On Wednesday, the head of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate, Major General Aharon Haliva, stepped down, taking responsibilty for the intelligence failure that resulted in the death of over a thousand Israelis and the kidnapping of hundreds.

“On that Saturday we did not fulfill the most important mission which we are tasked with, providing a warning for war,” he said during a handover ceremony at the Glilot Base near Herzliya, which houses some of the directorate’s units. “The responsibility for the failures of the Military Intelligence Directorate is on me,” Haliva said. But at the same time, he hinted it’s not so simple, and called for establishing a state commission of inquiry into “all aspects that led to war, so that what happened to us will not happen ever again.”

Journalist Amit Segal was not impressed: “Whoever really believes himself responsible for a failure that [in his own words] ‘will haunt him until the day [he] dies’ doesn’t arrange a huge send-off for himself with 1,500 participants. He simply spends time in his office with his computer and a few colleagues and that’s it.” Segal called him: “The Eli Zeira of our time.” Zeira was the head of Military Intelligence found to be responsible for the disaster of the Yom Kippur war.

Taking over the role is Major General Shlomi Binder, the former commander of the IDF’s Operations Division, and a controversial choice since he too is tainted with the intelligence failures of October 7. “Where we failed, we will need to investigate and improve; where we made mistakes we will learn and change; where fractures were opened, however big they are, we will insist on fixing and repent,” Binder said.“The Israeli people have no other country, the State of Israel doesn’t have another IDF, and the IDF doesn’t have another Intelligence Directorate.” True.

Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi was generous to Haliva, basically saying he had done many impressive things despite this one failure. It was a those-who-don’t-go into-the-kitchen-never-break-eggs defense, which leaves me unmoved.

Haliva had the information that would have saved thousands of lives and instead of doing something with it, he went to sleep October 6 and let us wake up to the horror of October 7. He will not forgive himself. But neither will any of us forgive him.

The forensic analyses of the corpses of Israeli hostages Haim Peri, Yagev Buchshtab, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, and Alexander Dancyg show all were murdered in cold blood. Found beneath Khan Younis, the bodies are riddled with bullets, perhaps because their captors feared a rescue attempt which might free them. It is so sickening. Every time I see some pink-haired girl in a keffiyeh with a Hamas headband, I want to bash her head in. Good thing I am far away from such people.

The war in the north is escalating as the war in Gaza winds down. Sinwar has added to the clauses in the “negotiations” that he be allowed to walk free. He’s willing, he says, to leave the rule of Gaza in the hands of some other entity, as long as he can rebuild his terror organization, buy more weapons and continue his “resistance.” This is his negotiating stance. He wants the IDF to disappear. You heard me. Is it any wonder no progress is being made? He is basically saying, “you can have the few hostages still alive, and many more who are dead, if you let us prepare for the next October 7.”

Ah, I don’t think so. We will rescue the hostages ourselves, thank you very much. The bodies recently found would not have been returned for months within the framework of the current negotiations anyway.

Hezbollah is raining rockets down on civilians, hitting a house in Katzrin and one in another Jewish village. Miraculously, only one person was moderately injured, and the second house, where a father, mother and child were in residence when the rocket hit, no one at all. It’s a miracle. The war in the north will start soon, I have no doubt.

One real advantage the Israel has over Hezbollah are the Lebanese people, the majority of whom hate Hezbollah. Many have been happy to share valuable intelligence with Israel to help in the war. Many believe that if Israel shows it is serious about defeating Hezbollah, the Lebanese people will arise and participate in helping to get the job done.

Israel’s enemies on her other borders, like the terrorist “refugee camp” Tulkarem, are absolutely part of this war. The IDF just spent 14 hours in Tulkarem, blasting away at terrorists, destroying bomb factories, confiscating weapons, and killing four terrorists. These are the people poised to invade Kfar Saba, Herzliya and Tel Aviv, “settlements in the Gush Dan Envelope.” Which is to say, all of Israel in on a border with blood thirsty, depraved terrorists, and the fight is to the death. Literally.

We cannot allow ourselves to feel overwhelmed or discouraged. I believe we are making enormous progress and that our God is with us.

When I watch the delusional idiots demonstrating in Chicago, burning American and Israeli flags, nourished by lies and ignorance and baseless hatred, I can only hope that the American people will be spared the kind of wake-up call we in Israel faced this year. I hope that Americans are wise enough to vote out the current sickening regime in the White House. The Obamas’ ugly handprints are all over this attempt to replace one corrupt leader with another even more unworthy (if that’s even possible…) candidate Kamala Harris, an antisemite and a Communist. Her running mate is a politician with negative accomplishments, a liar, and a man so woke he put Tampax in boys’ bathrooms.

America can’t do worse than these two.

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