Analyst: ‘Vast majority’ of responsibility for October 7 is the IDF’s

Military analyst Yossi Yehoshua says October 7 massacre could have been avoided had IDF’s General Staff acted differently. ‘It is not connected to the identity of the Prime Minister.’

INN | May 26, 2024

Military analyst Yossi Yehoshua believes that the responsibility for the October 7 massacre and the ensuing war rests mostly on the military echelon.

In an interview with 103FM Radio, Yehoshua explained, “The absolute majority of responsibility is on the IDF. Different handling by the General Staff’s echelon on that night would have prevented most of the incident. It is not connected to the identity of the prime minister.”

Regarding the war in Gaza, he added, “We are advancing in Rafah, we have 70% of the Philadelphi Corridor. We should be, eight months after the war began, with even better results against Hamas and dismantling its abilities.”

Slamming the management of the war, he said, “We should have finished the incident there a long time ago – months ago – and placed much greater military pressure on Hamas.” He did not raise the issue of American pressure and arms shipments.

In February, Kan News reported that dozens of Israeli SIM cards had been activated before the Hamas invasion reached the commander of the IDF Southern Command in the last hours of October 6th.

The first telephone call about the report took place between the Southern Command intelligence commander and Yaron Finkelman, the general commander, a few hours before midnight. The call was based on information and evidence from the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) regarding the SIM cards being activated.

Finkelman canceled his vacation in northern Israel and returned to his command. A few hours later, another intelligence service sent even more suspicious findings. The intelligence officer received the information and reported it to Finkelman immediately.

In the first weeks following the invasion, another report claimed that Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and other commanding generals held at least two consultations over the course of that night.

The first consultation was in the early hours of the night, following reports of initial indications from the field. It was decided to hold a second consultation later and not to send additional forces to the area.

During the second consultation, it was decided to hold a third consultation in the morning, and that no forces would be sent to the area and the forces present would not be placed on higher alert.

The ISA likewise understood that something was afoot. ISA director Ronen Bar made his way to ISA headquarters that night and remained there until the war broke out.

In a joint statement, the IDF and ISA claimed, “Reports that 1,000 Israeli SIM cards were activated simultaneously are false and far from the truth. In point of fact, a set of evidence showed that only a few dozen were activated, all of which had been activated in previous incidents. In light of this, the system was prepared and intelligence and operational actions were carried out.”

“As has been reported previously, on the eve of October 7th, information was received due to which assessments were held and decisions were made. The evidence was based on a number of different tools and techniques, including technological tools, the nature and operation of which cannot be discussed. All the incidents and information available about that night will be investigated by the investigative departments of the ISA and IDF. We must be responsible and careful in publications so that they do not impede operational techniques and capabilities during the war.”

May 27, 2024 | 9 Comments »

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  1. I see Bibi as Churchillian.

    No, Netanyahu gets full responsibility for the failure of October 7. For 25 years he has been the enabler of the left, always putting leftists in the most important roles in the army, Shabak, Mossad, and allowing the left to control the courts, gov’t controlled media, universities and everything else. The guys running the army were his picks and the sooner he goes, and the sooner the country gets rid of these non-Jewish-thinking leftists, the better this country will be.

  2. This is a genuine, not rhetorical question about SIM cards from my mon-technological mind. What is a sim card and why is it important in this situation? What did an activation of SIM cards tell the IDF’s military command and intelligence office? Could one of out technologically knowledgeable commentators explain this to me?

  3. Yes, poor prior analysis to Oct. 7th was the fault of the IDF…
    But in the process of breaking it all down to the simplest common denominator, it was the fault of the murderous and barbaric perpetrators, Hamas, and the people who were complicit in their actions with Hamas…
    Well, we are not down to the bottom line just yet.
    Where is the fault noted of Israel as a nation, who committed adultery against their G-d, in the first place, by breaking the Covenant their forefathers all accepted on their behalf, for all times?
    If you do not believe that these things occurred at Sinai and that Israel has an eternal Covenant with the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then you are foolishly wasting your life on ‘tradition’ alone.
    Your cause is no more valid than that of any other disenfranchised nation that whines when they do not get their way.
    The only legitimate definition of the word, Woke, is one who has awakened to his own blindness and is willing to make amends and changes.
    Israel, Zionism, the Jewish People, and the beauty of all that Judaism stands for, are meaningless without the God of Israel as the basis and root cause of all!
    So, let us call a spade a spade and own up to our sins and do T’shuvah, individually and as a nation.
    We have tried everything else we could think of except the one thing that G-d told us to do…repent. You do not need to change your attire, grow facial hair, or do any of the outward things. Tshuvah comes from within us and reflects our loyalty to our Creator. The only thing you have to lose is a crushing debt that cannot be paid any other way.

  4. The IL intel knew nothing about what was going on in Gaza and Egypt is mind boggling!
    It all starts with the intel!
    As far as Bibi full responsibility, it is like saying that Trump should have fired the whole W DC corruptocracy!!!
    No one knows the interactions btw PM and IDF/Intel except that for nearly 16 years the US and IL left have been trying to get rid of Bibi!!!
    Four apparent hoaxes against him have melt away!
    No one even talk about anymore!
    Even A. Dershowitz The IL intel knew nothing about what was going on in Gaza and Egypt is mind boggling!
    It all starts with the intel!
    As far as Bibi full responsibility, it is like saying that Trump should have fired the whole W DC corruptocracy!!!
    No one knows the interactions btw PM and IDF/Intel except that for nearly 16 years the US and IL left have been trying to get rid of Bibi!!!
    Four apparent hoaxes against him have melt away!
    No one even talk about anymore!
    Even A. Dershowitz came around and fully agrees, that the IL SC has too much power, and supports some Judicial reform!

  5. No, Netanyahu gets full responsibility for the failure of October 7. For 25 years he has been the enabler of the left, always putting leftists in the most important roles in the army, Shabak, Mossad, and allowing the left to control the courts, gov’t controlled media, universities and everything else. The guys running the army were his picks and the sooner he goes, and the sooner the country gets rid of these non-Jewish-thinking leftists, the better this country will be.

  6. I wonder how much of this is merely a hit piece to undermine the IDF by far left Haaretz.

    “The Female-only Israeli Army Role Leading Too Many to Suicide
    Chronic sleep deprivation, arbitrary punishment and disrespect: Female remote observers, who carefully watch live surveillance, describe their nightmarish service and role”

    Dec. 7 2022

    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-12-07/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/the-female-only-israeli-army-role-leading-too-many-to-suicide/00000184-ec31-d9f1-a9e6-edf39bb60000

  7. Betrayal appear to be common coin among the foreign agents controlled Israeli generals and other officers in IDF uniform. A citizens elected Executive Commission of Inquiry is a must.
    Besides the October 7th “surprise”… the massive
    GAZA military infrastructure build up was ignored…

  8. Our warnings on Hamas were ignored, Israel’s women border troops say”

    “…Known as the “eyes of the army,” the tatzpitaniyot use security cameras and sensors to monitor a 15 to 30 kilometer stretch of land they’re each responsible for. The surveillance includes any small changes in activity, including farmers altering their routines. The work requires great patience, concentration and hours spent monitoring screens.

    Frontline testimony
    The tatzpitaniyot, especially those at a base in Nahal Oz, one of several kibbutzim overrun on October 7, reported unusual signs along the Gaza border. The activity was not just minor, and included Hamas sending up drones several times a day in the weeks leading up to the attack.

    One of the soldiers, identified only only by her first name Ilana, told the Haaretz newspaper they observed Hamas fighters training for assaults. “A month and a half before the war, we saw that in one of the Hamas training camps they had built an exact, scaled model of an observer’s position, like the one we operate. They started training there with drones to hit the [machine gun] shooter,” Ilana said.

    “In the last two months, they started sending up drones every day, sometimes several times a day, right near the border, some 300 meters from the fence, and sometimes less than that,” she added…”

    “…Other tatzpitaniyot reported that Hamas gunmen were rehearsing attacks on armored vehicles using a replica of a Merkava Mark 4 tank, and that Hamas fighters were digging holes and placing explosives along the border. Israel’s Kan public broadcaster and the country’s Channel 12 television have aired interviews with border lookouts complaining they were ignored and were told to stop raising alarms.

    The interviews are adding to claims last month by two women surveillance soldiers, Yael Rotenberg and Maya Desiatnik, who told Kan that in the months before the attack, they had flagged a lot of border behavior that worried them. Both were based at Nahal Oz, where 20 tatzpitaniyot were killed on October 7. Desiatnik was one of only two surveillance soldiers at the base on the day who was not killed or abducted…”

    https://www.politico.eu/article/israel-border-troops-women-hamas-warnings-war-october-7-benjamin-netanyahu/

    I read another article about this at the time in which they said that their immediate superiors rather than passing this information up to their bosses, threatened them with prosecution if they didn’t remain silent.

    It’s patently absurd to suggest that special techniques of analysis are required to know that when you see this, you mobilize. It they don’t attack, great! you don’t say, oh, we’re wasting our time and reources preparing for false alarms. Or you attack pre-emptively, which always saves lives. It only had to be real once. Aside from the Concepzion which allowed Hamas to rule and arm, in the first place which is the fault of the entire leadership, Especially the left wing opposition that is trying to pin this on Bibi.

    “The report even quoted one of the surveillance soldiers apologizing for waking a commander in the early hours of October 7 to report that she was seeing “something strange.”

    The report was not the first account of surveillance soldiers stationed on a base in Kibbutz Nahal Oz saying that their warnings were never taken seriously. The Kan public broadcaster and Channel 12 news both aired interviews with soldiers and former soldiers who similarly said they were ignored.

    “Haaretz additionally published an investigation last year in which female surveillance soldiers described being treated with contempt and said that their opinions were not respected.”

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/surveillance-soldiers-say-oct-7-warnings-ignored-charge-sexism-played-a-role/

    “The Female-only Israeli Army Role Leading Too Many to Suicide
    Chronic sleep deprivation, arbitrary punishment and disrespect: Female remote observers, who carefully watch live surveillance, describe their nightmarish service and role”

    Dec. 7 2022

    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-12-07/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/the-female-only-israeli-army-role-leading-too-many-to-suicide/00000184-ec31-d9f1-a9e6-edf39bb60000