Ep. 17 — The Intelligence Failure That Led to October 7 w/ Yaakov Katz

Pick up Yaakov's Katz's The Weapon Wizards: How Israel Became A High-Tech Military Superpower Amazon US - https://amzn.to/4dsmCWrAmazon Canada - https://amzn.to/48f4USFIn this must-listen episode of Echoes of Jewish History, host Jimmy Bitton interviews Yaakov Katz, former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, author of Shadow Strike and The Weapon Wizards, and national bestseller “While Israel Slept” praised by Elliott Abrams, Wendy Sherman, and Matti Friedman. Katz dissects the strategic failures leading to October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre — 1,200 dead, 250 hostages — echoing the 1973 Yom Kippur War’s “conception” blunder. The conversation explores overconfidence in deterrence to Qatari money propping up Hamas, decisive failure of intelligence collected but ignored due to cultural blindness to jihadist ideology, ignored warnings from female surveillance soldiers (tatzpitaniyot) spotting anomalies, 2016 Lieberman alerts, and the shelved “Jericho Wall” document, containment myth betting on rational Hamas prosperity over jihadist confrontation, ominous assessment that it can happen again as Israel seeks peace amid genocidal enemies like Iran and Hamas, global stakes where Western blindness ignores Hamas ideology framing October 7 as civilizational attack, Apache lag with thin air force and delayed response questioning “Where were the Apaches?”, and new Israeli ethos of post-October 7 grit, self-reliance, and rewritten national story.Essential 2025 listening for October 7 intelligence failures Israel, Yaakov Katz While Israel Slept book, Hamas attack containment policy critique, Yom Kippur War parallels 2025, Israeli leadership antisemitism West.Explore Echoes Media: https://jimmybitton.com