Ariel Avidar on 7 October Attacks
- Ariel Avidar
- Apr 14
- 8 min read
Updated: Apr 20
We've heard many times, oh, there was a tremendous security failure. There was a tremendous intelligence failure that day. And I would say that that is a complete understatement.
When we say something failed, I think that means we expected it to go right. But when we talk about what happened that day, we literally had thousands of people, fighters, civilians, if we saw the videos, old people on bicycles, old men, who were entering what should be one of the most secure borders in the entire world. It should be monitored.
These things go without saying. We don't have to get into the wall itself. But the fact that when Hamas came in, when the civilians, if we could call, when the other Gazans came in, when they entered, they came in with extensive plans.
They said, we're going, as everybody knows, we're going to this kibbutz, and we're going to that kibbutz. And when we go there, I think they had plans to take over and hold certain areas of the south.
So if they were to make such a plan, say, for example, I said, tomorrow we're going to break into Fort Knox. Or for those who don't know what that is, we're going to break into the Knesset. OK, make sure you bring your toothbrush, bring a towel, bring something to make lunch. And you'll say to me, Ariel, excuse me, you plan to break into Fort Knox. You plan to break into the Knesset. What makes you think that you are so secure in your ability to get in that you could start planning for the next two weeks?
Apparently, Hamas getting past the border and getting inside and coming and going in and back and forth and taking hostages at their free will for hours was already a given. They already knew that they could get in and they could get out.
So that is not the result of a failed camera, of a failed system of the wall. That means that we have to worry, we as Israelis, we the Israeli public, we the Israeli security system, we have to worry that our entire perception and our entire understanding of how secure our border, at least the southern border, but it makes us question everything, obviously. But we have to question what we have heard and what we've understood to this day, it could be a complete fallacy.
Not that it's intentional. It could very well be, and it probably is, that the security forces, the army, the intelligence agencies, they were for sure similarly shocked at what happened in the scale. But it seems like Hamas and those in Gaza were not shocked because they had pre-planned coming in and doing extensive damage, extensive work, well beyond merely getting past the wall.
Nothing is pleasant about what I'm saying. We lost on October 7th. The day after, when Bibi decided to go and grab three generals who were beholden to the United States as his war cabinet, we lost the day after.
And now before October 7th, we also lost. Because when we talk about Gaza, we're talking about a place where Israel, we control their electricity, their water, their internet, everything that goes in there. They cannot flush a toilet or turn on in Gaza without Israeli approval. So how is that territory, which is one of probably the most disproportionate in any conflict areas of the world where we control everything, how is that territory continuously shooting rockets at us for years? So the fact that they have been shooting rockets at us, and we have not used any of these abilities that we have, that tells us that we lost before October 7th.
So now we lost before October 7th. We lost on October 7th. We lost after October 7th. We're not dealing with a winning hand, right? This is not going well, I'm sorry to say. So now when we deal with the hostages, right, we have to say, if we've been losing so far, who's to say we're going to win? Not that we don't have the capabilities, but we don't have the political will to do it. We don't.
So now we have to worry about what do we do with these hostages, right? Understanding that we are in a real disadvantage. So I would say, gather as many as you can, bring them home as many as you can, because I don't know where this war is headed.
In terms of what's going on so far, and what we, Israel, have been doing to Hamas, I would say we don't really know. And the reason why is that every day on the news, we'll hear, and it's for us, the Israeli citizens, but it's also for Western consumption. And the government is telling us, we've taken out this many targets, and 6,000 targets today, and 8,000 tomorrow, and we've used this much munitions. But we don't know what that really means, right? If I say to you, okay, well, did you use today? And you're going to say 5,000 tomorrow, and we think we're successful.
But we don't know what that means. What are they actually blowing up, right? We're fighting against people, but we don't have the numbers of the people that are being killed, right? If we sit and blow up sand all day, how successful are we?
The leverage of the hostages, this was their intent, obviously. They said, Hamas, they had marching orders to go and bring back hostages, from what I heard of all the different accounts, of course, to kill the men and take the women and children. Now, of course, when you start taking babies, and you start to go to the level that they did with the atrocities, and moreover, because the atrocities.
We've heard such things, believe it or not. For our generation, maybe we haven't heard it as often. But if you look back at the massacres in Hebron and other massacres, we've heard such things. But what we haven't seen is the intentional broadcast of it, the live stream, putting it on TV, intentional to show everyone. And I think that more so put Israel in a situation, even more so than the hostages, where Israel must act for its own public, for the political future of all of its leaders, and even for the world.
I did want to chime in with one more, because we did mention the hostages, and one observation that I had. Now, as we're going through the entire process, and we have X number coming out, 10 a day, 12 a day, whatever, what have you, we are two months into the war. And two months into the war, two months into that we are in Gaza, okay, to get a concept of what's going on there. And now they, Hamas, is able to operate in real time to say, get me this hostage, get me that hostage, move him here and move him there.
They are able to, now, keep in mind, not just that they stopped, the fact that they stopped shooting rockets is also relevant. Not that rockets are being shot, but they stopped it, meaning they're like this. Meaning that two months in, they have complete manned structure, command, control, communicate.
They're able to communicate within and say, I want this guy and that guy. These are the things we have to look at when we assess the war. And we say, oh, we're doing so well because a lot of sand is blowing up in the air.
-That's not how you assess the war. Israel has been in the case, and our leadership will remember this, right? It's not so long ago. Maybe actually, maybe it is too long ago.
But they will remember wars where there was a chance that Israel will be destroyed. So I think Bibi's policy, for the most part, has been, Bibi's been around for a very long time, has been to go down the path of least resistance. And what that means for the most part is he has sought to have economic stability.
He has sought to receive accolades and praise from the rest of the world. For example, in time of Corona. In the time of Corona, who were the first ones to get the vaccines? Whether you vaccine or not, it doesn't matter. I'm saying, because of Bibi's influence, we received the vaccines first. I received my second vaccine here before my 80-year-old mother received her vaccine there. So I'm not saying Bibi good, Bibi bad, it's not really relevant.
What I'm saying is that this has been the approach to uplift the economy, to have a decent, a good international reputation, pay them off, what have you, and understand that they're going to continue to hurt us, but they will not kill us. And there is no Syria, and there's no Egypt, and there's no Jordan that can kill us as it was in the past. So I think that would come into the mind frame of all of these generals that you would speak to, Yonatan.
And they would say, Yonatan, you're speaking as if there's an existential threat. When you say nuclear and you say this, but in their reflection in the past, let's say 40 years, Israel hasn't really faced such a threat. And for that reason, we also saw on October 7th, how we were so ill-prepared, which is all of a result of these things.
-So if you give work permits, and then you give more jobs, then the problem is solved. But actually, it's a religious war. It doesn't matter how many work products you have.
So it's putting a Band-Aid on a headache. It completely does not make any sense, right? It's a real misunderstanding of what the conflict is. Now, are there those who want booze and nice villas? Absolutely.
But you don't have to be 100% right. Of course, as the gullut mentality, after thousands of years, years of living in someone else's house and requesting and keeping a low profile, it becomes extremely difficult to then come and assert yourself as the balabait, as the homeowner, as the boss. I think we see that, particularly with those of us who were born in Galut, in exile.
But we also see it for those who were born here. And I think we see it often in Israeli culture. And I'll give you a little story where I have some distant cousins.
And I remember it was during Eurovision. And Israel made it to, I don't know, the finals or some high place in Eurovision. And one of my cousins said, wrote on the WhatsApp group, Wow, we're finally on the map.
And I remember thinking, no, we have been the map for centuries. We've always been the map. I have to end on a positive note because I know we have some things that people might roll their eyes at.
So I heard from a good friend of mine, who's a Rav, and he explained this. He said, historically, if we took any Jew from almost any time period, any location, and we brought them to the land of Israel today, and they saw our Jewish army and our Jewish police and open worship and the shuls and the society that we live in. And what would they say? They would say, you are living in the times of Mashiach.
So as we go through all these topics, these things that may be disappointing to hear, we have to put it into perspective. And last time we also mentioned, another perspective is that had we been discussing, if we had the same topic 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago, we'd be discussing war against bona fide armies, war against armies with tanks and airplanes. So we have to remember that the trajectory of Am Yisrael and Medinat Yisrael is continuing to go up and that we're very privileged to be living in these times and to be seeing these times.
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