Egozi’s Fury

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

The recent failure of Israeli intelligence is even worse than I expected. At first the entire security establishment was surprised by the extent of the Gaza terror tunnels. But that’s nothing compared to what came later. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said that the tunnels will be completely destroyed “in two or three days.” It actually took much longer than that, and there’s probably a lot more left to do.

The lowest point was last Tuesday, when IDF Chief of Staff, Lt Gen. Benny Gantz, told the residents of the towns surrounding the Gaza strip that they can return to their homes safely. Some of them did return, only to be welcomed by a new round of rocket and mortar fire. So what’s going on here? The officials who are supposed to base their decisions on accurate intelligence are wrong? No. They’re misinformed by the intelligence the IDF has or does not have.

This is an alarming situation. If they don’t know what’s happening in Gaza, how can we be sure that they know what’s happening in Lebanon, or Jordan? Something is very, very wrong.

What came after the biased intel is even worse: Residents of the towns surrounding Gaza were literally abandoned. They were promised safety and security, but all they got was rocket fire and mortars. Someone has to pay for this failure, which is a mixture of an intelligence fiasco, overconfidence and that very Israeli, “everything is going to be fine,” way of thinking.

*** ***

Israeli ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor expressed his disappointment with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s condemnation of the rocket fire on Israel, which didn’t mention Hamas by name. Prosor wrote on the UN’s Facebook page: “Dear UN, I couldn’t help but notice that you didn’t mention one of the parties. This party has a name – they are called Hamas. Hamas is our enemy. Let me introduce you to them. If I wasn’t familiar with the UN, I would think this is a parody. But because I am familiar with the UN, I know this is a tragedy.”

A tragedy? That’s putting it lightly. That organization is a mixture of parody, tragedy and carelessness. That organization is nothing, it’s air. A waste of money that could have been used to feed the hungry in Africa.

It should be shut down immediately, because it doesn’t just do nothing – it makes things worse. Israel has another option – ignore the UN and leave its New York headquarters. Our ambassador can easily find another job.

*** ***

The U.S. finally launched a military response against ISIS in Iraq. As always, it’s too little, too late. ISIS already controls Iraq, while the U.S. continues to hand out weapons to what was once the country’s legal government. They might as well just give the weapons directly to the murderous Muslim organization.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

The problem is that Iraq will be followed by other Muslim states, such as Jordan. If it took ISIS just a few weeks to take over most of Iraq, Jordan will fall into their hands in just a couple of days.

The officials in Washington are unable to comprehend what’s really happening, and even if eventually do, it’s still too little, too late.

*** ***

Recent headlines warn against “a second Goldstone report.” So what. Think about what happened to the first report, and where it ended up. That’s where: It’s filed in a forsaken archive, and no one even remembers its contents.

These investigations, used by some to threaten senior Israeli officials and decision makers, are one huge show. Their findings are predetermined and have nothing to do with the actual facts.

So they’ll send another investigator, who will participate in meetings and write an elegant report proudly bearing the seal of the UN, that same useless organization we mentioned before. The report will remain in the spotlight for a couple of days, only to quickly join its predecessor in that dusty archive.

So they should stop trying to scare us, because it’s not even funny. Israel is fighting a murderous terrorist organization, and in a war like this we shouldn’t be concerned about any future boards of inquiry.

*** ***

The calm at the Lebanese border is attributed by some pundits to the Israeli strikes against Hezbollah during the Second Lebanon War. Many of the same pundits were completely wrong in their analysis of the Gaza operation.

I have doubts regarding their theory. It’s too easy, and considering the performance of the Israeli intelligence during Operation Protective Edge, it looks even worse.

According to a report published over the weekend by a Lebanese newspaper, Hezbollah is busy preparing for the next round of fighting against Israel, during which the organization intends to change the rules of the game and breach the borders between the two countries.

The report goes into detail about Hezbollah’s plan to conquer the Galilee using thousands of fighters. It seems that the IDF should also rely on Arab newspapers and not just on its own intelligence.