00:00Welcome to Apropos, well a year on from the Hamas massacre, Benjamin Netanyahu continues
00:07to avoid accepting responsibility for Israel's biggest ever security failure.
00:13Several senior military and intelligence officials have either resigned or admitted that mistakes
00:18were made.
00:19Speaking at a commemorative event to mark the October 7th anniversary, a bereaved father
00:24of one of the hostages again called on the Israeli government to hold an inquiry into
00:30the massacre.
00:31Netanyahu insists that such questions must wait for the end of the war.
00:36Our colleagues at France 3rd Television have been meeting some Israelis who've lost faith
00:41in their country's intelligence and security services.
00:45Solange Moujon has more.
00:48A wall that was meant to be impenetrable between Israel and Gaza.
00:55Yet on October 7th, 2023, there were multiple breaches along this separation barrier.
01:02Thousands of Hamas fighters passed through its barbed wire and concrete fortifications.
01:08Some came by sea, others by air with motorized paragliders.
01:18That very morning, Yaron Mayor was at home.
01:21He fought against Hamas to protect his family.
01:24He's accepted to speak to us and relive that day.
01:28This is the story of being face to face with terrorism, of living through security failures.
01:40There was an assailant who came through the kitchen window.
01:44I saw him.
01:46I stood up and I walked towards him.
01:50I shot him twice.
01:53Boom, boom.
01:55And he fell outside the house.
01:58Mayor was part of a security watch on his kibbutz.
02:02He was armed.
02:03But he was not trained or prepared to defend his home from such an extensive attack.
02:10The worst case scenario that we, the kibbutz's intervention team, were trained for was an
02:16attack with a maximum of 10 fighters.
02:20That's something that no one even considered as possible.
02:27Hundreds of Hamas fighters would enter the homes on the kibbutz, bringing with them terror,
02:32death and a total security fiasco.
02:36Surrounded, Mayor barricaded himself with his wife and children in this room.
02:41The bulletproof glass and door saved their lives.
02:45But the nightmare would take its toll.
02:47He no longer trusts Israel to protect him and his family.
02:50It took security forces four hours to come to their rescue.
02:56The barrier, which was so costly, it was created with underground tunnels in mind.
03:01No one thought an attack would come from above ground.
03:06The high-tech barrier wall has multi-layered fencing with detection tracking sensors.
03:11Below ground, there are concrete structures to prevent any tunnels from being dug.
03:17But such fortifications were far from infallible.
03:19For on October 7th, Hamas drones hit, with great precision, Israel's control towers.
03:26In Tel Aviv, retired generals and judges are leading a citizen-led investigation about
03:32Israel's security failures.
03:34Israelis will have to make do with the Civilian Commission of Inquiry, as the Israeli government
03:39has refused to conduct an official public probe.
03:43The Citizen Commission heard the testimonies of surveillance soldiers.
03:47Pegged as the eyes of the army, this all-female force, they claim that their warnings of suspicious
03:53activity are not taken seriously.
03:57Seen here at their base on October 7th, with Hamas just outside, many of them say that
04:04they had sent word of suspicious activity.
04:09We observed attempts to cross the barrier, the laying of landmines, patrols.
04:14We reported all of this and no one responded.
04:19Sixteen of these surveillance soldiers were assassinated.
04:23Seven others were taken hostage.
04:26Arez Price is the father of one of the victims.
04:29Every week he comes to the memorial that was built right near the base to pay tribute to
04:34his murdered daughter and her troop mates.
04:36Noa Price was 19 years old.
04:39She is photographed here with her fellow soldiers before that tragic day.
04:43It is really important to pay tribute to her memory and that of the other soldiers.
04:51Noa and all the others, they were just kids with a brilliant, brilliant future before
04:56them.
04:58Gaza is just 600 metres away.
05:01One year ago, Hamas fighters were able to make the journey without being stopped.
05:06Standing before the army base where his daughter was killed.
05:09Arez Price condemns what he calls a political failure.
05:13There was this notion among our politicians that Hamas would not do anything because they
05:17were getting money from Qatar.
05:19Their quality of life was improving so they wouldn't do anything.
05:23A faulty calculation, an oversight, a fatal error.
05:27That would make October 7th the deadliest day for Israelis in the history of their nation.
05:34We're joined now by political adviser Alan Pincus who served as ambassador and Israel's
05:40consul general in New York between 2000 and 2004.
05:45Thank you so much for being with us on the programme.
05:47We do appreciate your time, Alan.
05:49We heard from some survivors in that report from Solange, also the families of some of
05:55those who died in the Hamas massacre.
05:58Sirens are again ringing out tonight in central Israel as it marks a year on from that massacre.
06:05How are people feeling there on this anniversary?
06:09Well, it's good to be with you on this bad day.
06:13But there was a siren outside where I'm sitting right now five minutes ago.
06:18You understand that we're in the midst of all this.
06:24I have to say that even though an entire year passed, October 7th, 23 and October 7th, 24,
06:31the general mindset, the general zeitgeist in Israel now is still that of devastation,
06:37agony, humiliation and shock.
06:42People are still angry at the political echelon.
06:45People are still disappointed with the military's performance.
06:49And even though there were some military successes in the last few months, more in Lebanon than
06:54in Gaza, I think that that sense of devastation and that sense of dejection and that sense
07:01of vulnerability that was exposed is still very prevalent.
07:07And how divided is Israel?
07:09Because looking in from the outside, it seems that it is, particularly when we see commemorations
07:14being held separately, the government holding its own memorials, some of the families getting
07:19together to hold another, then protests meanwhile ongoing outside the prime minister's residence.
07:24So what does that tell us about the state of Israeli society a year on from that massacre?
07:32It's united in the sense of we're all in this together.
07:37It is united in the sense that there's a war that is justified, a just war in Gaza and
07:44a just war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
07:47But that's where the unity and the solidarity end.
07:53One centimeter beyond that, and you see the same political divisions that existed.
07:58It's Netanyahu who did not take responsibility for what had happened, who is not willing
08:04to be held responsible, who blames the entire world but himself, the military, the intelligence,
08:11President Biden, the world, Iran, everyone but himself.
08:17Even though he can claim that he had some successes against Hezbollah in the last month
08:24or so, it's still very unpopular.
08:28Seventy percent of Israelis think he should resign.
08:31In fact, 70 percent of Israelis think he should have resigned on October 7, 2023, and every
08:37day that has elapsed since.
08:41However, because of those relative successes in Lebanon and because there's no real political
08:47opposition in Israel, certainly not a potent and combative opposition, he is still where
08:54he is, and he's even improving in his polls.
08:57Yes, because it seems that his popularity has in fact been boosted in recent weeks.
09:03You've mentioned about how he's been avoiding responsibility since the Hamas massacre.
09:08What now for Netanyahu?
09:11What is going to happen in terms of those calls also for this commission of inquiry?
09:15Is there any hope for the families that the government is going to agree to hold something
09:20like this?
09:21Yeah, there is.
09:23There is hope, but people need to understand, our viewers need to understand, that an official
09:29national inquiry commission takes two years before it publishes its findings.
09:36This is that they don't subscribe or they don't adjust themselves to political timetables.
09:43And until then, we will have at least one election cycle, if not two.
09:49So even if such a commission is established, and I think it will be at some point, and
09:53even if such a commission does a very serious and rigorous job, we're looking at 2027 or
10:042026 before it publishes its findings.
10:08Well, everyone knows the very simple truth.
10:12Here is a government that was responsible, and a prime minister particularly, that was
10:17responsible for the worst calamity, the worst debacle, the worst catastrophe, the worst
10:22day that turned into the worst year in Israel's history.
10:26And they think it's business as usual, you know.
10:29They deal with politics and the survival of the coalition.
10:33And they play petty politics when an entire nation is in agony.
10:39And you, you've mentioned that, you know, Israel failing on so many fronts.
10:43You've written about that as well, in terms of policy, deterrence, security, intelligence.
10:49How did Israel manage to fail on so many fronts before the Hamas massacre?
10:55Well, there are three reasons.
10:58The first is, you know, what Israelis called a concept, a conceptia, is the use that, the
11:08linguistic use.
11:09That is that Mr. Netanyahu, in his attempt to avoid any kind of negotiations with the
11:17Palestinians, and in order to weaken the Palestinian authority, actively or proactively rather
11:24strengthened Hamas by allowing money to be, allowing money to be funneled into the Gaza
11:30Strip, particularly Qatari money.
11:32And when the Qataris, in their defense, in 2018 said that they lost control of what happens
11:40to that money that was meant for the functioning of the government, Mr. Netanyahu then dispatched
11:46his head of Mossad, then Yossi Cohen, Mr. Yossi Cohen, to implore them not to.
11:52So one thing was that you strengthen Hamas.
11:55The second was that, the sense that Hamas is being deterred.
12:00The second, the second reason that it happened is what is called a failure of imagination.
12:06When you absolutely convince yourself that Hamas is deterred, that they have no interest
12:11in a war, that they're more busy and preoccupied with governance rather than a war with Israel,
12:20you fail to see what they intend to do, and you think, and that was in your previous story,
12:27you tend to think that even if something horrific happens, it's a ten-man strong Hamas group
12:34that walks in and murders a few people or takes one or two hostages and tries to run
12:39away.
12:40Not the attack, not the assault on the scale of what we saw on October 7th.
12:47And the third reason for this failure that you mentioned is tactical.
12:54You know, the military was just ill-prepared.
12:58Based on those two concepts that I just described, the military was lax.
13:04The intelligence was there, by the way.
13:09You know, the soldiers, particularly the female soldiers, the women soldiers, were in charge
13:15of monitoring with all kinds of devices and technologies, have warned repeatedly that
13:21this was going to happen, but they were ruined by the operational loss of the military camp
13:27in Hamas.
13:28Okay, Alan, we'll have to leave it there for now, but thank you so much for your time on
13:32the program.
13:33That is former political advisor and ambassador Alan Picas, who served as Israel's consul
13:38general in New York from 2000 to 2004.
13:41That is it from us for the moment.
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