A first-generation accounting can help start the process of rebuilding the public’s faith in the government and military.

By Joel Fishman, JNS

It has been more than 500 days since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The invasion came as both a shock and humiliation to Israel. Not the least of which was the timing, as it happened nearly 50 years to the day after the Yom Kippur War that began on Saturday, Oct. 6, 1973.

Fifty years later, the Israel Defense Forces were again unprepared. In both cases, the cost was high, in human life and social dislocation. In both cases, the institutional inability to understand the immediate military threat to the state and its society was high. The consequences of the strategic surprise were devastating and demoralizing.

When the sirens sounded during the early afternoon of Yom Kippur in 1973, an era of security and collective confidence ended abruptly. Moshe Dayan, then Israel’s defense minister, appeared on television that night and while I cannot recall his exact words, I distinctly remember his empty facial expression. For those who must know, his fatalistic words are on the record.

What happened on the morning of Oct. 7 was of a scale that is larger and uglier than one can imagine. It is commonly known that the Israeli military refused to act on clear intelligence warnings. This example of willful blindness remains a problem.

Equally important was the resulting damage to the standing of the IDF in Israeli society. A major reason for the resilience of the Israeli public rests in its identification with the IDF. What happened on Oct. 7 harmed this relationship and destroyed a precious trust. As such, we must face this problem honestly and place it on the public agenda.

Also to be confronted is the problem of an elite minority of reservists who challenged the legitimacy of the legally elected government of the state for months on end. For instance, in August 2023, it was reported that IDF pilots said they wouldn’t fly any missions for the state because of the government’s actions on judiciary reform. Statements like these are part of the background to the events of Oct. 7.

Sovereign states experience failures and setbacks, and much can be learned from them. Recall the kingdom of Prussia after the defeats in the Napoleonic Wars. Additional examples of honest stocktaking include Marc Bloch’s Strange Defeat from 1940, which explains the causes for the defeat of France in World War II, and the “9/11 Commission Report” on the terrorist attacks in the United States in 2021.

The study of past failures and successes can be valuable. It serves the positive purpose of ending confusion and advancing the public understanding of its national past.

During the 1950s, the government of the Netherlands decided to publish an official history of the kingdom during World War II. Laying the foundation for this project, the Netherlands State Institute for War Documentation convened a conference on the writing of contemporary history in September 1950. The keynote speaker was professor Arnold J. Toynbee, who said that the first generation that writes a historical account has the advantage of credibility. “I think generally it is rather difficult for later generations to escape from the first impression that is given to some period or episode of history by contemporary historians who have the first opportunity of giving a picture of it … ,” he said. “It is very difficult to be sufficiently on our guard against the patterns that have been made for us by our predecessors.”

Much is at stake here. Israel needs a solid and honest account of the recent war. A first-generation draft will tell the truth of what happened around Oct. 7, which will be good in its own right and start the process of rebuilding the public’s faith in the IDF and the government.

As the first-century Jewish historian Josephus wrote: “The work of committing to writing events which have not previously been recorded and of commending to posterity the history of one’s own time, is one which merits praise and acknowledgment.”

If we do not seize this opportunity, others will.