Translated material
“If you don’t have soldiers and tanks, why start all this?”
About freedom of speech in a warring country. What they write in Israel and how the authorities react to it
18+. THIS MATERIAL (INFORMATION) IS PRODUCED, DISTRIBUTED AND (OR) SENT BY FOREIGN AGENT VISHNEVSKY BORIS LAZAREVICH OR CONCERNES THE ACTIVITIES OF FOREIGN AGENT VISHNEVSKY BORIS LAZAREVICH.
In an almost continuously warring country, surrounded by enemies many times superior in numbers and seeking to destroy it, almost every day you can see publications in the media and on social networks with harsh criticism (with personalization) of the head and members of the government and very impartial characteristics of actions (or inaction) of the army and intelligence.
And every week one can observe mass rallies in the center of the capital against the government and its policies, including demands for its resignation.
But - no criminal or administrative cases for “fakes,” “discrediting,” or “uncoordinated rallies.”
No “foreign agents” or “undesirable organizations”, and no blocking or “slowing down” of Internet resources.
No daily calls in parliament to ban, crush and stifle any dissent.
And no public denunciations of disloyal people, and no serial informers constantly demanding to be prosecuted, arrested and severely punished.
Despite the permanent wartime, everyone can say what they consider important and necessary, without fear of reprisals.
This is not Russia. This is Israel.
“The Israelis sleep peacefully (at least they slept until 10/07/23) because they simply cannot imagine what is going on in the army.”
“It turns out that on the morning of October 7, the ENTIRE country was on combat duty: 2 Apache helicopters at one of the air bases in the NORTH (more than an hour’s flight to the border with Gaza) and two airplanes. This is on the eve of the big war in the north, about which everyone was shouting and for which the army was preparing so hard. Two plus two. We have a holiday, everyone needs to relax and sit at the festive table. We sat..."
“It’s like we’re living in some fucking Belgium or Portugal. It is truly a miracle of God that Hezbollah did not attack that day. They would crush us to ***, and the northern front line would now be somewhere in the Netanya area.”
“Air Force Commander Tomer Bahr learned of what was happening at 4:30 p.m., 10 (TEN!) hours after the event began. It turns out that his subordinates WRONGLY assessed the scale of what was happening and did not report to their superiors. And Bar was not invited to the meeting the day before, which took place at the General Staff, because he has a difficult relationship with Herzi A-Levi, the Chief of the General Staff. This is some kind of fucking kindergarten, not the General Staff.”
“At least 20 times have arrived in the north today, most likely even more. Moreover, the entire range: drones, anti-tank missiles, rockets, mortar shells. And so it arrives every single day. And no one really writes about it anymore. This is called “routinization of conflict.”
“Somehow, very casually and routinely, Hezbollah began firing 100 (one hundred) rockets a day across the north. Every day. Sometimes more. But they avoided a big war. Three thousand missiles a month is a small war, isn’t it?”
“Some cretin on one local website also made a discovery - the Philadelphia corridor was not taken under control because more soldiers and tanks would have been needed. So, ... if you don’t have soldiers and tanks to complete the task for the second year of military school - to isolate the theater of operations, why even start all this?”
* “Again, a bunch of statements from politicians, essentially completely meaningless. We will not forget, we will not forgive, we will take revenge. For some reason Netanyahu mentioned his wife five times, what is this for?”
“A bunch of evidence, indications, what the hell indications - everything was burning red and screaming that there would be an invasion. But the head of military intelligence believed that this was all alarmism and Hamas “won’t dare.” The generals all conferred, then went home, there was a holiday, families, everything. All that was needed was to order a combat alert for the Southern District.”
“Israeli army spokesman Daniel Agari said this about the arrival of the UAV in Tel Aviv: “We are fighting a war on several fronts: Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria, and the Houthis in Yemen - they are all Iranian agents operating under the direction of Iran itself. Iran funds, arms and directs its terrorist agents in attacks on Israel and the world. We will not allow Iran and its agents to terrorize our citizens and will do everything we can to protect Israel and its borders.”
Well said, delicious. In mid-October 23, these words would have sounded very menacing. In November, back and forth, even in December. After 9 and a half months of war, after a DIRECT Iranian attack on April 14, 2024 (!), 300 missiles and drones, with the north burned to the ground by Hezbollah (there is no such thing as an Iranian agent), this is just a shock of air. “Pillar of sacred fire and blah blah blah.”
“The Israeli army has been consistently reduced all these years in accordance with the moronic concept of “small and smart.” As a result, by October 7 we arrived with a small army, which, alas, did not become smart.”
“We have a Knesset and a government. They have deputies and ministers. All of them are without a doubt worthy and extremely competent people. Take, for example, Gila Gamliel, who used to head the Ministry of Intelligence. What it was doing, who knows, according to rumors, it was rewriting messages from the media and passing it off as analytical reports, but back in March it was dispersed.”
Kan reported that an unnamed Southern District intelligence officer (or group thereof) compiled a document on September 19 about an impending Hamas attack. It clearly outlined, based on an analysis of Hamas’s training and preparations: the number of attackers, the directions of a possible breakthrough, which objects would be attacked and in what way, that Hamas was preparing to kidnap 200–250 Israelis, where and how they would be kept, under what circumstances should kill hostages.
In principle, with hindsight it is now completely obvious - all that was required of General Ha-Levi, the Chief of the General Staff, after the meeting (early morning of October 7, there were still at least two hours left before the attack) was to pick up the phone, call Finkelman (commander of the Southern District) and order a combat alert to the district. Soldiers sleep dressed and with weapons, rapid response teams in kibbutzim dismantle machine guns, crews take seats in their banks and armored vehicles, combat helicopters with crews inside and suspended ammunition stand on airfields, spinning their blades. Then the very first terrorist attack would have encountered fierce resistance, and everything would have gone completely differently. But the order was not received in the Southern District (and if it was received and not carried out, this is a crime).
So, the intelligence officer’s document, judging by Kan’s data, did not go further than the Gaza division. Or he went, but was not allowed to go. This is an absolute disaster. But this catastrophe has the name and surname of the one who was the last in the chain of generals to hold this report in his hands. I hope we recognize him."
“In response to the terrible shelling of the north (100 rockets and UAVs in an hour and everything continues, Safed and Katzrin are surrounded by fires, there are arrivals here, there are casualties there), the cabinet of ministers made a courageous decision. Get together and discuss the situation. But on Sunday, because today is Thursday, tomorrow is Shabbat, and you can’t break it, burn everything there even with a blue flame.”
“At the meeting, which will take place at 21.00, the situation will be assessed.” Which fits into one simple word “ass”, but the ministers need to consult and inform the public that “anyone who raises a hand against us...”. Then you know."
“Anyone who thinks that they will strike at us and we will sit idly by is making a big mistake. At the beginning of the war, we said that we would restore security in both the south and the north, and we will do this,” the prime minister concluded and left for his place of work. It immediately flew across Kiryat Shmona and smashed the building to smithereens. And a couple of hours later they arrived in Khurfeish, this is a Druze village, according to the location of the military, 11 wounded, half of them seriously. But we are not sitting idly by.”
“Thank God, otherwise you can’t explain by his grace that on October 7, Hamas did not reach Be’er Sheva and Ashkelon, and Hezbollah did not reach Haifa. The Lord, of course, has nothing to do with it - the massive heroism of soldiers, police officers, and civilians saved us from much more catastrophic consequences. But, I remind you, mass heroism is ALWAYS evidence of mass failure.”
“It’s just absolute hell in the north. They cover the entire strip from Rosh HaNikra in the west to Majl Shams in the east, these are the foothills of Hermon, already the border with Syria. And the state allocated 5 million shekels (about $1.3 million) for an alternative Lag B'Omer bonfire ceremony (such a holiday), because it is dangerous to hold it on Mount Meron, dozens of rockets fly there every day. More than 100 thousand refugees, 8th month of the war. A million dollars for the fire."
* “Minister of Finance Smotrich, who is also the minister in the Ministry of Defense (not to be confused with the Minister of Defense, this is different), decided that we do not need two squadrons of the latest F-35s and very advanced F-15Is now. He demands the creation of a special commission (we apparently don’t have enough commissions), which will consider the question of how much the army needs them at all.
The Minister of Defense says that if we do not sign a contract within a month, which requires state guarantees of payment, then we will be moved up in line, and as a result we will receive the planes later and more expensive. If we get it at all."
“The terms of the deal were proposed by the Israeli government, but Israeli government ministers are threatening to resign if the government accepts its own proposal. Only in Israel, as they say.”
“Senior officials in the Prime Minister's Office say the demand for a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 events is political and will lead to the overthrow of the Netanyahu-Likud government.
I don't even know how to comment. If the commission’s conclusions lead to the fall of the Netanyahu government, then perhaps the cabinet should not wait for these conclusions?”
“Foreign Minister Israel Katz rejoices at the loss of the Spanish socialists in the elections to the European Parliament. On this occasion, he prepared a meme and published it. Maybe someone will tell him that the Spanish decision is not their problem, but our problem. And he better beat his balls against his stupid forehead, but he needs to talk and come to an agreement with Madrid.”
“This government seems to know better than anyone how to incite hatred among even loyal voters.”
“The scandal continues around the report on the impending attack by Hamas with the taking of hostages and the storming of military bases and kibbutzim.
Today, cyber unit 8200 and representatives of the Gaza brigade spoke with Kan 11 journalists and blamed each other for the fact that the document did not reach senior management. As it turns out, the document was published in intelligence information systems on September 19 last year. Despite the importance of the information, 8200 personnel did not forward it to senior command and did not draw conclusions from the action document. On October 1, the document was read by a soldier from the Gaza Brigade's intelligence unit, who wrote a comment that this was very important information and asked the 8200 soldiers to draw conclusions from this document, but they did not follow. At the same time, the intelligence officer also did not pass on the information to higher authorities. For some reason, other officers who saw the document also did not pass it on higher. The IDF now says that everything is being investigated, including issues of responsibility for the fact that the information was not shared with the senior command.”
“And new details of the failure on October 7. Kan 11 reports that four days before the tragic Saturday, a military observer stationed in the area of Kibbutz Nahal Oz noticed a highly unusual exercise taking place in Gaza near the separation fence. According to the report, at least 170 militants took part in the exercise, which took place at 9 a.m., while training to simultaneously launch missiles while raiding mock-ups of Israeli tanks.
The military observer reported the militants' exercises to his commanders. The unusual exercise was described as “just another drill,” security sources said. Four days later, all these skills were used by terrorists in real battles.”
“They say he lies like he breathes. Our Prime Minister breathes to lie. Let's wait for the state commission and see how much all these old wives' tales about delays in arms deliveries cost. What have we not yet seen under the current “miracle” government? Yes, almost everything already.”
“Our people have entered Jabaliya, there are battles there, at the same time we are fighting in Zeitoun and messing around with something in Rafah. Sderot and Ashkelon are surrounded by missiles. A feeling begins to form that everything did not go as planned, but the whole point is that it is precisely this that is not clear how everything was planned.”
“Words have never been so cheap.”
“The feeling is strange and scary. No matter what you do, it will be worse and there is no good scenario in principle. We didn’t lose this war now, we lost it on October 7”...
All this (and much more) is written in their Telegram channels by famous Israeli journalists - Sergey Auslender and Mikhail Gurevich (his channel is called “Kolya Hadashot”, in Hebrew - “All News”). And not only them. In Hebrew and Russian.
People who unconditionally love their country and care about it, who in every possible way wish it well, prosperity and deliverance from the terrorist danger.
But those who do not believe that patriotism and praise are synonymous.
Those who write what they think - including what is very unpleasant for their superiors, both civilian and military. Without fearing, like other journalists, that “in the name of state security” they will be punished for “discrediting” or “fakes”, declared “foreign agents” or “extremists”. Confident that open and transparent discussion of mistakes and failures is the only thing that can reduce their likelihood in the future. And the press service of the IDF (Israeli army) knows very well that its messages can be assessed critically by both journalists and society, but it does not occur to anyone to prohibit it.
This is not a unique feature of Israel - this is the practice of any democratic country, no matter how difficult the situation it may be in: public opinion is formed based on the actions of the authorities - and not through criminal cases against dissenters.
But in Israel this happens not only in peacetime, but also in wartime - when hostilities are taking place and the very existence of the country is at risk.
However, freedom of speech and expression is unshakable. No matter what happens.
Every Saturday evening there are huge protest rallies in the center of Tel Aviv.
Almost every day, in blogs and opinion channels, well-known journalists and public (and non-public) persons, if they see fit, report in any terms what they think about the government in general and individual ministers in particular.
And the only thing they can do in response is to personally sue the one who, in his opinion, insulted or slandered him. But they categorically cannot set law enforcement agencies on a critic, force them to open a case against them, fine them, arrest them or imprison them. No matter how unpleasant it may be to read to yourself what is written.
At the same time, close relatives of almost all members of the government are participating in the fighting in the ranks of the army, including the sons of President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At the front are three sons of Defense Minister Yoav Golant, three sons of one former Chief of the General Staff (and now Minister) Benny Gantz, two sons of another former Chief of the General Staff (and now Minister) Gadi Eizenkot, the youngest of whom died in December 2023 in the Gaza Strip, sons and daughters of other ministers...
This is how a country lives, which in reality (and not in the horror stories of propagandists) is surrounded on all sides by enemies who publicly declare the need for its destruction.