Why Israel ignored Egyptian warnings?

AbdulMalik al Araimi

Whenever I think about the situation in Gaza, and the rest of occupied Palestine, five questions rush to my mind - Why did the Israeli government not give attention to the Egyptian warning about the possible attack by Hamas?

Why did the Israeli government ignore the symbolic importance of the 50th anniversary of their war with Egypt back in 1973? Why did the Israelis not take action immediately, especially that television channels were there broadcasting scenes of the attacks? Is Netanyahu gaining any personal advantage from a war like this? and What are the similarities between October 7, 2023 and September 11, 2001?

The war between Israel and Palestine has been around for decades. Since the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the declaration of the Israeli state on Palestinian land in 1948, clashes are going on between various groups. Nonetheless, what has been happening in Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023 reminds me of the US reaction to the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US. The following lines provide a perspective.

The Egyptian warning: Right before October 7, Egyptian intelligence authorities warned the Israeli government about a possible surprise attack. “Something big” they said, which put a big question mark on the Israeli intelligence’s failure to predict such an event. Having the most effective intelligence protection systems in the world, this event made people criticise it for being “not good enough”. In addition, the Prime Minister of Israel suspiciously ignored all warnings, as if he was waiting for something to happen so that he could do something about it, to save himself from prison. The prime minister denied receiving any warnings, saying that they were “fake news”.

The symbolism of October 7: Back on October 7, 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israeli forces in the Sinai and the Golan Heights. The war continued and caused both sides huge financial and human losses, which at the end resulted in the victory of the Egyptian army which gained full control of Sinai. Although there are still different opinions about the winner of that war, the important thing is the question: Why did the Israeli intelligence systems not predict and prepare for such an event? People still remember the day and realise what could or might happen. How come the prime minister didn’t remember such an event, and get ready for it?

Wait, ready, GO!: Operation Toofaan Al Aqsa by Hamas started approximately at 6:31 am in the morning. Hamas launched the attack by sending a huge number of rockets and bombs to the centre of Israel, causing more than 800 deaths of Israelis and holding a couple of hundred as captives. Moreover, they aggressively continued attacking Israel for hours. Meanwhile, TV channels and news reporters had already got there and started broadcasting the scenes live, which raises many questions: Why did the Israeli government not take action immediately? Why did Netanyahu wait so long to declare war against Hamas? He could have easily blocked all the roads preventing Hamas from escaping and could immediately have told Israeli soldiers to get them while they were out of their tunnels. This, in fact, was a very tactical move by Netanyahu.

He wanted to hold Hamas accountable for what they have done as evidence and a justification to attack Gaza as hard as he can and kill as many civilians as possible and cause the surviving ones to leave their land. Netanyahu wanted Hamas to take time attacking Israelis, to cause more destruction so that he could attack back without having to worry about what the world thinks. It seems that his plan was a genocide in Gaza Strip.

A sneaky way out!: Right before October 7, huge protests were going non-stop in the centre of Israel. It was going on for months against the judicial reforms that Netanyahu was trying to implement. The prime minister had many allegations of corruption that he was continuously denying, and he had no other way to dodge them than the judicial reforms, which are meant to reduce the Supreme Court’s power in making laws and policies, and limiting its power to review laws, giving the government more control over choosing judges. This resulted in taking the 15 judges of the Supreme Court down. Netanyahu badly needed a diplomatic victory that would help him stay away from his corruption allegations and also give him support with regard to personal life. In addition, his calling it a “war” against Hamas is just to sugarcoat the fact that he wanted to get international support to destroy Gaza, kill its people, and drive them away to Egypt, demolishing the two state solution.

Another 9/11?: Now let’s compare what is happening in Gaza to what happened back on September 11, 2001. We can clearly see how similar both situations are. Back in the day, America had the ultimate goal which was invading Afghanistan and destroying Al Qaeda, as well as invading Iraq and taking down Saddam Hussein. Their strategy was allowing the September 11 attacks to happen, with many evidences such as the Larry Silverstein’s sudden insurance deal on twin towers. Records show that some people knew that the attacks would take place there before filming the scenes of the towers coming down.

Conclusion: Netanyahu’s strategy to save himself the corruption allegations against him (as well as the war crimes he committed in Gaza) by sacrificing both Israelis and Palestinians reminds me of the old French saying which may be translated as “Let me survive and let the flood take everyone else”, which is usually translated into Arabic as “Anaa wa man ba’dii al-Toofaan”. In other words, Netanyahu was waiting for a flood or a toofaan that can delay his judicial problems, which may save him and sweep anyone else, even the so-called Israeli citizens. And he found a flood or a toofaan, which is Toofaan Al-Aqsaa, which is the name of the operation that started on October 7, 2023.

AbdulMalik al Araimi