Records from clandestine meetings of Hamas, captured by the IDF and acquired by The New York Times, offer an extensive account of the preparations for the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023. These documents also reveal mega-terrorist Yahya Sinwar’s efforts to convince Iran and Hezbollah to participate in the assault or at least engage in war with Israel should Hamas execute a surprise incursion across the border.
The minutes reveal the integrity of arguments on the right during the year of clashing over the government’s judicial reform, the rallies, the paralysis of Ben Gurion airport, the trains, and major traffic arteries, and, most importantly, the movement of Air Force and other reservists to refuse to serve under Netanyahu, played a major role in Sinwar’s and his lieutenants’ decision to attack.
They were not wrong. The Hamas invaders found an open border with infantry soldiers asleep in their bases, lambs for slaughter, and the Air Force unable to intervene until late in the afternoon of October 7.
“As they prepared arguments aimed at Hezbollah, the Hamas leaders said that Israel’s ‘internal situation’ — an apparent reference to turmoil over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious plans to overhaul the judiciary — was among the reasons they were ‘compelled to move toward a strategic battle,’” the NY Times cited from the Hamas Minutes.
The documents comprise the minutes from ten confidential planning sessions held by a select group of Hamas political and military officials ahead of the attack. These minutes contain 30 pages (according to the Washington Post, 59 pages) of previously unreleased information regarding the operational dynamics of Hamas’s leadership and the extensive preparations undertaken for the assault.
Those minutes also illustrate how well Sinwar et al had been aware of the Israeli security establishment’s Conceptzia. They reveal Hamas’s considerable efforts to mislead Israel regarding its true intentions while establishing the foundation for a daring offensive and a potential regional conflict that Sinwar anticipated would lead to Israel’s downfall.
Haaretz reported begrudgingly on Saturday night that “The documents stated that one of the reasons that caused Hamas to go on the attack was the internal conflict that broke out in Israel due to the attempts of the government led by Benjamin Netanyahu to promote the judicial coup d’état.” Nothing about the pervasive role of Haaretz in fanning the flames of the war between brothers. And nothing about this anti-Zionist newspaper’s continued efforts to poison the newly emerged brotherly love in Israel following the October 7 catastrophe.
Hamas originally intended to execute the operation, referred to as “the big project,” in the autumn of 2022. However, they postponed the implementation of this plan while seeking to gain the involvement of Iran and Hezbollah. In July 2023, Hamas sent a high-ranking official to Lebanon, where he conferred with a senior Iranian commander and sought assistance in targeting critical locations at the onset of the offensive.
That high-ranking Iranian official informed Hamas that both Iran and Hezbollah were supportive, yet required additional time for preparation. Possibly because Tehran had a more accurate assessment of Israel’s ability to recover from a surprise attack, even if it came on two fronts.
But Sinwar was not wrong in his assessment of Israel’s weakness due to its internal strife. Here’s one example out of hundreds, if not thousands: on July 16, 2023, Israel Hayom reported that “Against the background of the threats of refusal and in anticipation of the ‘Day of Resistance’ which will be held on Tuesday, on Sunday a statement was made on behalf of the ‘Brothers in Arms’ reservist protest stating that ‘if there will not be the change required for the harsh measures, the damage to the People’s Army will be irreversible.”
The blunt threat was issued ahead of a Knesset vote on the Reasonability Clause, denying the High Court the power to revoke government action even if it was done in keeping with the law because the judges found it “unreasonable.”
“At the beginning of a week, we all understand that there is no second chance for Israeli democracy,” Brothers in Arms announced, adding that “Passing the law to cancel the reasonability clause is the gateway to a dictatorship after which Israel is no longer democratic.”
“If the Israeli government does not express willingness to change during this week, the damage to the People’s Army will be the greatest,” the group threatened.
It was. It amounted to more than 1,200 Israelis murdered by Hamas in one day, and 240 taken hostage.
All of this did not stop President Yitzchak Herzog from awarding Brothers in Arms the country’s Volunteer Award, as part of an all-out effort to whitewash the group’s despicable role in degrading the IDF’s military capacity.
Thank God for Yahya Sinwar who kept the record straight…
