Whatever awaits him this coming November, few politicians could claim to have the endurance, bloody mindedness and sense of granite staying power than Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.  With some prowess, he has wooed, deceived, and lied his way to power, and, for the most part, stayed the course for the best part of a generation. He bloomed in arid soil when sceptics thought him dead.  He offers lessons of Machiavellian proportions almost unsurpassed. 

What, then, of being found out for falling short ahead of the 27th October elections?  Errors in the making, the sundering blunder to soil the image of strength?  History offers the guidance of tragic and foolish mistakes.  The British failure to anticipate their routing in Singapore by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1942 is always a topic of interest (they wagered on a sea attack, not a jungle incursion); even, dare one say, the failure of the United States to anticipate an attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941 despite doing much to aggravate a power that had done so much to put the Western powers on edge.  Did, in other words, the individual in a position of power and influence know and, for whatever said reasons, not take the threat seriously?  Self-confidence, or, as the ancient Greeks might put it, hubris, bulks complacency and places it on a pedestal.  This is the case being made about Netanyahu.  And more besides.

The latest bruising claim by Haaretz, based on research for a book Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment by Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, involving “dozens of sources in Israel and worldwide, including very senior officials, as well as sound recordings, internal documents and recordings”, is chastening. Netanyahu was, according to the authors, told, in unequivocal terms, that an attack by Hamas was being planned. 

According to the report, a 45-minute conversation took place between UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed (MBZ) and Netanyahu, in which the Emirati leader warned of the intentions of the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar that........

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