What the surface comparison between Golda Meir and Benjamin Netanyahu misses is that the failures itself, while separated by half a century, share more than common than is often acknowledged.

The Yom Kippur War claimed the lives of over 2,600 Israeli soldiers and left thousands more wounded. The events of the October 7 massacres killed around 1,195 people in a single day: 828 civilians, including 36 children and 71 foreign citizens, and at least 367 members of the security forces. This was before the prolonged war that has since claimed the lives of hundreds of Israeli soldiers.

At first glance, these appear to be fundamentally different kinds of crises. One, after all, was a conventional war, the other a massacre followed by asymmetric fighting. In one respect, however, they are strikingly similar: neither was truly unforeseeable.

In the months leading up to 1973, Israeli intelligence registered multiple warning signs: Egyptian and Syrian troop movements, rising tensions, and credible indications of a potential........

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