“On October 6 we believed we had the best army. But then, and now, it is what they want us to believe,” says an employee at the advanced technology Matam park in Haifa, in northern Israel, the largest, oldest and leading in the country.
He won't be the only one.
Israeli Prime Minister Beniamin Netanyahu does not hesitate when he points out that in the coming years the Jewish State will make a “huge” investment in defense. And this week the Government presented a “war” budget. The premier also does not hesitate when he states that “we will fight to the end and with the help of the most advanced technology.” And for example he cites artificial intelligence capabilities through augmented reality glasses. But at home, in the Hebrew technology sector, doubts abound; The voices that most want to promote now are, today, the most critical of him, of his Cabinet, and of his policies.
A veteran Intel employee in this Israeli technological mecca tells this newspaper, under anonymity: “The Government is lost.” It's just the beginning, because he and his colleagues, of all ages, and all men, form a group next to the company's fence where "visitors have not been admitted since October 7," according to his staff. of security, and they say: “Last year there was no management in the Government. It was chaos. And that's why October 7 was a surprise and it wasn't. "We were not prepared." One of them also adds: “Nor for the brutality [of Hamas].”
Matam is a technological reference in a country where the saying goes that Haifa works, Jerusalem prays and Tel Aviv has fun. And in Haifa, now, among its tech workers, once outside their large glass buildings, the accusatory finger towards the Government abounds. Although always anonymous. Because war is war and here it also soaks everything.
Across the road from Intel's headquarters is where most of the country's leading companies are located. It is a fenced space and access is not allowed. But on their way out, two young people, a man and a woman, both with an intellectual air, and both dressed in a carefree manner, explain "without giving the name, better", again, that "before October 7, Israel thought that “It had the best army, the best technology, and what we don't have is the best intelligence.”
Both are aware that far from Israel people often think the other way around. And they insist: “Yom Kippur 1973 was on October 6 at two in the morning. This [the Hamas attack] on the morning of October 7th. It's not a coincidence. It's a holiday, the juniors warned but they were not given any importance. The system is somewhat naive. The image that is given externally and internally is of technological advance, but we do not have the ability to investigate.” And they give away a strawberry-filled chocolate bar when they say goodbye.
Efraim Inbar is president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, and he also insists that “Israel was obviously not prepared [for the October 7 attack], although now the atmosphere has changed and there is a message to reinforce internal defenses. Failures in intelligence will be studied after the war.” Inbar, further, points to another of the keys that continue to condition the Israeli retaliation in Gaza to the Hamas attack, which has left more than 23,000 dead in the strip: “It was not understood what Hamas wanted to do. Technology is still very important, this has not changed, but the problem is that more forces are needed and not just technology for defense.”
Haifa is also home to one of the crown jewels of Israeli education: the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, a world leader and the country's first higher education center, even before the State of Israel existed. Its current relevance speaks of the fact that upon accessing it, the bus stops, a guard must check everything, and only after his approval can you continue. Also if you go by taxi, or if you access it on foot, or in any other way. And here, within his communications department, it is also insisted that “we all thought we were prepared [for an attack on Gaza like the one on October 7], but no.” What is to come is not discussed.
