In an exclusive conversation with India Today's News Director, Rahul Kanwal, the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, revealed that Israel possessed comprehensive knowledge of the meticulous preparations orchestrated by the Hamas group in advance of their October 7 terrorist attack. Nevertheless, Israel refrained from taking any preemptive measures due to an unfortunate sense of hubris and complacency.
Ehud Olmert, in his interview with India Today TV's News Director Rahul Kanwal, emphasized that Israel's intelligence apparatus had not failed. The crux of the matter did not revolve around Israel's ignorance of the preparations underway within the Hamas organization before the attack. Instead, he attributed the attack to Israel's "arrogance," a misguided belief that Hamas would not follow through on their apparent preparations.
He expounded on this sentiment by asserting, "But they did it, and we were caught by surprise."
The former Israeli Prime Minister underlined that Israel had been privy to all the particulars, having access to an extensive repository of information and a highly advanced cyber-surveillance system. The issue lay in Israel's overconfidence, presuming that Hamas lacked the capacity to execute their plans.
Furthermore, Ehud Olmert elucidated that Israeli authorities had dismissed Hamas's preparations as mere exercises or deceptive maneuvers. This misjudgment ultimately proved costly.
He also disclosed that a few days prior to the Hamas attack, Israeli military forces in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip had been relocated to a different area. "We actually emptied all the area of a major military presence," he added.
Ehud Olmert did not shy away from criticizing Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Israeli Prime Minister, alleging that his leadership had inadvertently allowed the Hamas group to thrive. He argued that although Netanyahu had pledged to annihilate Hamas, his actions had the opposite effect.
Olmert asserted that Netanyahu's choice lay in either engaging in negotiations with the Palestinian authorities and President Mahmoud Abbas to seek a political resolution founded on the two-state solution or diminishing the significance of the Palestinian authorities. The latter option involved the inadvertent promotion of Hamas, the very organization he had vowed to dismantle.
Furthermore, Olmert accused Benjamin Netanyahu of enabling the flow of "hundreds of millions of dollars from Qatar to finance Hamas." He contended that this opened doors for Iran to play an excessively influential role in bolstering the status of Hamas.
When addressing Israel's stance on the conflict, Ehud Olmert underscored the nation's reluctance to invade or occupy the Gaza Strip. He emphasized that Israeli reprisals were directed solely against the "terrorists" responsible for the heinous and ruthless mass killings of Israeli citizens in recent days.
Olmert affirmed, "We don't have a war with those who are not involved - the innocent Israeli citizens, the victims of terror and brutality." He stressed Israel's desire to shield non-combatant individuals in Gaza from the harsh realities of war, emphasizing the importance of sparing them from unnecessary suffering.
He pledged that Israeli forces would adopt an aggressive stance and search every corner of Gaza to apprehend and deal with terrorists while making earnest efforts to avert unnecessary confrontations with civilians and non-combatants.
Moreover, he appealed to the Indian audience for understanding, acknowledging that some images emerging from Gaza might be distressing. These distressing visuals, he asserted, were an unavoidable consequence of the necessity to eliminate terrorists.
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