Towards the end of last week, I started to prepare my second article about the Yom Kippur War for the Jewish Telegraph. This was going to be the story of the greatest catastrophic failure of Israeli military intelligence which was a significant factor associated with the tragedy of the Yom Kippur War.

But that is no longer the case. On Saturday morning my wife Vicci woke me up and said ‘there is a war in Israel’. Saturday was the last day of Sukkot – the festival of Tabernacles. The last day of Sukkot is called Simchat Torah, traditionally a happy day meant for singing and dancing, expressions of joy when Jews around the world celebrate the observance of the Torah

But that was not to be. Instead and since then we have tragically witnessed what has now become the greatest catastrophe that has happened to the Jewish people since the end of the Holocaust

There are probably very few people in the UK who are now unaware of the attack on Southern Israel by Hamas. But this was not merely an attack. It was an unopposed slaughter of whole families in their homes, a massacre of young children and babies, some had their heads cut off, the rape and execution of hundreds of young people at an open-air music festival, the shooting of the innocents at point blank range and the kidnapping of over 100 women, children and elderly, including Holocaust survivors.

As I write this piece, Israel has announced there have been over 1300 deaths and overt 3,300 wounded, so far. Many of the wounded are seriously injured and almost certainly some of them will in the future move across to the deaths column.

Although Israel has always regarded Hamas as a terrorist organisation and its sworn enemy, since hitting it hard in the 10-day war in 2021, Israel had decided to adopt a carrot and stick approach in order to try and maintain stability in the strip.

Israel continued to offer economic incentives including an increase in the thousands of work permits that permitted Gazans to work in Israel or the occupied West Bank, while maintaining control of the border by the constant threat of air strikes.

Israel was misled during the past 18 months as violence raged across the West Bank, whilst Gaza had been relatively quiet, with Islamic Jihad and the Hamas movement seemingly having little interest in escalating the conflict.

“We were surprised this morning. About failures, I prefer not to talk at this point right now. We’re at war. We’re fighting,” said Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, a spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces, who was born in Glasgow and his family here is most concerned about all their relatives in Israel

But as we search for explanations about the events of Saturday, American and Israeli officials said none of Israel’s intelligence services had specific warning that Hamas was preparing this kind of sophisticated assault.

Israel has maintained a view that it would be very efficient in stopping attacks by Hamas. It had built a wall that extended 30-40 metres underground. Israel still believes that it is very effective against rockets, both long and short range, by deploying an early warning system and most effective anti-rocket system, the Iron Dome. But when Hamas understood rockets would not work and that the tunnels could not be used, they secretly developed another strategy.

It is now clear that Israeli intelligence made significant erroneous assumptions about the intentions and the nature of the threat from Hamas.

As thus on Saturday morning we watched videos of Hamas terrorists attacking Israel, with bulldozers, breaking through the security fence as if it was sweetie paper, and hundreds of militants storming into Israel running over the border or using motorbikes and paragliders.

But in the past few months, life in Israel has been a domestic political nightmare. The country has been more divided than at any time in the past 40 years. The security establishment including the Mossad, military intelligence and the domestic security service Shin Bet, was bitterly opposed to the fragile government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And it showed.

The country had become increasingly divided and rife with domestic political problems. In July, Israel’s parliament decided to prevent judges from striking down government decisions on the basis that they are “unreasonable.”

These controversial changes to the judiciary, dictated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, led to public outrage and mass protests. Some senior members of Israel’s military reserve refused to report for duty recently although they have now done so for this crisis.

Netanyahu’s government has been caught napping, distracted by its attempts to force through unpopular judicial reforms

Is it a surprise therefore that Hamas chose to strike Israel as a divided Israel continued to tear itself apart.

Netanyahu has in his many years as prime minster focused on the necessity for security and as a defender of Israel. But while his robust rhetoric has fostered his image as a ‘security first’ leader, his actions have actually strengthened Hamas

Hamas has now demonstrated a complete disregard for the blood of those they purport to represent. In launching their jihad, the leaders of this organisation and its rank-and-file members will be mercilessly hunted by Israeli security forces. But the path to their elimination will be paved with the corpses of innocent Palestinian men, women, and children who want nothing more than a promising future.

But Hamas cares little for the Palestinians. Hamas initiates military atrocities in order to inflict destruction on the Palestinians. People around the world continuously criticises Israel for applying collective punishment to the inhabitants of Gaza by cutting off the electricity. But why do these people believe that Israel should be providing electricity to Gaza. Why should Israel supply electricity to an area populated by its enemies and savages that wish to kill its citizens. Should Ukraine supply electricity to Russia? Why has Hamas in the past 10 years not built the infrastructure to provide electricity and fresh water to Gaza?

Israel’s has confirmed that its strategy is to eliminate the military capability of Hamas. Israel has formed an emergency war cabinet. Bibi Netanyahu and former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz, two men that have more hatred than love for each other, will now work together to put Israel back together. But at what price!!