Yoni Ben Menachem, an Orientalist and senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and Policy, spoke today (Monday) with Tal Meir on 'Israel This Morning' on Channel 14 - and sharply criticized the IDF's conduct surrounding the document published in the German newspaper 'Bild', which reveals Hamas' strategy, and did not reach the political echelon.
""I don't want to say that the IDF lied, but for the sake of transparency, publish the document in Arabic and we will look at the text and decide what happens," he said.
Ben-Menachem demands, first of all, that the IDF Spokesperson publish the document that was revealed in Arabic, so that he and those in similar positions can analyze it: "We are people who are familiar with this and we have no less knowledge than the Military Intelligence Service, certainly in terms of knowledge of Palestinian society, much more than the junior officers in the Military Intelligence Service who have never spoken to Arabs in their lives and perhaps most of them don't even know the Arabic language.".
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Ben Menachem refutes the IDF spokesman's claim that the document was written by a 'mid-level', in an attempt to minimize the extent of the omission: "Listen, I have been investigating Hamas since its founding and I have also covered it from its founding until today. There is no such thing as a 'mid-level' in Hamas' military wing. It is impossible that a document found in the tunnel where Sinwar was was not written by Sinwar.".
He adds that by the very fact that the IDF spokesman claims that the document was not written by Sinwar, he removes responsibility from him and, in the process, also stings the Intelligence Directorate: "The IDF stands behind its words, it probably relies on the assessments of the Intelligence Directorate, and we will soon say something about the Intelligence Directorate.".
""The IDF spokesman has lost his credibility," says Ben Menachem.
At the same time, he sharply criticizes the head of Military Intelligence, the Chief of Staff, and the Minister of Defense, under whose patronage four officers who had a role in the October 7th failure were promoted: "They are appointing a head of Military Intelligence who does not know the Arabic language and who has a heavy cloud over him for his failure on October 7th, and yesterday it was announced that four senior officers in Military Intelligence were promoted, without even conducting an investigation into their failure on October 7th. We continue with the concept,",
He attacked the new head of the Military Intelligence Service, Shlomi Binder, directly: "He is part of a military ghetto.".
Ben-Menachem said: "In the first 20 years after the Yom Kippur War, Military Intelligence behaved wonderfully, especially Unit 8200, to which I belong.".
Alongside this, he attacks the current commander of 8200, Major General Yossi Sarileo, "who is one of the most responsible for the failure, not even willing to move from his chair.".
Regarding Hamas, he said that at the moment it does not appear to be losing its power in the Gaza Strip: "There was a video that ran yesterday about someone who criticized Hamas, and Hamas militants beat him until he collapsed in a hospital. They spread this video so that people would see and be afraid, and Hamas still possesses a large military force, of thousands of armed terrorists. There are still hundreds of kilometers of tunnels that the IDF has not uncovered.".
According to him, as long as Israel does not put military pressure on Hamas, they will continue to control the Gaza Strip: "And the most important point is that they control the distribution of humanitarian aid. Although we heard a few days ago that the prime minister instructed the IDF to take this issue into its own hands, I see that the army is opposing and nothing is happening.".
