In an interview with Maariv newspaper, Israeli military historian Uri Milstein revealed the reasons that led to the great military failure that occurred on October 7, which he described as “the greatest failure in the history of the state,” considering that the Israeli army still operates as a militia, in a reminder of the background of the formation of this army from Israeli gangs such as the Haganah and Stern, which carried out terrorist acts that caused the displacement of the Palestinians in 1948.
Milstein, who has long been a fierce critic of the Israeli defense establishment, asserted in a podcast with the paper’s co-editor Doron Cohen that the failures he has warned about for many years have combined to lead to this devastating event.
Military militia
Milstein began by talking about the shocking fact that the Israeli army “began as a militia and still suffers from this legacy today,” and that “Israel has not developed a real professional army.”
“I was not surprised by what happened. I have warned for years about the shortcomings of the Israeli army and its military culture, and this failure was an inevitable result of ignoring those warnings,” he claimed.
“The army still relies heavily on high-level special units, but at the general army level we still operate as a militia,” he added.
Milstein criticized the large gap between the tactical performance of soldiers and the strategic leadership, noting that good performance at the tactical level was not enough to compensate for the absence of strategic planning, and that “the soldiers succeeded in direct confrontation, but the absence of strategic thinking led to a lack of readiness for a comprehensive war.”
He stressed that this problem is not new, but rather goes back to the nature of the Israeli army since its inception. He said, “The army leaders should have realized that preparing for war is not only about managing small battles, but also about thinking about comprehensive strategies.”
Intentional failure
Milstein pointed to another problem in the Israeli army leadership, which is the lack of transparency in explaining what happened on October 7, calling on the Israeli army chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, and the retired director of military intelligence, Aharon Haliva, to come out publicly to provide clarifications about what happened, because the lack of clarity in the leadership led to the spread of conspiracy theories among the public.
“There are stories circulating about the government planning a small failure that would allow Hamas to break through as part of a plan to contain the conflict, and that the failure was part of a plan to make Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement) make a limited breakthrough that could be contained quickly, but things got out of control,” he said.
“Herzi Halevi must appear before the public and explain what happened and why those wrong decisions were made,” he added.
In addition to the military criticism, Milstein directed his criticism at the political system in Israel, noting that the party culture that has been entrenched since the founding of the state was one of the factors that contributed to this failure.
He explained that “Israel was founded by one party, Mapai, and that party culture led to turning political opponents into internal enemies, which weakened the country’s focus on real security challenges,” noting that this approach directly affected the military institution and its ability to adapt to modern military challenges.
Warning of the future
Despite his harsh criticism, the military historian expressed optimism about the increased interest in his critical analyses, noting that “people have become more interested in what I say, not only in Israel, but also around the world.”
He believed that this growing interest could lead to radical reforms in the country’s security and military culture.
Milstein proposed establishing the “Weizmann Institute for Israel State Security,” which would bring together a select group of experts to develop new security strategies based on modern technology, with the aim of modernizing Israel’s defense approach and providing advanced solutions.
He concluded his interview with a clear warning that Israel will face similar failures if it does not make a radical change in its military and security culture. He said, “If we do not change the current approach, we will continue to repeat the same mistakes, and we may face another failure of the same severity.”
Although he expressed hope that the security problems would be addressed before the 80th anniversary of Israel’s founding, he stressed that this would not happen without “a profound change in the security and strategic mindset.”