“We Have Huge Intelligence Failure On Our Hands”: Israel Ex-PM Exclusive

Israel will go all-out to ensure “this never happens again”, the country’s former Prime Minister Yair Lipid told NDTV in an exclusive interview days after the Hamas group’s horrifying attack on Israel cities. “We need to make sure they never again get an opportunity to massacre women and children. We need to make sure this never happens again,” he said. 

Lipid, currently the Leader of Opposition in Israel, conceded that the Hamas attacks, which claimed nearly 500 lives, followed a huge intelligence failure. He said the country is united in its fight against terror and that “no one is thinking about politics right now”. “Nobody cares about politics right now. We must support the government. This is something bigger than politics,” he added. 

On a question on the intelligence lapses behind the shock attack, Lipid said, “Unfortunately yes, we had a huge intelligence failure. But we have a good history of learning from mistakes rather than agonising over it. We were caught by surprise once. We won’t be caught by surprise twice. Everyone understands the reaction will be devastating.”