Israeli politicians must be held accountable for October 7 attacks

October 7 was like a dumpster fire: horrible, unexpected, uncontrollable and confusing.

Southerners have been abandoned. Politicians refuse to be held accountable.

IDF commanders resigned, one after another, with their heads bowed – displaying some much-needed shame, but also leaving their posts to younger and, therefore, less experienced leaders.

And now, Israeli security forces have released the first findings of their investigation into the unprecedented massacre that took place explicitly in Kibbutz Be’eri.

The investigation revealed several key findings that further reinforce the understanding that the security forces, government and leadership of this country have left Gaza’s border communities to fend for themselves.

First, until 2:30 p.m. – more than seven and a half hours after the Hamas terrorists infiltrated Kibbutz Be’eri – between 13 and 26 Israelis were fighting between 80 and 200 terrorists in the kibbutz. The first 13 were part of the emergency response team; the other 13 were security force members flown in.

Preview of the Be’eri Massacre on October 7, 2023 (credit: Design elements via Canva, Nikita Golubev, creativepriyanka, Feti aprilia de Apriliafeti, Prosymbo)

To clarify, Israel in Kibbutz Beeri had no senior personnel to infiltrate the terrorists until seven and a half hours after the invasion began.

This raises the first of many questions: Why did it take so long for security forces to defend the kibbutz residents?

The report breaks this down and the answer is threefold: first, there were forces right next to the kibbutz that did not enter because they, in the frenzy of the invasion, believed that their role was not to join and fight, but rather to assist in evacuation and emergency care; the second reason was that other security force teams were waiting for their commanders who had not yet arrived because they were afraid to operate without the necessary authorizations; and the third reason was that other teams were on their way, even so long after the invasion.

Another problem that caused some confusion and chaos was the lack of a “major” commander to oversee the defense of the kibbutz.

In other words, no one was supervising all the security forces assigned to defend Beeri and eliminate the terrorists until 1 p.m., when Brigadier General Barak Hiram took over. He did not enter the field in depth until a few hours later.

Furthermore, the IDF intelligence services must be held accountable, because they were able to see that SIM cards had been activated in the Gaza Strip and did not consider this a legitimate concern. Why was this so?

To be fair to our security forces, Hamas fired 3,000 rockets in four hours, completely destabilizing us and enraging us. If there is any merit to be attributed to an evil terrorist organization, this is it.

Israel Fails to Protect Its Citizens

Yet how is it that a state like Israel – with a robust and powerful military that has protected its citizens since before the country’s founding – did not have a fully formed first or second line of defense?

Indeed, the forces deployed along the southern border with the Gaza Strip were virtually devoid of any personnel, which contrasts with the numbers we should have seen there.

Even if this border were fully patrolled – even if we had enough troops to justify the claim that Israel is safe and well-protected – there would be virtually no second line of defense. This is the most basic security tactic.

In the end, it all comes down to this: Israel thought Hamas was a joke. Israel believed that this threat, whose “warning signals,” so to speak, it had seen long before the invasion and the massacre, was nothing at all.

Who decided to minimize the magnitude of this situation? Whose consciences should be tormented by the horror of having participated in the decision-making process that caused this situation?

To Israeli politicians, who have repeatedly shied away from responsibility since the beginning of the war, to show humility.

It’s partly your fault.