Operation Protective Edge restarted on Wednesday with full force. Only this time Israel is not fighting Hamas but itself in an absurd clash between defense establishment bodies. The Shin Bet security service is to blame for the current escalation. In a juvenile pursuit of getting credit for its work during the fighting in Gaza, it sent some of its personnel, including one official who until recently was commander of the southern sector, to give interviews to "Uvda" ("Fact," an investigative reporting show) in what looked like an attempt to garner acclaim on the back of the Israel Defense Forces. What arose from the program in summary was that the Shin Bet had warned of a coming war, and the IDF supposedly ignored it, was complacent and prevented Israel from properly preparing for it. Officials in the IDF were outraged by the reports. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz found himself suddenly in the shoes the late former IDF chief Lt. Gen. David Elazar, as someone who will be accused by the public for failure. In a letter written to the prime minister, Gantz demanded an immediate clarification. Some in the IDF wanted Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen's resignation. Their claim: lies, no less, coming from senior officials in the Shin Bet, who said that in January they had warned of coming war. Similar statements were made by Cohen himself during a cabinet meeting after the end of the fighting; then-IDF Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi lashed out him at the time. Other ministers have also they did not know about the warning. Factually speaking, a Yom Kippur War-style warning was not there. Not in January and not afterwards. There was an alert for a terrorist attack. In April, the Shin Bet warned that Hamas intended to carry out a strategic attack via tunnels in the Kerem Shalom area that could have included attacking nearby Israeli communities or the abduction of soldiers. Had such an attack occurred and succeeded, it would have likely led to an immediate escalation. As far as the Shin Bet was concerned, that was the warning; as far as the IDF was concerned, that was a terrorist plan to thwart. The truth is that both sides are doing a disservice -- to the profession and to reality. In an effort to excel, the IDF and the Shin Bet are "reverse engineering" history: The Shin Bet is building up its warning, while military intelligence is playing it down. Self-criticism is not exactly the intelligence community's strong suit. It turns out: The operation was a huge success and intelligence -- the main victor. In a system that operates like it should, the two organization heads would have long sat down with one another and patched the whole thing up. The whole ordeal about the warning, the gaps in knowledge regarding Hamas' tunnels and the argument over whether Hamas started the fighting and was in charge (as the Shin Bet claims) or whether it was dragged into it unexpectedly (as military intelligence claims) -- it is less important what happened and more what will happen: In light of the current mayhem in the West Bank and Jerusalem, as well as the unrest in Gaza and in the north, it would behoove the IDF and Shin Bet to set their egos and the competition for credit aside and focus on their jobs. Unfortunately that has not been the case, and currently it does not look like it will: The bad blood that has polled has become to great an obstacle for an impromptu meeting to fix. It is time for the person in charge to take hold of situation with clear action. With all due respect to the personal honor of all those involved, our security is a bit more important.
