This catastrophe must bring total change

It is a fad these days: disregard of experts, disdain for “elites,” and childish contempt directed at the very idea of education. The cherry on top is scorn for decency and moderation, as if true wisdom is a cynical acceptance of the laws of the jungle. Thus incompetents incapable of empathy or introspection are regularly elevated to power.

The assumption is that somehow the system will take care of itself, the damage will be limited and the masses will be mollified. This has happened in many places, but the November 2022 election in Israel was a highlight. So the catastrophic breakdown on Oct. 7 is a wake-up call not just to Israel but to the world: elevate incompetents and you will get incompetence, and tragedy may follow. On Saturday in southern Israel, it did.

Hundreds of Hamas terrorists, perhaps 1,000, were able to break through the border fence, bust past a feeble and sparse first line of defense, and motor into Israel on jeeps and motorcycles; they occupied whole towns and kibbutzim for long hours, in some cases even two days, breaking into homes and massacring whole families, raping women, filming celebratory videos and somehow being allowed to march and drive perhaps 200 hostages back into Gaza, over kilometers of open terrain, inexplicably unmolested.

The videos that have been circulating on social media are blood-curdling, and the country’s mainstream media are mostly suppressing them not only because of sensitivity but also because of the political dynamite that they represent. No one can know how the public will react to such scenes – jubilant terrorists over the bodies of those they desecrated, young women begging for their lives, little children and elderly women manhandled and paraded about, in the hands of fanatical terrorists and at the mercy of a mob.

Where was the intelligence that this attack would come? After all, the Shin Bet’s long record of success was predicated on the infiltration of Hamas and Islamic Jihad operational circles. We will soon know that the intelligence existed. Hamas had been telegraphing its intentions for months, actually distributing videos showing its squads training for precisely this scenario: busting into Israel and taking over civilian areas.

Where was the quick reaction the second the fence was breached? This is not the Rio Grande border – the entire fence line is about 50 kilometers long. Having eyes on it – from the sky – is critical, because communities like Sderot, Netiv HaAsara and Kibbutz Beeri are a short walk away.

How could it be that forces did not reach the besieged communities for many hours? Why has there still been almost no effort to communicate to the public what was happening other than politburo-like standup videos from a few politicians mouthing platitudes? How could it be that the terrorists were able to return back through the breached fence, hours later, with their hostages? It boggles the mind.

As of this moment, this incompetence is known to have killed 700 Israelis and left 2,000 wounded and unknown scores as hostages in Gaza. It is a tremendous tragedy and a debilitating reflection of weakness and lack of focus that must be soon reversed lest other enemies – like Hamas’ fellow Iran proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon – also be tempted to attack.

Many will declare that now is no time for the accounting. That politics should be left for later. Maybe, and maybe not. The rage Israelis should be feeling is useful rage. It is rage that can bring clarity. For example, it might enable people to see clearly that their enemy  is not the Supreme Court, nor liberal pilots and academics, nor Israel’s Arab citizens nor moderate Palestinians. The enemy is rejectionist Islamic radicalism and the barbarians who carry out that vision, victimizing their own people in the process. Another enemy is the toxic mutation of ultranationalist Judaism that has developed within.

Here’s a partial explanation of why the unbelievable events described above could have happened.

First, Benjamin Netanyahu’s 10-month-old coalition whipped up a stupendous schism in Israeli society by inventing imaginary enemies within to justify outrageous actions, and that schism projected a lack of social cohesion that tempted actual enemies outside — exactly as many had in vain forewarned. It focused all its efforts on an unpopular plan to turn Israel into an authoritarian fake democracy. The laws it proposed were not a “reform” of the “judiciary” but an authoritarian over whose 225 proposed laws included one that would enable the coalition to ban opposition parties from running for the Knesset, without recourse. When it became clear that this was affecting motivation to serve in the military and badly harming the economy, officials denigrated the tech community and invited it to emigrate. When reserve pilots sounded the alarm, ministers told them to “go to hell.” Religious coalition leaders actually argued that prayers were more important.

When the defense minister tried to warn of what might happen, Netanyahu fired him (and then reneged after an uproar). When the chiefs of the military tried to sound the alarm, on the day the Knesset voted to eliminate the Reasonableness Standard from judicial review, Netanyahu refused to meet with them.

The coalition devoted what little was left of its attention to courting conflict with the West Bank Palestinians, because this is what is demanded by the Jewish Power party which, by dint of its 14 Knesset seats, controls the fate of the coalition. It thus increased Jewish settlement activity, refused any semblance of a diplomatic process with the Palestinian Authority, and did nothing to rein in Jewish extremists who have been making it their business to terrorize the Palestinian population.