He said, “This operation was planned for about a year, which is surprising because this is the year in which Israel kept increasing the amount of labor permits and concessions.”
“The Israeli perception was that Hamas did not want to escalate tensions,” Milshtein said.
“The writing was on the wall. They didn’t want to believe it was true.”
Israel’s leadership was quick to point out that the penny had dropped.
On Saturday, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Galant said that when he was head of the army’s Southern Command in 2009, he wanted to “break the neck” of Hamas, but the political system prevented him.
Now, as the man who sets the direction of the war with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Gallant was no longer subject to sanctions.
“We will change the reality on the ground in Gaza,” he pledged.
“What was there before will not be there now.”