Israelis are grappling with a total breakdown of trust and a collapse of everything they believed in

[Demovictory9]

With a ground invasion into Gaza imminent, Israelis are grappling with a total breakdown of trust and a collapse of everything they believed in and relied on.

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All this is happening amid a total breakdown of trust between the citizens and the state of Israel, and a collapse of everything Israelis believed in and relied on. Initial assessments point to an Israeli intelligence failure before the surprise attack, the failure of a sophisticated border barrier, the military’s slow initial response and a government that seems to have busied itself with the wrong things and now appears largely absent and dysfunctional.

“We have woken to a terrible sobriety about whose hands we put our fate in,” said Dorit Rabinyan, an author in Tel Aviv. “All the time you said to yourself, ‘I am paying half of what I earn in taxes, but it is for security, national security, at least that.’”

“We thought we had military superiority, but there’s a feeling that someone up there forgot why he is there,” she added, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.


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In a country of nine million people, where most Jews serve in the army, everybody appears to know somebody who was caught up in the Hamas massacre or who is now on the front line. “Your hands tremble each time you answer your phone,” Ms. Rabinyan said, for fear of bad tidings.

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“To restore honor to Israel,” said Shai Levy, 37, a tank driver who in civilian life is a rabbi and teacher in a seminary. “The citizens are relying on us to defeat Hamas and remove the threat from Gaza once and for all,” he said, while stationed in a makeshift camp outside the gate of Be’eri, one of the worst-hit villages, where more than 100 people were killed.

Link to paywall free article

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/15/world/middleeast/hamas-israel-mood-distrust.html?unlocked_article_code=xoEFnhDjYEbdx42pu9WmBDvY0FigQdjLEq2jkFtQLdqDpLK5p5vbtqKNMl61yESgE1Qs91KEsc5y4Q4-vNNiiXu3P49nvBdhZWcwc3XXuxUBAVZDdS1FJUDlC_3admjnD8dVuV8b6vDnTtAxjNrj-H_BnYW2gNt9Sv-1QsZkfme19eIL77NN3Qv0cDF5FJ3MaE1iCMjKHbqgooImMXfUDsKgP2CmtRconAQKUYpuJGS3p_0HjTXgIrUyDGEL3T-2LLH4lu6adgTjmMuKzybjyH8IQxNximCR2rXCRYl-LP89a9jx-_BTEQd2TFQMWX8YZVyqhd_BKiseZYIBDc7rFsLJRsD-JVVUeHnFlIo&smid=url-share

[NBachers]

1. Netanyahu's failure with Hamas is like Bush the Littler's failure in 2001- you get what you vote for

[brewens]

2. Beat me to it. The Israelis may be smarter about it than a lot of our people were. We should have

been in the streets running Bush and Cheney out of office after 9/11. Instead, they turned it into a national flag hump. Look at us, we're patriots to support incompetent morons! Let's have a war or two to make it look good! USA! USA!

Like it's great that they were in charge and got hit. Then came the "Bush kept us safe" bullshit. How did they have the nerve to ever claim that?

It's part of the reason for the idiotic, incessant harping about Benghazi and the suicide bomber at Kabul. Those were tragic, but nothing compared to a terrorist attack on US soil. That's how they repay democrats for our support after 9/11.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/08/the-ahistorical-weirdness-of-bush-kept-us-safe/261848/

[NBachers]

7. If a Democrat had been President, Maggot Monkeys would still be howling & flinging poo from trees.

[usonian]

3. Axios says that "judicial overhaul" and the resulting turmoil helped weaken Israel's military.

(Repost)
https://democraticunderground.com/100218338778

Axios reports
https://www.axios.com/2023/10/07/hamas-attack-invasion-israel-death-toll-netanyahu

The big picture: The attack comes amid a deep political crisis in Israel over the Netanyahu government's judicial overhaul, which has weakened the country's military, economy and society.

Links to:
https://www.axios.com/2023/07/24/israel-judicial-overhaul-reform-explained#

Why it matters: The plan, which will weaken the Supreme Court and other democratic institutions, has faced opposition from some of Israel's closest allies, including the Biden administration, and it has already destabilized the country's economy and military.

Culture wars have only weakened the US, to the delight of Mr. Putin.

[Igel]

4. The fence was functionally disabled before it was breeched.

Hamas targeted the monitoring post and killed the monitors. That was the plan, they had humintel on it. Apparently Israeli security wasn't harsh enough.

After that it was just a fence.

Go around the fence because the missile defense system either doesn't bother with airborne targets close the border or because the profile was wrong and you can be a chaos agent.

As for everything since then, Hamas went on record *last* weekend saying "we won."

[roamer65]

5. Nothing is guaranteed in life...NOTHING.

Welcome to the real world.

[republianmushroom]

6. Many did the same here after 9-11.

[Iggo]

8. I dunno. Maybe if they say it four times.