Israel's War Without Strategy: The Biography of a Failure Repeating Itself

There are wars fought for survival.
There are wars fought for power.

And then there are wars fought to avoid answering a question.

Israel today appears to be fighting the third kind.

October 7: The Disaster That Required Questions — And Got None

On October 07, atteck , the unthinkable happened.

Not just a breach.

A collapse.

The kind that doesn’t happen because of one missed signal—but because an entire system stops asking the right questions.

So naturally, the next step should have been:

👉 A ruthless, transparent, national inquiry
👉 Political accountability at the highest level
👉 Institutional introspection

Instead, the system chose a far more innovative response:

Move on. Quickly. Loudly. Violently.

Because nothing says “we’re learning” like launching a war before finishing the autopsy.

And Then… The Same Movie Played Again

Fast forward.

Hezbollah was declared “finished,” “on its knees,” “neutralized.”

Victory speeches were practically warming up in the background.

Reality, however, refused to cooperate.

Northern Israel went back under fire.
Communities were displaced.
And—surprise—the same intelligence system admitted:

👉 Hezbollah was underestimated.

Again.

At this point, calling it an “intelligence failure” feels unfair.

Failures are accidental.

This is starting to look… intentional.

Meet the Protagonist:

Benjamin Netanyahu

Every long-running tragedy needs a central character.

Preferably one who survives every act—while everything else collapses around him.

Biographers who have studied Netanyahu don’t describe him as reckless.

That would imply impulsiveness.

They describe something far more… refined.

As Anshel Pfeffer observed:

“Netanyahu is a master of survival—not of strategy.”

Which is a polite way of saying:

He knows how to stay in power.

What he does with that power is… secondary.

Crisis as a Political Technology

Another, biographer, Ben Caspit, puts it less politely:

“Netanyahu doesn’t solve crises. He manages them—because they are the source of his political life.”

Read that again.

Not a bug.

A feature.

Because if crises sustain your leadership, then peace becomes… politically inconvenient.

The Man Who Saw Himself as History

According to Nehemia Shtrasler:

“Netanyahu sees himself not as a politician, but as a historic figure destined to save Israel.”

And here lies the problem.

When a leader believes he is writing history…

He stops reading reality.

The Government That Made Strategy Optional

Of course, even the most “historic” leader needs a supporting cast.

Enter:

Itamar Ben-Gvir
Bezalel Smotrich

A coalition where ideology isn’t influencing policy.

It is policy.

Messianic certainty has replaced strategic doubt.

And doubt, inconveniently, is the foundation of good intelligence.

So Intelligence Adapted… By Disappearing

Because what is intelligence in a system that already knows all the answers?

You don’t analyze enemies.

You define them.

You don’t assess threats.

You declare them defeated.

Which explains the breathtaking confidence behind statements like:

Hezbollah is finished
Iran will collapse if leadership is targeted
Regional dynamics are manageable

This isn’t intelligence.

This is storytelling.

The Assassination Strategy: Because Movies Need Villains

At some point, policy appears to have been outsourced to a screenplay.

Remove figures like Yahya Sinwar or even imagine targeting Ali Khamenei… or even imagine targeting …

…and somehow expect:

👉 Moderation
👉 Stability
👉 Strategic advantage

Because nothing calms a region like eliminating its leadership.

History has always proven that.

(Except, of course, when it hasn’t. Which is… always.)

A Strange Historical Echo

There’s something hauntingly familiar about all this.

The overconfidence.
The rhetoric.
The refusal to confront reality.

It echoes the arrogance preceding the Six day war .

Except this time, the roles feel… reversed.

Back then, delusion was the opponent.

Now, it risks becoming the strategy.

Meanwhile, Back in Reality

While leadership performs confidence:

The north burns
Gaza festers
The West Bank transforms
Regional escalation inches toward catastrophe

And the most basic strategic question remains missing:

👉 What is the plan?

Not the speech.

Not the operation.

The plan.

The Final Irony

Netanyahu built his career on one promise:

Security.

Yet under his watch:

The worst security failure in decades occurs
No meaningful inquiry follows
The same mistakes repeat
And the nation is pulled into a widening war with no clear objective

Which brings us back to the beginning.

This isn’t just a war without strategy.

It’s a strategy without accountability.

Closing Line: The Biography Writes Itself

In the end, Netanyahu may indeed be what his admirers claim:

A historic figure.

Just not in the way they intended.

Because history doesn’t only remember leaders who win wars.

It remembers those who mistook survival for success…

…and led their nations into conflicts they never truly understood.

Or worse—

Never even tried to.

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