How Hamas Caught U.S. and Israeli Intelligence Unaware

livemint.com:

Hamas’s attack on Israel should be a wake-up call to U.S. intelligence services. That a terrorist attack of this magnitude—with seismic implications for global security—came as a surprise to many in Washington shows that we need to reassess our own operations sharply to ensure that America has a comprehensive threat picture that can provide early warnings and prevent national-security tragedies.

The Israelis will no doubt examine this lapse thoroughly. Several possible reasons come to mind for why Israel and its allies, including the U.S., failed to report on the exact nature, timing and scale of the attack. Disinformation could have played a role in diluting Israeli intelligence.

Hamas has years of experience with Israel’s intelligence methods and strategic priorities, giving the terrorists the know-how to feed Israeli operatives false information. Over the past two years, Israel had seemingly developed a working relationship with Hamas on issues like humanitarian-aid deliveries and work permits for Gaza residents. That would have given Hamas operatives opportunities to communicate regularly with Israelis and perhaps gain the Israelis’ trust by sharing accurate information on other threats from Gaza—lending credibility to Hamas’s deceptions about its own plans.

Yet with a terrorist operation of this scope, there had to be countervailing information available. Hamas planned and trained for the attack for at least several months and reportedly had input from outside supporters, especially Iran. It’s hard to imagine that not a single intelligence source warned of the coming onslaught among hundreds of Hamas members and their supporters both inside and outside Gaza.