The social media footage of the murders of innocent Israeli is truly shocking, and encompasses more than just the rapes, tortures and murder of old folks and women. The latest horror is that scores of Israelis babies have been found, beheaded. I am not concerned with the wider politics of the dispute which is under debate across the West. What interests me as a former soldier is that it seems that the Israelis were caught unawares by the sheer magnitude of the attack. Of course, there is a conspiracy line being played out that this is a 9/11 event, but I think on the balance of evidence that this situation occurred because of likely strategic planning by Iran, combined with gaps in defence due to the immense areas to cover. I could be totally wrong about this, but time will tell.
Whatever the geopolitics, it is clear that Israelis on the ground were unprepared, and hence gunless, could not put a defence. But, here is story counter to this, where Inbar Lieberman, the security coordinator of Kibbutz Nir Am, became aware that an attack was about to occur, organised a counter-attack, and saved the day. This is an excellent example of how guns can save people when the authorities simply cannot be there in time.
