers are expected to continue their upward spiral and mourning Israelis will witness funeral after funeral.
"We have no idea how this could have happened", is the response that Frank Gardner, a BBC security correspondent received from unnamed officials today when after asking how, with all its vast resources, “Israeli intelligence did not see this attack coming. With the combined efforts of Shin Bet, Israeli domestic intelligence, Mossad, its external spy agency and all the assets of the Israel Defense Forces, it is frankly astounding that nobody saw this coming. Or if they did, they failed to act on it.”
The long held military and security concepts of "containment" and "mowing the lawn" that were the guiding light of the military and the progressive deep state prior to today’s attacks by Hamas have fallen apart and proven once again that the military and the progressive deep state (including major security and defense officials) cannot be trusted in their ability to make strategic decisions for Israel.
Over the years, they have brought only terror to our front door. We saw this in the Oslo agreement 30 years ago (Labor party Rabin and Peres), we saw this in 2000 when the IDF abruptly left Lebanon (Labor Party Ehud Barak) resulting in the Second Intifada with thousands murdered and wounded.
Remember the Oslo proponents' use of the term "victims of peace?"
Remember in 2003 when the Army had to respond against its self-imposed indoctrination and re-took control of the 'West Bank' (Operation Defense Shield) due to the terror of the second intifada (under the Kadima party headed by Ariel Sharon),
Remember in 2005 when the disengagement (also Kadima and Ariel Sharon) from the Gaza Strip allowed Hamas take over?
Remember how we saw this in 2006 during the Second Lebanon War (PM Ehud Olmert and CoS Dan Halutz)?
These are the very same names at the leadership of anti-Judicial reform, wasting the past 9 months of the military and police forced to reduce investing time and training in military preparedness - instead they dealt with subordination and refusal to serve.
The government has decided according to defense commentators, to end the rule of Hamas over the Gaza Strip by military means. What was will no longer be. There is no backing down, the whole Muslim world is watching to see how we respond, there are many hostages including soldiers and civilians, many of them from a kibbutz in the south,taken back into Gaza.
The story will have a bloody ending, there is no other choice