Before the finger of outraged blame ( how could this happen?) descends on the land of Israel and its political leaders  there are a few pretty well established truths one can point to. Yes there was a massive intelligence failure, due to a number of factors, one being the hubris of the Israeli leaders, similar to the one in 1973, wherein the general postulation was  “they wouldn’t dare.” Generally it was known as the “conception.”There are a room full of books and articles on the subject. One, not necessarily the best one, is “Intelligence and the 1973 Arab-Israeli War” at http://www.cia.gov.The Israeli post mortem was declassified in 2009. It did not pull any punches. Unlike American post mortems, incompetent generals were named and I am sure they will be this time as well.  See my blog entry https://memoriesandreflections.blog/2022/10/09/yom-kippur-war-48-years-ago/

There is one factor that glaringly stands out but which will not receive much analysis because it is very politically incorrect, especially in our country. It is the infection of WOKISM-a diabolically fatal disease to any army- if not stamped out. It is a disease that was transferred from the United States to Israel in the past few years. The close ties, socially, economically, culturally, between the United States and the Israel, including the military leadership created a social and political  environment, which inevitably infected the top political and military leadership of Israel. Wokism, an effete inchoate ideology incorporating Marxism, and some fascistic tenets, has become the prevailing fashion of the day  among the establishment elites in the Western world.  It is more fashion than ideology but destroys an Army. Among its tenets, while lauding and affecting to love the third world, and its inhabitants, dismissing patriots as “deplorables” or similar appellations, it really has no feeling for the downtrodden, or disenfranchised of the world, especially of their own country. It is the cocktail party “intellectual, “ glibly ridiculing the faith and nationalistic views of the hoi  poloi while publicly feigning support for the “Fallah”who guard their  gated communities and  compose the military units that keep them safe in their beds.

In Israel, the repeated huge demonstrations of the woke liberals and left wingers affected  the military ethos of the Israeli defense forces. Israel has always had a problem with politicized military leaders and WOKISM always begins the rot at the top. It makes them ineffective and figures of ridicule as military leaders.  That particularly applies to our current crop of “military” leadership. Our top military  leader’s obsession with medals and decorations  make them look ridiculous. (check the pics of Gen. Miley). As a junior British officer  once told me, our medal festooned generals look like  latin American dictators.   I always think  back at  the reunions of the First Infantry Division reunions, at which WWII  vets with 4 years of combat  under their belts  had maybe two rows of medals.  Nowadays far too much  too much affectation  and political  show and tell,  and much less attention to the elements of training a combat -ready army. Too many  generals  are positively giddy at the  chance to join the fashionable at the cocktail parties, and rise above the general woke conception of soldiers as knuckle dragging Neanderthals. We need to study the impact of DEI and other subversive programs and eliminate them NOW…as well as the generals who promote them .

In  the months leading up to this Gaza fiasco, reserve Israeli Air Force pilots joined protests against the Israeli government  plans for Judicial reform…one badly needed. A number of Elite unit officers made known their displeasure as well.  On I24, the Israeli network,  the talking heads, joined by retired and some active duty military men were  continuously attacking the government.   This morning, on I24 an Israeli retired AF officer, the head of some anti-netanyahu organization, was talking about national unity, but obviously chopping  at the bit to blame Bibi  for the debacle. Yes, Netanyahu  must shoulder some of the blame, but the Woke officer activists must shoulder an even greater share.  As one of old my  commanders at Ft Bragg stated on  TV, the Israelis “took their eye off the ball.” So did we. The Intelligence failure belonged to us as well. That is not a surprise, nor is the fact that the Biden regime is unable to find any evidence that Iran. sponsored , planned, and supported this diabolical attack by animals (the al Qassem brigade) wearing uniforms pretending to be  soldiers while butchering babies. They are all Ibn Sharmuta.

Our big chief of intelligence, William  Burns,  was one of the Obama  cabal of Iranian fans , responsible for the stink of the Iranian Nuclear deal- a deal which set the Iranians on a path of irredentism and imperialism. The chief negotiator Robert Malley, A big buddy of Tony Blinken, was in bed with the Iranians. Keep this in mind as the Biden officials feign sympathy for the latest Jewish victims  of a mini holocaust.