Officers of the Israeli military, security agencies and clandestine infrastructure were known throughout the world as the most feared, smart and savvy agents the world has ever known. But recent incidents have severely called that perception into question.
Most recently, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s security attache on his visit to Washington this week misplaced a handful of firearms. Two suitcases with seven guns all together were destined for Washington but arrived in Los Angeles and Chicago before returning to D.C., when Israeli security discovered that four pistols were stolen during the suitcases’ U.S. tour.
Would the Shin Bet have ever allowed a situation like this to have occurred in the past? Highly doubtful.
But, this is not an isolated incident with Israeli military and security services. The IDF raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla was highly criticized in Israel for not effectively preparing for the activists who were brandishing weapons and immediately attacked soldiers, which led to the hospitalization of several IDF soldiers.
Further, the presumed Israeli assassins who targeted a Hamas official in the Gulf were caught on video, and their passport photographs were distributed by the international media, sparking an outcry in Israel that the clandestine services are getting sloppy. (However, I believe that Israel wanted to effectively get the message out to terrorists and Israel’s enemies around the world that they are not safe wherever they are hiding.)
Similarly, the Second Lebanon War was considered somewhat of a failure, with the IDF not protecting its soldiers well enough, leading to perceived unnecessary deaths.
All of these recent incidents partially demonstrate a reduction in the perception that Israel’s military and security services are not up to snuff.
The IDF and Israeli clandestine services are among the most advanced and effective security organizations throughout the world. These recent incidents should not leave a hint of a thought in any of Israel’s enemies’ minds that they are safe or that Israel will blunder military actions going forward.
However, these incidents should reinforce to Israel that it needs to stay at the top of its game and prioritize funding and staffing of intelligence agencies to ensure that the hopes of Israel’s enemies are not actualized.