As the second anniversary of the Flood attack on October 7, 2023 approaches, Israelis are recalling the details of the day that dealt a painful blow to them, for which they paid with blood and heavy losses. Today, two years later, they fear that they may not be able to rise again, not due to a loss of military strength, but as a result of corrupt leadership, a lack of responsibility, and mismanagement.
Shimon Shabas, the political advisor and former director general of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's office, noted that "on October 6, 1973, my life changed forever, as did the life of my entire generation, because that war came like a resounding slap in the face of the state after the euphoria of the 1967 war, and as a result, we paid a heavy price: thousands of soldiers did not return, and many returned but were not the same as they were."
He pointed out that "not a single street in the state escaped harm: 2,600 dead, 7,500 wounded, and tens of thousands injured in life, a heavy price paid by society due to blindness, arrogance, political folly, and a miscalculation that approached lawlessness."
Shabas added in an article published on the Walla website and translated by "Arabi21" that "this devastating loss was not a foregone conclusion, it was not an earthquake or a volcanic eruption or a meteor strike, but a catastrophic failure resulting from blind faith in a concept, and a reluctance to act. Everyone responsible for this failure paid the price; Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan left the scene, and four years later, the Labor Party that built and led the state paid the political price and was sent to the opposition."
He indicated that "Israel and its generation at the time were all left with scars that remain to this day, decades of post-traumatic shock, sleepless nights, and anxiety, paying the price with heavy hearts. With the launch of Hamas's attack on October 7, 2023, fifty years and one day later, what seemed to us like a historic failure due to unprecedented incapacity and blindness diminished in the face of the catastrophe of October 7."
However, it is not a catastrophe; a catastrophe happens on its own, by accident, or by a higher power. He clarified that "October 7, 2023, unlike October 6, 1973, is the result of deliberate chaos, years of warnings, screams, and pleas in the face of a dictator in the making, blind, drunk with power, irresponsible, the worst leader for the Jews since the destruction of the Temple two thousand years ago."
One thousand Jews paid with their lives for the incompetence and blindness of Benjamin Netanyahu and his group, tens of thousands walk injured in their bodies and minds, an entire state suffers from psychological trauma, and hundreds of thousands of children will live with it forever.
Shabas affirmed: "I fear that we will not be able to rise from the war of October 7, not because Israelis have lost the ability, but rather, they have shown much greater determination than their failed leaders. However, because our leadership is corrupt and irresponsible, and above all malicious, a leadership willing to sacrifice its citizens to remain in power, even if the state no longer exists."
Today, because of this government, it becomes much harder to confront Hamas, as we lack the necessary tools, and the bargaining chips are in the hands of crazy ministers.
He added that "the government and its ministers see themselves waging an endless war with the whole world to achieve their messianic vision. They sincerely believe that these are the days of the Messiah."
After the 1973 war destroyed trust in the old leadership and paved the way for a political coup that brought Menachem Begin to power, October 7, 2023, destroyed trust in the state itself, the trust of Israelis in the government, the army, and in themselves.
This is not post-traumatic shock, but disintegration, and the result is that we see our children fleeing the state, with destruction looming on the horizon.
Shabas concluded, according to Walla, that what remains for Israelis today is "one bullet in the barrel of the gun, a final step before losing what they are trying to save from the state, under a government that has turned the police into a private militia, and has caused incitement, division, and internal conflict, making the option of ousting it inevitable, otherwise the scars of October 7 will continue to haunt them until further notice."
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Israeli frustration over failure in Gaza after two years of "Al-Aqsa Flood"