Gershom Gorenberg
Despite the thunder of the bombs in Lebanon; despite the stunning assassination of Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah; despite the suddenly renewed image of omniscient Israeli intelligence and a boost in domestic popularity for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the war in Gaza has not ended. Hamas still holds 101 Israeli hostages, dead or barely alive. Gaza is devastated—nine out of 10 of its people displaced, by one estimate. Netanyahu’s government still has no announced plan for who will rule Gaza on the day after the fighting ends, or for how it will end. Fighting the war that you prepared for is not a solution for the war you refused to see coming.
After Israel’s 2006 war with Hezbollah, which was widely regarded as a debacle, Israel stepped up its espionage efforts with both human and electronic sources. According to a Financial Times report, Hezbollah expanded its numbers to fight on the side of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in the Syrian civil war and checked its recruits less carefully. That allowed Israel to plant spies and recruit Hezbollah members as sources. Unit 8200 of Israeli military intelligence, responsible for electronic spying, reportedly processed information from hacked cellphones, Lebanese security cameras, and home electronics. That long-running effort made Hezbollah stunningly vulnerable.
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