Israel experienced an absolutely horrific failure of intelligence | Opinion

The carnage under way in Israel and Gaza has shown in ghastly detail the cruelty of a war in which innocent civilians have been murdered or taken hostage. President Biden was correct when he called Hamas militants’ acts of terrorism “sheer evil.”

Now, unfortunately, the indiscriminate death and destruction continues to spread as Israel forcefully responds to a vicious and unprovoked attack, as it has every right to do. Inevitably, however, innocent residents in Gaza are among this war’s victims, too.

The initial success of Hamas’ militants’ surprise attack revealed a colossal failure of Israel’s vaunted intelligence service, Mossad.

American TV networks have even aired footage of Hamas fighters openly training for such an invasion. If Mossad noticed, it did not sound an alarm. As a result, Israel’s military initially unprepared to repel the invaders, and many lives were lost in Israel.

This failure was a stark reminder of how much any nation’s intelligence operations can matter in protecting that nation from harm. The United States found this out the hard way on 9/11.

The failures of America’s vast intelligence apparatus were reported in great detail in “The 9/11 Commission Report,” subtitled “Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.”

Published on July 22, 2004, after months of exhaustive research, the 567-page report was the product of a bipartisan 10-member commission chaired by former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean and aided by large staff.

The commission’s report notes that the 9/11 attacks were preceded by several other terrorist actions against U.S. targets. Our intelligence operatives knew something was up. Chapter 8, “The System Was Blinking Red,” cites clues that, in retrospect, might have exposed the plot.

Among them: a pre-9/11 meeting in Beirut attended by al Qaeda operatives, Hezbollah and Iranian officials — a reminder of Iran’s role, then and now, as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Iran, which the Wall Street Journal reported was involved in planning Saturday’s Hamas attack, remains a key player in “an axis of evil” that now includes Russia because of its actions in Ukraine — which we should not now abandon, as some in Congress are inclined to do.

Unfortunately, even when our spy agencies were alarmed by various suspicious activities prior to 9/11, they could not pinpoint the exact nature of the threat. Moreover, the United States received little help or cooperation when it contacted its so-called friends in the Middle East.

For instance, in part because Osama bin Laden was a Saudi national, both Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Colin Powell met with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah asking for help. They received none.

In fact, as the 9/11 Commission report notes, “U.S.-Saudi relations in the summer of 2001 were marked by sometimes heated disagreements about ongoing Israeli-Palestinian violence.”

I have to wonder what our relations with the Saudis will be now in light of the new Israeli-Palestinian violence, which comes just as it appeared there was discernible progress toward normalization of diplomatic relations and the Saudis’ recognition of Israel’s right to exist.

America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia would matter less if the United States had maintained the long-sought energy independence achieved during the Trump administration and frittered away by the Biden administration, causing more volatility in oil prices and triggering inflation across the U.S. economy and abroad.

After the 9/11 attacks, potential Saudi involvement was of particular interest to Florida’s U.S. Sen. Bob Graham at the time. Then chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and head of the joint congressional investigation into the attacks, he was in a position to pursue the facts.

The capstone of this work was a book, “Intelligence Matters.” The book was subtitled, tellingly, “The CIA, the FBI, Saudi Arabia and the Failure of America’s War on Terror.”

Coincidentally, today marks the 19^th anniversary of the book’s publication on Oct. 12, 2004 — just 80 days after the 9/11 Commission’s report’s release. Although his book did not contradict the findings of the 9/11 Commission’s report, it offered a different perspective and included information suggesting that there was indeed a degree of involvement by some officials within the Saudi government.

Many Americans may recall that, after 9/11, the illusion of national unity soon evaporated, and the blame game quickly began, even credibly faulting former President Clinton for missing a chance to target Osama bin Laden.

There’s already similar finger-pointing occurring in Israel. The editorial board of Haaretz, one of Israel’s leading newspapers, led the charge with this:

“The disaster that befell Israel on the holiday of Simchat Torah is the clear responsibility of one person: Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister, who has prided himself on his vast political experience and irreplaceable wisdom in security matters, completely failed to identify the dangers he was consciously leading Israel into when establishing a government of annexation and dispossession … while embracing a foreign policy that openly ignored the existence and rights of Palestinians.”

That this kind of critical commentary could be published in a time of war is a reminder that, despite Netanyahu’s attempt to subordinate Israel’s judiciary, the nation remains a beacon of democracy, and a friend of the United States, in a region mostly dominated oppressive regimes that do not wish us well.

The inescapable conclusion: Although Israel is strong militarily, it needs and deserves our help. We should not hesitate to provide it.