COULD OCT 7 HAPPEN AGAIN? - YAAKOV KATZ

And so let's look now three years on.

We were at our lowest point.

in a while, maybe in ever, of the history of the state of Israel.

And then we had a complete collapse of deterrence, internal security.

I know personally on that day we were like, where are the terrorists going to come from next? I think everyone sort of expected some kind of invasion in their own cities.

To where we are now.

Assess, please, if you will, have we restored deterrence? Have we restored a feeling of security? What has transitioned in, I guess, the feeling of Israelis in those three years? Well, I think

it's a mixed bag, right? On the one hand, October 7th can't be looked at just through the prism of the failures that led to October 7th.

So even I recognize that the book, While Israel Slept, tells one side of the story.

There's a whole other side of the story, which is not what the book dealt with.

which is the reengineering of the Middle East since October 7th.

And I think we have, as a country, reengineered the Middle East.

We have emerged stronger.

We have taught our enemies a lesson.

We have restored deterrence to an extent.

But deterrence always has to be kept in mind.

It's only as good as it is until your enemy decides that it has eroded and that now is an opportunity to attack.

So think World War I until World War II, right? And you saw this with round after round with Hamas.

So if we do even nothing now, Have we delayed Hamas's ability for a significant period of time longer than before for them to attack us? 100%.

Same with Hezbollah.

But will they attack us again in the future if we do nothing, if we don't follow up with some sort of political mechanism? Also 100% they will.

They will rebuild, they will reconstitute, and they will try to attack us.

So for that reason, we have to do two things.

One, we have to continue to mow the lawn constantly.

You see that all the time in Gaza.

And so let's look now three years on.

We were at our lowest point.

in a while, maybe in ever, of the history of the state of Israel.

And then we had a complete collapse of deterrence, internal security.

I know personally on that day we were like, where are the terrorists going to come from next? I think everyone sort of expected some kind of invasion in their own cities.

To where we are now.

Assess, please, if you will, have we restored deterrence? Have we restored a feeling of security? What has transitioned in, I guess, the feeling of Israelis in those three years? Well, I think

it's a mixed bag, right? On the one hand, October 7th can't be looked at just through the prism of the failures that led to October 7th.

So even I recognize that the book, While Israel Slept, tells one side of the story.

There's a whole other side of the story, which is not what the book dealt with.

which is the reengineering of the Middle East since October 7th.

And I think we have, as a country, reengineered the Middle East.

We have emerged stronger.

We have taught our enemies a lesson.

We have restored deterrence to an extent.

But deterrence always has to be kept in mind.

It's only as good as it is until your enemy decides that it has eroded and that now is an opportunity to attack.

So think World War I until World War II, right? And you saw this with round after round with Hamas.

So if we do even nothing now, Have we delayed Hamas's ability for a significant period of time longer than before for them to attack us? 100%.

Same with Hezbollah.

But will they attack us again in the future if we do nothing, if we don't follow up with some sort of political mechanism? Also 100% they will.

They will rebuild, they will reconstitute, and they will try to attack us.

So for that reason, we have to do two things.

One, we have to continue to mow the lawn constantly.

You see that all the time in Gaza.