“… the light in his heart blinded him to the gleam of the knife. The longing for peace deafened him to the sound of the murders lying in wait.”
That is from an article appearing in Tablet, written by Michael Doran and Can Kasapoglu. It is a quotation from a eulogy delivered by Moshe Dayan in 1956 at the funeral of Ro’i Rothberg, who was the security officer at kibbutz Nahal Oz and was murdered by terrorists. Here’s another quote from the 1956 eulogy:
The residents of Nahal Oz, Dayan said, carry “the heavy gates of Gaza on their shoulders, gates behind which hundreds of thousands of eyes and hands pray that we will weaken so that they may tear us to pieces—have we forgotten that?”
Sound familiar? It could have been said at the funerals of many of the Israelis killed on October 7, because so many of them were idealistic leftists who deeply desired peace with Palestinians and believed it could happen. That’s one of the reasons they were willing to live relatively close to the border.
That does not mean I am faulting or blaming those Israelis. They bear no responsibility for the barbaric behavior of their sadistic assailants. Those Israelis dreamed a dream that was understandably seductive, and the alternative was (and remains) almost too awful to contemplate: that Israel is surrounded by enemies many of whom would like to murder and torture every Israeli and every Jew on earth, and that much of the world would either shrug or applaud were those enemies to succeed.
Many former Israeli peaceniks no longer believe in the possibility of a negotiated peace with the Palestinians, and they have plenty of evidence for that change of heart.
The article is basically about how Israel’s security was too reliant on technology for intelligence rather than human intelligence, and had remade the military based on incorrect assumptions as well:
In place of its former doctrines and force structure, Israel had adopted a more modern military approach favoring a “small and smart” force reliant on precision airpower, special forces, and technology-centric intelligence. As a result, almost without exception, Israel’s leaders failed to foresee not only October 7, but also the kind of war the military is now fighting: Not quick, surgical strikes lasting for several days at most, but a multi-front conflict requiring the taking and holding of contested land positions over the course of months and possibly years. …
As a result of this lack of vision and forward planning, Israel does not have the right force structure, defense technological industrial base, or alliances to ensure a longer-term victory.
I’ve read many articles saying essentially the same thing, and I wrote a number of posts about them. So this information isn’t new, although it bears repeating. Many of the ideas on which the Israelis relied came from the US and Europe, and the ideas are wrong – particularly for Israel but probably for all of us:
Big wars will not happen, so the thinking went, due to the technological superiority of the Western countries. The assessment rests on two key assumptions, namely, that technological advantages deter states; and that technological superiority itself can be the sole determinant of victory in war.
Why anyone of intelligence would have thought those two things were true, even before 10/7, is puzzling. Just look at Vietnam – which ended around fifty years ago – and anyone should be able to have seen the assumptions to be false.
The article is a very good – although depressing – summary of the situation. The West, and that includes Israel, had better get a lot more nimble and a lot more smart.
They were wrong. But, a very big one, the Israeli Military is more flexible I think and will make rapid changes for the better. I don’t think the US can do that. Nor can Russia or China.
The West cannot get more nimble and smart unless it believes in itself. Right now, it doesn’t.
Nahal oz was struck 76 years later on 10-7
We have been undermined by the march of the Marxists and their fellow travelers through our institutions. When one third of our population believes this ais a racist, colonizing, unfair country; it’s difficult to bring people together and form a united front. Unfortunately, democracies everywhere are besieged by this same internal rot. It weakens their ability to act forcefully and with resolve.
Maybe the anti-Israel, pro Hamas demonstrations in this country will wake enough people up to this problem.
Technology is wonderful, but it’s not the answer to everything. Some people still have to understand human nature, and the history of human conflicts through history. Some people still have to man the lookouts, and maneuver the artillery, tanks, airplanes, and more.
We can never forget that democracy and freedom are relatively new and have always been under attack. Unless there’s a firm understanding that democracies need to be defended, things look bleak.
Add to that a third assumption that the west can maintain that technological superiority; especially considering how advanced technology can be gotten pretty cheap.
If you have a wastefully large conventional force, you have a heck of a lot of guys with two years in the Infantry and with the associated weapons familiarity hanging around the country. And a hew cohort every year.
By 1946, the US had fifteen million guys who’d at least been through their service’s basic and could handle a rifle. Plus those from WW I, such as were left. And a tendency to check six, even in their seventies. (Raises hand.)
So, in Israel’s case, maybe it wouldn’t be so wasteful after all.
One of the problems with the technological small war that Israel was banking on is that higher ups and intelligence didn’t pay attention to the lower ranking (mostly women) warning them that something was coming.
However, had they, and Hamas had been stopped, Hamas would still exist and be looking for another opportunity.
Hamas delenda est.
That is as true for October 6 as for October 8. Unfortunately, it took the horrific torture and slaughter of over 1200 people in Israel to awaken Israelis to that fact. The peacenikim would still be trying to make peace with the people who insist upon writing text books for school kids that focus on killing Jews — if not for October 7.
Forty years ago, when I was in Israel, people really thought about defense. Not just running to shelters for a few minutes until the “all clear.” People had weapons — you saw soldiers, both on and off duty, carrying them. As a student at Hebrew U, we ALL had to do guard duty. We American students didn’t carry any weapons, but we were paired with an Israeli who did. My understanding is that prior to October 7, that was no longer true. I didn’t know if it’s changed back since October 7.
Kibbutzim would not have only had weapons in the armory. The men who were still young enough to be called up for miluim would’ve had something.
Shelters back then could be locked. At least the ones I saw on Jerusalem. Big heavy metal doors with sliding bolts on the inside.
Facing Zionward: https://shorturl.at/ablnB
It’s never a matter of nimbleness rather it’s winning and believing in yourself and your cause.
Just wait until the first Islamist bio-attack. Kills thousands of our own civilians when it spreads? Inshallah.
My feeling, given “Biden”’s complete perversity, utter amorality and single-minded, ideological dedication to “transformation” is that the events leading up to October 7 are far more sinister than the article’s persuasive analysis is able to tell us.
(Since one probably can’t “go there” and then expect to be listened to….)
Yeah, I was under the impression, probably gained from pictures in Time and Newsweek read as a teen, that Israeli citizens had almost instantaneous personal access to small or militia arms.
Perhaps that was true at one time, before the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre.****
****Just tried looking it up, and it does not appear to be the case, though the San Diego Union has an old article on firearms murder in Israel and the then era’s impulse to increase restrictions … though most of the article is not accessible and details and stats are unclear
They allowed themselves to be deceived. My dream, the ground truth and the steps to get from one to the other. We hear and see what we want to hear and see. The Israelis fooled themselves into 1200 dead.
This guy has come up here before – Gary Saul Morson. What a brilliant thinker, and great writer.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/marxism-is-a-gulag-of-the-mind-soviet-union-campus-protests-3e7176c7?st=rzza6rinz4cxpfn&reflink=article_copyURL_share
The lessons of history are lost on the fools that pretend to lead us.
We are not represented, and our votes don’t matter.
Another factor mentioned in the article was the willingness to take and hold territory, especially in opposing a Muslim enemy bent on conquest.
After decades of PC indoctrination such an idea now gives many Westerners the vapours.
DNW — It was extremely difficult for the average Israeli to buy and own their own firearm, but a LOT of men had their IDF-issued rifles. Many men who were still regularly going to reserve duty every year were allowed to keep theirs (as long as they regularly served in the reserves) and would frequently act as added volunteer security for stuff. I think they were allowed to kept theirs so in the event they were suddenly called up unexpectedly for active duty, they could go to where the units were going, rather than reporting to the base first to pick up their firearm.
(In 1982, Israel went into Lebanon. The active-duty troops went in first, while the reserves were called up and then took over for them, while the active duty returned to their bases and prepared more reservists.)
Whenever we American students went on field trips, the men who were our (for lack of a better term) resident assistants, brought what I assume were university-issued ones. And as I mentioned before, students had to serve guard duty three times throughout the year. The American students were paired with an Israeli — who was given a university firearm. You would see men on campus, dressed in regular clothes with their rifles slung over their shoulders.
I think the men who kept their rifles while serving in the reserves were soldiers who served in units that might be called to the front lines in the event they were unexpectedly called up. So a “jobnik” probably would not because he was going to go back to his base regardless. Also, I did visit a base while i was there, and they ALL had their rifles. I think that now they do the American base thing in which they do not. If they did, I think the soldiers on that one base on October 7 would have been able to better defend themselves.
Now, I am not an Israeli and never served in the IDF. I only know what I saw and what Israeli friends told me, and it was forty years ago.
BTW, they were always men, too. Because it was VERY few women (possibly none back then) who served in the reserves after active duty.
That being said, the people rifling through your purse when you would go into a store were usually older people who had aged out of the reserves and I never saw one with a firearm.
Lee Also: “Also, I did visit a base while i was there, and they ALL had their rifles. I think that now they do the American base thing in which they do not. If they did, I think the soldiers on that one base on October 7 would have been able to better defend themselves.”
I live near Ft. Benning (not going to call it the new name). The range where I used to shoot had a lot of guys from Benning shooting there. They said it was easier to get range time at a private civilian facility than it was “on post”. At Benning. Home of U.S. Army Infantry. Think about that.
Richard, they didn’t allow themselves to be deceived. They begged to be deceived. DNW, in my dealings with Israelis when the question of the second amendment came up I’d talk about self defense as a reason. They’d agree but respond, but ask, “but why do you need to own them?” It took a while for it to dawn on me they had an entirely different concept. Of course you might need a gun for self defense but you can trust your government to decide if your need is real. If it is, your government will issue you one just as long as you need it.
It was gun ownership they questioned. Not the usefulness of guns for self defense. It breaks my heart to read about the kibbutzim talking about how the guns WERE THERE. Locked in the armory, available to authorized personnel.
In general, when I was was in the Navy as an Intel officer we’d evaluate allied Navies and our own an over reliance on technology was a negative. Yes, I served in the training battle group on the West coast. And any battle group workout to deploy had to satisfy us. we made the training as brutal as possible. I was one of the Intel evaluates and I’d take away the Intel department’s mission planning automated systems and demand them to show me they could plan a mission using navigational charts and a slide rule (we had special slide rules but they were circular; don’t hold me to it but if memory serves we called whiz wheels; they were specialized and I could still plan a TARPS mission if such a thing still existed) . The point wasn’t to embarrass them but to teach them.
OBTW I always included first aid challenges. If you’ve been struck by an exoccet and medical can’t get to you with all the fire and twisted metal, what are you going to do?
The sad part is the Navy, which I tried all my life to maintain as a force that can sustain combat, may not longer exist
well it was different by a scale of 100, but consider ft hood attack in 2009, a green on blue, as the term has come to mean in Afghanistan, Jordan et al, Major Nidal Hasan, soldier of Allah, as his business card, proudly stated, in communication with Awlaki
I dubbed him Buraik, in my novel, yet it didn’t set off any red flags, because as the Army Chief of Staff, General Casey put it, diversity uber alles,
as Stephen Decatur veteran of the French and Barbary skirmishes, millions for defense, none for tribute, I relate in high school because of high verbal scores on the ASVAB, I tried for the Navy, but I was flagged three different ways including the Navy hearing test, flat feet, bad back,
Imsorrysteve57i
I retired as an ISC.
Luke Lea – fascinating article. A quick take on a complicated history – cliff notes, if you will. The solution proposed is logical and culturally appropriate, perhaps, but there is no mention of the ever-present corruption. Who distributes the money and decides what is fair and for whom? Arafat died a billionaire, yet the ‘Palestinians’ existed for the most part in poverty. The current crop of “leaders” is no better. We know that the head honchos of Hamas live in luxury hotels in Qatar, or did until they realized the Israelis would be visiting them soon. Trust them with the money? I think not.
Imsorrysteve:
It took a while for it to dawn on me they had an entirely different concept. Of course you might need a gun for self defense but you can trust your government to decide if your need is real.
————————
Yes. Fifty years of socialist paternalism quickly erased centuries of wandering Jews’ suspicion of the powers that be.
It is interesting that the Israelis most understanding and amenable to Minister Ben-Gvir’s promotion of American-style gun ownership and self defense are those who have suffered decades of delegitimization and exclusion at the hands of the Leftist elite – the settlers, Sephardics, and ex-Soviets.
Imsorrysteve
It’s heart breaking and inexplicable.
We’ve always had “something” going on since at least the Great Pequot War. Ten percent of the men of military age of the Bay Colony died in King Phillips War. Given military medicine, maybe an equal number wounded. So, maybe half were shot at.
My father’s division commander, Terry Allen, was an Army brat, said by his biographer to have grown up playing with the children of the “hard, old Indian-fighting Army.” His son was killed in Viet Nam.
But after, say, 1820, there’s always been a place behind the frontier, which got further and further west. Still…. We don’t think as you describe the Israelis, whose experience is like ours except compressed and nobody’s out of the line of fire.
It’s been better than sixty years but…I don’t think we sixth grade guys stood around discussing what to do if the Germans invaded the first grade recess. But if the subject had arisen, we’d have discussed it, tactically. There was no other way. We’d heard our fathers.
Some time back, describing the incident on the Thalys train where the Americans stopped an atrocity to my granddaughter, then twelve and raised in pretty high middle class. Related what the WaPo fashion writer had said about the iconic pic of our guys getting the French award. Their outfits were appropriate, said Givhan. Polos and Dockers are what young guys wear when they know they’re supposed to get dressed up but don’t know what the fuss is.
Granddaughter shrugged. “We’re Americans. It’s what we do.”
And yet, Israel, in the pressure cooker….
Not. Getting. It.
“It was gun ownership they questioned. Not the usefulness of guns for self defense. It breaks my heart to read about the kibbutzim talking about how the guns WERE THERE. Locked in the armory, available to authorized personnel.”
Forty years ago, Israel technically “owned” the guns, but at least they had the prudence to leave them in the hands of men who’d been trained to use them. Many, many reservists had their IDF-issued guns — while not on active duty. Soldiers on bases had their guns with them — not locked in an armory. Reservists on kibbutzim — especially kibbutzim near Arab villages — had their guns. Infiltration was a VERY serious concern.
To me, one of the heartbreaking things about pre-October 7, is the analysts (mostly young women) had brought their concerns to their superiors that Hamas was planning something big, and their warnings were not taken seriously.
Someone.
Agree your last.
Various reports had the Intel from the border blown off.
There may be an investigation showing such Intel was trashed. But there was, according to reports, such resistance to the frequency and detailed intel that there could well be some order to stop sending this trash. Signed by somebody.
That was the impression I got from the list of efforts from the front.