Horrors of Hell in Gaza

"Prime Minister Netanyahu should be held accountable for such a colossal, costly, unprecedented security failure in Israel. He and his men were caught sleeping with the other woman."

Images of Hamas' butchering, raping, shooting and burning of defenseless Israelis inside lsrael last week took the world by surprise.

No country has a better track record of intelligence gathering than Israel. We all remember the 12 spies sent by Moses to investigate the land of Canaan thousands of years ago. Intelligence efficiency and security awareness has been an integral part of the history of the Jewish nation and they seemed to have built a sophistication in it over the years.

The Mossad is famous for intelligent collection, counter terrorism and covert operations around the world. It is only second to the CIA. Indeed, many countries, including the United States and Great Britain rely on Israel's spy network in many parts of the world, particularly in the Middle East.

This is why the world remains in a ruthless shock over the failure of Israel to prevent the Hamas led massacre that took place inside Israel last week. And to think that the operation was planned for years, and military drills were audaciously conducted close to the Israeli border makes the security failure even more outrageously spectacular.

Israel is now in a panic mode. But that should never have been the case if those responsible for its national security did not sleep on the job.

If that is shocking, the amount of time it took the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to mount a credible rescue operation was even more jaw dropping.The militants had all the advantage of time to maraud and plunder neighbourhoods to conclusion before the sleeping men of Netanyahu dragged themselves from their bedchamber.

By that time, hordes of Israelis were already captives in Gaza while dead bodies and body parts littered the streets.

It took the nation another full day to count their losses and to attempt a reconstruction of what had hit them. It was too late. The militants had fled with their loot of hostages, leaving a trail of decapitations, butchering, burning and rape behind!

Prime Minister Netanyahu should be held accountable for such a colossal, costly, unprecedented security defect in Israel. He and his men were caught sleeping with the other woman. It is a shame he has not apologised to his people for failing to protect them when it mattered most.

And now this show of force in Gaza that is having a huge toll on innocent people is hearbreaking to watch. Why should innocent civilians suffer for the cruelties of Hamas?

It was intelligence failure in Israel rather than Hamas' military strategy that brought Israel to its knees in what has been described as lsrael's own 9/11. Israel has not experienced such a colossal national degradation since the holocaust.

But who can question Israel's resolve to defend itself against Hamas? No nation with the military might of Israel would stand aloof and watch its citizens roasted like groundnuts, shot, raped, terrified and decapitated by insurgents in the manner of Hamas.

Hamas knew the consequences of its raid on lsrael and courted it with eyes wide opened. It is Hamas that must ultimately bear responsibility for the bloodbath in Gaza.

Hamas stoked the fires because it wanted to truncate multiple peace talks between lsrael and a host of Arab states including Saudi Arabia that it feared could compromise its position as a major peace broker in the region. Fearing it could fade into insignificance, it needed to remind everyone that it was still a relevant champion of the Palestinian cause.

But in doing so, it has betrayed innocent civilians who unfortunately have nowhere to hide from Israeli missiles.

Starved of food, water, electricity, home, job, family and friends amidst routine bombardments by the Israeli Air force, Gazans might as well be living hell.

Israel has the right to defend itself. But photos of extreme civilian helplessness, bleeding babies, men and women walking but going nowhere, mounting numbers of dead palestinians and the expanding sea of wreckage and carnage everywhere reminds me of armageddon.

Why should thousands of people lose their lives because Netanyahu slept on the job?