Yakov Katz

21, 22, and saw what was happening and said, basically outlined one-to-one, Steve, what was going to happen.

And they called it Jericho Walls.

because they looked at the barrier that we had erected along Gaza and said it could come tumbling down like ancient biblical Jericho came tumbling down if we're not prepared and this report also stuck in a drawer somewhere the Israeli defense minister only finds out about it about a month or two into the war that there was even such a report how come he didn't see it on day one in his job so really when you look at all of that you have to ask yourself a bigger question

How could they misunderstand this?

How could they not imagine what was possible?

Hamas is a known enemy.

It's a jihadist, genocidal terrorist group.

We fought with them multiple wars over the years.

Why did we think that this could not happen?

And that speaks to a deeper issue for a country when it gets caught up in a belief system

that its enemy, A, is not capable of doing something, or B, its enemy is deterred.

Is it hubris?

I think it's a mix of hubris on the one hand.

They can't surprise us.

We know everything.

We're more powerful.

But it's also something else.

And this is a weakness and a strength that Israel has.

Israel is a country that is a Western nation.

It's a country that has its trade and cultural ties with the United States, with Europe.