Israel Intelligence Chief Betrays Israel

After reading the accusations about IDF Intelligence Chief, Maj. General Aharon Haliva, I still can’t believe that this man has not been kicked out of the IDF, never mind not imprisoned. The level of treachery that he committed that may actually destroy the country of Israel is mind-boggling. Basically, the man discounted, with overwhelming evidence at his fingertips, that Hamas posed a threat to Israel.

How is that possible?

The evidence was not leaked immediately. But following the October 7 attack, a couple of women from the Fields Observers unit at Nahal Oz base who survived spoke up:

Days after their friends were slaughtered, raped and kidnapped, the two surviving members of the unit and a number of former members started coming forward to tell their story. In interviews with Channel 11, two women related that in the months before the invasion, they were warning it was in the works. The women saw Hamas terrorists training to take over kibbutzim and IDF bases. They watched terrorists practicing taking hostages and blowing up tanks. They saw terror commanders watching the drills. They saw spies probing the fence for weaknesses. They saw it all and reported it all.

Rather than giving them medals, unnamed top-level officers in the intelligence corps ordered them to stop. When they continued reporting, the observers were warned that they would be disciplined and removed from the unit if they kept raising their concerns.

A civilian hacker, Rafael Hayun, was equipped by the IDF to monitor Hamas activity:

In late 2019, Hayun began reporting on Hamas training exercises involving invading Israel, penetrating the security fence at multiple points, taking over communities, committing mass murder and kidnapping. Over time, the training became more intense and detailed. Hayun alerted the units he was working with about Hamas’s activities in real time.

Five months before the assault, his colleagues in the IDF were ordered to seize all of his equipment and stop working with him. Around the same time, the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate Unit 8200 signals intelligence unit also stopped monitoring Hamas’s communications.

An intelligence NCO submitted reports on the plans Hamas was making:

In a series of three, increasingly detailed and urgent reports over succeeding months, the NCO set out in granular detail how Hamas was preparing a broad invasion of Israel that included the invasion of IDF bases, border towns and kibbutzim. Her reports included all aspects of the invasion that took place on Oct. 7, including Hamas’s use of paragliders, pick-up trucks and motorcycles. She detailed Hamas’s plans to massacre and kidnap civilians and soldiers. She warned that their intention was to use provocations along the security fence in the weeks leading up to the operation to get the IDF used to breaches and so lull its commanders into complacency. She even secured Hamas’s own training manual for the operation. She was able to get the information in front of Unit 8200’s commander and a top officer in the Southern Command. They apparently did nothing.

The behavior of Maj. General Haliva has been outrageous on several counts. First, he believed that Hamas was not a threat and was just posturing for show. In spite of the comprehensive planning they were doing, he didn’t take Hamas seriously. Second, a slide presentation with the details of Hamas’ plans was presented by the Gaza Division’s intelligence officer:

In a follow-up report from August, the intelligence officer even explained that Hamas intended to carry out its plan either on Shabbat or on a holiday when only a small cadre of soldiers would be on duty. His work was dismissed as unrealistic and out of line with Hamas’s true intentions by senior intelligence officers at Tel Aviv headquarters.

Third, he ignored the advice of his intelligence professionals, choosing to make his own judgments in a vacuum.

Fourth, he never informed Prime Minister Netanyahu about these threats.

Fifth (although it doesn’t incriminate him), several members of his own family were leaders in the movement against Netanyahu’s proposed reforms. He made no secret of his own opposition to Netanyahu’s government.

Finally, although many people have agreed not to investigate the causes of the October 7 attack until the war is over, we have a high-level officer who, due to his own arrogance, lies and gross mismanagement, has put the entire country of Israel at risk. Netanyahu called the war an existential threat:

Three days later, in his first public remarks since Oct. 7, Haliva rejected Netanyahu’s description of the war as an existential conflict. Speaking to graduates of the Intelligence Corps officer training course, Haliva insisted, ‘It’s a war we have no choice but to fight. It isn’t an existential war.’

Tell that to the Israeli people, Haliva.

At the very least, shouldn’t he be removed from a decision-making position?