Summarized from the New York Times
“Hamas,
the Palestinian militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, launched one of
the broadest invasions on Israeli territory for 50 years. ... Hamas
began firing thousands of rockets on Saturday morning, striking targets as far
away as Tel Aviv and the outskirts of Jerusalem. … About
an hour after the first rocket attacks, Hamas militants crossed into Israel by
land, sea, and air, leading to pitched battles between Israeli and Arab forces
on Israeli soil.
The militants infiltrated 22 Israeli towns and army bases and took civilians and soldiers hostages, many of whom they brought back to Gaza."
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Neither the failure of Israel's intelligence services nor their military not being ready, surprises me. Intelligence gathering is a separate function from interpretation, and we'll skip the topic of bureaucratic inertial.
It doesn’t surprise me that Hamas could cross the borders
into Israel; most borders in any country resembling a democracy are porous.
What surprises me is the apparent ease with which Hamas took
hostages and was able to kidnap them in what appears to be complete freedom.
I was always under the impression that Israel was a highly
trained and armed society. I assumed
that over 50% of the population had ready access to firearms and had been
trained in their use. This situation
was, I thought, a side effect of living in a hostile environment surrounded by
people who want to wipe you from the face of the earth. How is their goal different from the death
camps in Nazi Germany?
Where did I go wrong?
The US Department of Justice reported in 1992 that "Israel Has a Successful Gun Control
Policy.” The report goes on:
“In
Israel, guns are strictly regulated yet widely available to law-abiding
citizens who hold gun permits; gun control and tough punishment have made it
difficult for criminals to acquire guns.
Abstract
There
is no clear right (our Second Amendment – my comment) to carry a gun in
Israel. In theory, the policy is very
strict. No one may own or carry a gun
without showing a reason to do so. A
special permit by the Interior Ministry is then required. The permit must have the approval of the
police and includes information about the owner and the gun type. It is easy for a law-abiding citizen (with no
criminal record) to get a permit for a handgun. There is no distinction between carrying a
gun and possessing it. The
strict limitation of gun ownership to law-abiding citizens combined with strict
enforcement against those who have guns without a permit apparently works well
in Israel to keep the homicide rate low; there are 40-60 murders a year in a
population of four and one-half million.”
The BBC reported in March 2023, "Israeli
gun ownership is low at about 2% of the population. It compares to about 30% of the population
owning a gun in the US. Usually,
citizens are allowed to hold a pistol and a limit of 50 bullets.”
Say what?
Did you catch the part about not having a distinction
between owning vs carrying a gun? It seems
governmental permission is needed to own.
In light of this recent attack, Israel has loosening the straps on the permit
system. Unfortunately, that horse is out
of the barn.
The same thing applies to us. While we don't expect an attack by either Canada or Mexico, we will sooner or later (much later, I hope) see armed conflict at home. It may be internal struggles or a non-atomic war, but we cannot count on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to isolate us from armies.
Will we be ready?
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