Fifty miles up the coast from Gaza, where an Israeli offensive continues to shatter the besieged strip, Israel’s former chief spy, Tamir Pardo, is a world away from the war without end in his office in Israel’s tech hub in the manicured city of Herzliya. The director of Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, Mossad, from 2011 to 2016, says the seeds that led to this moment of dread were sown over the past two decades.
The bloody, unprecedented attack on Oct. 7 sparked widespread Israeli anger at a government that promised them perpetual calm in lieu of peace.
The worst security failure since the country was founded showed up the limits of militarized segregation which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu championed as a low-cost way to dominate Palestinians. After years of relative calm and a booming economy, that lie was brutally exposed on Oct. 7.