This is part three of a four part newsletter. Our first newsletter focused on Hamas jihadi strategies and preparations prior to its October 7, 2023 murderous attack on Israel, as well as how much Israeli Intelligence knew about this. The second newsletter examined Israel’s lack of professional preparations, sobering examples of negligent conduct, and the actual timeline of events surrounding October 6-7. This third newsletter considers the context of internal Israeli divisions, and how Hamas exploited those divisions. The fourth newsletter will look into the damage caused by an Israeli spy connected to opposition movements, and then some conclusions will be drawn from these events.
A decade of bitterness
Ehud Barak, Israel’s most decorated soldier, has served over the years as head of AMAN (Military Intelligence Directorate 1983-85); Sayeret Matkal (IDF Delta Force equivalent; 1971-73, where he had been Netanyahu’s commander); IDF Chief of General Staff (1991-1995); Minister of Defense (1999-2001; 2007-2013); and Prime Minister (1999-2001). Barak had previously lost the 1996 elections to Netanyahu.
An ongoing historic rivalry between Barak and Netanyahu (also known as ‘Bibi’) has festered over the years, as noted by the Washington Post in September 2016. Barak stated at that time: “Netanyahu’s reckless conduct endangers Israel . . . Netanyahu enabled a militant, nationalist minority to carry out a hostile takeover of his party, Likud – . . . to hijack our national agenda in the service of a messianic drive toward, as it’s often put, ‘a single Jewish state, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.’ This . . . spell[s] doom for the Zionist dream.” He added: “We will all have to get up from our … seats and overthrow [that government], through a popular protest … before it’s too late.”
The themes that have run through Ehud Barak’s campaigns against Bibi since 2016 (and which still guide his political activism to this day) remain the same: de-legitimization of Netanyahu’s rule; a deep personal hatred towards Bibi (thus the slogan ‘anything-but-Bibi’); mass demonstrations aimed at bringing down Bibi’s government; anti-religious attacks on the religious parties who see the Jewish restoration to the Promised Land as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
Speaking at a June 2019 press conference in Tel Aviv, Barak called for an end to “Netanyahu’s rule with the radicals, racists and corrupt, with the Messianists [i.e., Orthodox Jews] and his corrupt leadership.” He declared that he was returning to politics in order to “topple Netanyahu.” In July 2019, author and Barak biographer Calev Ben-Dor stated that “Ehud Barak has the energy, the venom and the gravitas to hurt Netanyahu in a way no other candidate seemingly can.”
Shape-shifting protestors
During the Summer of 2016, Barak and his co-laborers worked hard to kindle four criminal investigations against Netanyahu. These four legal moves against Netanyahu have become the mantra of the new protest era: accusing Netanyahu of bribery, deception, and breach of trust. This rallying cry of this protest movement against the Prime Minister sprouted in 2016, bloomed in late 2017 (the Tel Aviv ‘Shame Parade’); morphed in 2018 (the ‘Crime Minister’ or ‘Hoze Hadash/New Deal’ demonstrations) and transformed itself on March 10, 2020 into the ‘Black Flags’ protests (attacking Netanyahu’s coalition discussions). This movement was guided and heavily underwritten by Barak, according to an exposé presented on Israel’s Channel 13. The initial protest was led by three brothers and a sister – Eyal, Yarden, Dekel and Shikma Schwartzman – who organized a convoy to Jerusalem, pushing for legal attempts to remove Prime Minister Netanyahu from office. Shikma Schwartzman-Bressler declared at that time that the group’s focus was against “a coalition agreement that violates the Basic Laws of the State of Israel,” adding that it is the movement’s “stated goal of preserving democracy by ensuring the ousting of ‘crime minister’ Netanyahu.” A Black Flags spokesperson also added a footnote, declaring that “Israeli democracy refused to be subjected to a coup under the pretext of the coronavirus.”
The ongoing mass street demonstrations in Israel, the civil disobedience and blocking of freeways and airports all have deep political roots (detailed in three of our recent newsletters). The ideological origins of this movement go back to the 1930’s during the British occupation, when communists and socialists considered all conservatives to be fascists, and practically excommunicated the pre-Likud movement from participation in political discourse. Today this same worldview thrives on the Left side of the political aisle, as well as in parties of the center-left. Hatred for the moderate right and for Orthodox Jewish parties is openly manifested in Left-wing Israeli political discussions. The demonization of the Likud party and its coalition partners is a regrettable part of normal political discourse here. And over the past 20 years it has been directed especially against PM Netanyahu.
Barak has played a central role in focusing radical attention on the three main events here (criminal investigations against Netanyahu; the protest movement; and the political boycott against the right). He has been instrumental in shaping the framework and development of this protest movement over the last nine years. Barak has been the briefer, the advisor, and the spearheader/funder/catalyzer for the demonstrations.
The focus of the Barak-instigated demonstrations has shifted its shape over the past decade. It began with calls for Netanyahu to resign due to his right-wing and pro-religious emphases. After this, it morphed into the multifaceted emphases of the Black Flags movement; then on to the Crime Minister smear campaign; and then to violent protests outside of the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem. The demonstrations then moved on to oppose judicial reform; then called for a release of all the hostages combined with a call to end the war against Hamas without preconditions. And now, the latest metamorphosis is a call for an investigation (led by anti-Netanyahu judges) into issues concerning the Israel-Hamas war.
Sedition and treason
Amir Oren, a reporter for the Left-leaning Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, interviewed Gilead Sher on his May 9, 2023 podcast. Sher had been PM Barak’s chief of staff from 1999-2001 and Barak’s chief negotiator with the PLO at Camp David. Sher has remained close to Barak ever since. Sher explained that in December 2022, three weeks before Netanyahu’s new government would come to power, Sher met with Yossi Kutchik, director general of former-PM Barak’s Office. Also in attendance were former IDF Chief of General Staff Dan Halutz and high-tech billionaire and far-left political activist Orni Petruschka. They were joined within a week by others, including former deputy Attorney General Dina Zilber and Shikma Bressler (the face of the ‘Black Flags’ Barak-supported protest movement). Their goal was to put together the organizational and financial structure for the mass demonstrations, civil disobedience and violent rioting that Israel has experienced since January 2023 – even before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his colleagues had formed their government. This means that “the riots, protests, acts of political violence and intimidation that have swamped Israel since January [2023] were not spontaneous responses to the government’s legal reform proposals. They were planned and financed weeks before Justice Minister Yariv Levin was appointed to his position and well before the government took any position on anything.”
A Hebrew Zoom clip from July 23, 2020 (English sub-titles available here) shows a private meeting Barak held with retired Israel Air Force pilots and navigators (called ‘Forum 555’) who all supported him in his desire to remove Bibi from office. Attending the meeting were Shikma Bressler and Moshe Redman, leaders of the anti-Bibi demonstrations which now have a new morphed name – the ‘Kaplan’ protest demonstrations. In that meeting Ehud Barak stated that it is not Barak but actually Bibi who is heading up “an attempted governmental coup.” A civil uprising against Bibi is needed, Barak states, but it must be presented to the public as an uprising “for the sake of democracy,” rather than an attempt to unseat Netanyahu.
In the Zoom video Barak discusses strategies for a civilian revolt, including the use of slogans, civil disobedience, and both general and ultimate goals of the protest movement. He stated that he would raise the necessary funds to cover all logistics for the project, including flags, banners and PA systems. He declared that the more there are streets clashes with the government, the stronger would the opposition’s resistance become. This would inevitably lead to the government needing to use force against the demonstrators, which would again bolster the protest movement. In Barak’s own words, when an army shoots into a crowd, the government is bound to fall. Barak also declared on that Zoom clip a snippet of revealing information about his own self-awareness: “Objectively speaking, I am the most suitable person in the state to take control of the steering wheel.”
On January 14, 2023 Barak gave an interview to Israel Channel 12, at which time he declared: “This government is legal but clearly illegitimate because of its plan to crush Israeli democracy . . . We are witnessing a coup here. This is an assassination of the Declaration of Independence, and democracy must defend itself . . . It is clearly illegitimate to assassinate the Declaration of Independence. It is not the right of every citizen, it is the duty of every citizen to come and fight for the security of the government and the rights and dignity of human beings, for the security, the future of the country and equality and freedom. Civil disobedience is a very important thing and that means blocking roads, civil disobedience is the duty of citizens when the government has gone mad.”
On April 4, 2023, Ehud Barak posted on Twitter a perspective which dovetailed with former-POTUS Biden’s and the US State Department’s strategies to bring down the Netanyahu government: “In conversations between Israelis and Western diplomatic officials there are deep concerns raised of the possibility that if the coup [i.e., the judicial reform reining in Israel’s present juristocracy] in Israel succeeds, a messianic dictatorship will be established in the heart of the Middle East, which has nuclear weapons, and fanatically wishes for a confrontation with Islam centered on the Temple Mount.”
On June 10, 2023 Barak declared to protestors in Haifa: “To this end, the protest must increase and move to civil rebellion!” At that same demonstration, former-IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Ya’ir Golan proclaimed: “Civil revolt is not an exaggeration . . . and if we have to reach a large-scale and non-violent protest, that is what we will do. I am calling here … to do illegal things as well . . . In the fight for democracy, you have to do non-violent things that are on the fringes of the law – there is no choice but to do it … Shut down their stores, block the streets, bar all services … Friends, against this evil, malevolent government we have only one path: a comprehensive, broad public rebellion . . . From tomorrow, we’re changing things. No more polite Saturday evening protests. No more lamentations and complaints. Just actions. Just results. Businesses will be shut down, services will come to a halt, roads will be blocked, and this arrogant person who presumes to rule, with the help of corrupt, extreme, and dark forces will be made to realize that the people are sovereign.”
On July 6, 2023, Barak called for a refusal of IDF soldiers to show up for reserve duty, declaring on Israeli Channel 12: “When a black flag of extreme illegality flies over an army order, it is not just the right of a soldier to disobey that order; it is his obligation. We are now facing the civilian equivalent of black-flag illegality . . . Our only obligation is to liberal democracy as expressed in the Declaration of Independence. We have no obligatory contract with dictators, and history will judge to purgatory all those who submit to the dictates of dictators . . . We are the right side of history and we are not afraid of anybody or anything.”
- The street protests in Israel are part of a long-range program to paralyze and destabilize Netanyahu’s government, with clear plans to weaken and overthrow it. The political opponents of the current government have shaped a narrative – namely, that these demonstrations are really spontaneous and popular opposition to judicial reform, and not a convenient cattle prod to herd Israel’s electorate in an anti-government direction
Israeli Transport Minister Miri Regev sent a letter to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara calling for an investigation to be opened against former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and ‘Forum 555’ for allegedly inciting a coup d’état. Regev stated that the video clip “shows without any shadow of a doubt that beginning in March 2020, former officials began concocting a plan for a coup d’état and civil disobedience, with detailed and careful planning.” According to Hebrew media reports a few days later, an official task force would investigate if Barak and Golan could be charged with incitement or sedition, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison,
On June 11, 2023, correspondence publicized by Channel 14 News from a closed WhatsApp group protesting the ‘judicial reform’ revealed that the real goal of the protests, which are being funded by deep pockets, is to topple the right-wing government headed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The group’s members include former prime ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert; former IDF chiefs of staff Dan Halutz and Moshe ‘Bogie’ Ya’alon; the founder of the anarchist ‘Crime Minister’ movement Yishai Hadas; and leaders of the ‘Black Flags’ movement Roy Neuman, Shikma Schwarzman-Bressler, and her brother Eyal Schwarzman. Former PM Ehud Olmert texted at that meeting: “At the start of the protest, I said that a battle is not seminars and academic speeches. We need head-to-head and hand-to-hand combat. So there were reservations about the wording because it sounded too aggressive. It seems to me that my statements still hold true. Without violence and violating the law but in war as in war.”
A false witness spreads strife among brothers (Proverbs 6:19)
On July 6, 2023 on Channel 12 TV, Barak upped the ante, calling on “air-force pilots and Special Forces” to warn Bibi that if he succeeded in passing his legal reforms, these elite soldiers “would refuse to serve a dictatorship, period.”
The founder of the 555 Pilots Forum testified that Barak advised him: “You are a strong role model in Israeli society, you need to find a group among you that is ready to carry out protest actions on the border of legality that will attract public attention and ignite a wave of mass demonstrations.” The Air Force ignited that wave when many of its pilots refused to show up for reserve duty in protest of the judicial reform. Barak said at that same forum that he is doing everything he can “including helping to raise funds so that this protest will succeed.”
Achim LaNeshek (‘Brothers in Arms’) is a movement of IDF reservists – including some pilots and intelligence officers – who stated their refusal to serve should judicial reforms be passed. Following Barak’s leadership, they see themselves as the spearhead in the fight against the judicial reforms that the Netanyahu coalition is attempting to legislate.
One of Israel’s top intelligence journalists and strategic affairs correspondents, Yossi Melman, spoke glowingly on July 20, 2023 of Barak’s call to soldiers to refuse to serve in the IDF:
- “A military coup is underway in Israel. This is the unvarnished truth . . . Rather than stating unequivocally that there is insubordination among many Israel Defense Forces reservists, they refer to it instead as ‘ceasing to volunteer’ . . . It’s more comfortable for all involved not to explicitly use the phrase ‘military coup,’ but if the issue is to be effectively addressed, the reality must be faced head-on and called by its rightful name… [This] is a military coup for the sake of democracy.”
On July 18, 2023, Chief of Staff Lieut.-Gen. Herzi Halevi addressed a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting, attacking Achim LaNeshek and saying that “anyone who calls for refusing to report for duty these days is harming the IDF, and harming the security of the state.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu also attacked Achim LaNeshek for inciting popular refusal to volunteer for reserve duty in the IDF. On July 20, 2023 he said, “What does endanger democracy, is refusal to serve. Their refusal endangers the security of all Israeli citizens. In a democracy, the army is subordinate to the government; the government does not bend to its will. When officials in the army try to dictate the government’s policy using threats, this is wrong; that is the end of democracy.”
Scholars, politicians and political analysts have noted that the leaders of Hamas had been carefully studying Israeli politics and politicians, and had come to the conclusion that the civil unrest, quasi-violent demonstrations and calls for AWOL behavior throughout 2023 – all had served to weaken the IDF’s and the nation’s combat readiness. They also concluded that these events had downgraded Israel’s fighting spirit. These were some of the factors that influenced Hamas in choosing the date and the time of their jihadi terror attack.
- The next section presents captured Hamas intelligence which backs up these conclusions 100%
Know your enemy
According to The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (March 13, 2025), Hamas documents brought back by the IDF during the Gaza Strip War showed that Hamas was monitoring and discussing Israeli media and sources daily, “especially in light of preparations for implementing the practical plan for the vision of ‘the destruction of Israel.’” Hamas intelligence department reports extensively covered the developments surrounding the government’s proposed ‘judicial reform’ and the protests, and the possible effects on the IDF’s functioning in light of the reservists’ protests.
Document 8: Excerpt from Haniyeh’s speech before the executive committee, January 14, 2023
- “The [Israeli] government, as much as it threatens the Palestinian people, carries within it the seeds of the entity’s internal explosion. The contradictory and opposing statements we are hearing and the demonstrations indicate that the entity is in an unprecedented internal state. Yesterday, [Ehud] Barak issued an extraordinary statement: ‘We must fight everywhere to bring down this government.’ There is a demand to arrest the opposition leadership. The factors behind the internal explosion of the entity have become clear, in accordance with the words of Allah ‘and their hearts were divided’” (Qur’an, Sura 59, Verse 14).
Document 3: Communiqué from al-Sinwar to Ismail Haniyeh, March 6, 2023
- Sinwar dealt with the preparations for the “campaign of liberation, return and destruction of the entity.” Al-Sinwar noted that the “internal situation of the enemy” should also be addressed in the discussions, although only in a focused manner. The internal situation of the internal enemy, its disagreements, conflicts and crises must be given a place, focused even if small.
Document 2.1: Conversation between Yahya al-Sinwar and Muhammad Nasr, April 4, 2023
- [Muhammad Nasr (Abu Omar) was part of the Hamas Politburo, based in Beirut.]
The conversation dealt with the state of the Hamas movement, preparations for the future campaign against Israel, and with the protest within Israel and its possible impact on the confrontation. Nasr noted that the internal Israeli division was an opportunity for Hamas and the Palestinians, but only if the Palestinians overcome their own internal division. “There is a real opportunity for the [Palestinian] cause and the [Hamas] movement, and herein lies the danger of division in the political position or in the political line. The internal division in Israel is the greatest destructive force that can destroy Israel, and any [Palestinian] internal division delays the achievement of the goals. – This is an opportunity for us to reap the fruits, as the balance of power has now shifted in our favor, and we must seize the opportunity. The obstacle facing us is the internal division on the political issue.”
Document 2.2: Conversation between Yahya al-Sinwar and Muhammad Nasr, April 4, 2023
- Al-Sinwar agreed with Nasr’s assessments regarding the “state of the enemy.” He noted that although a certain calm could be observed in the protest within Israel, it was only temporary and it was a “severe crisis” in the foundations of the “entity” … The general line is 100% correct and the assessment is precise, whether it concerns the situation of the enemy, the region or the existing opportunities. – The [political] calm among the enemy is temporary, only an apparent calm, and the crisis is greater and deeper …The crisis strikes the depth of the entity. From interviews in the media with enemy leaders, the picture becomes clear. The crisis in the entity is deep, not just a civil war, but a disintegration of the glue that holds the entity’s components together, and a breakdown of the formulas that preserve the entity’s existence and continuity. Anyone familiar with the enemy’s affairs notices that if this situation continues for some time, it will lead them to a condition more serious and dangerous than Harb al-Ghufran [the Yom Kippur War].
Document 5: ‘Yasser’ (apparently the head of Hamas’ military intelligence, Muhammad Odeh) sent to Yahya al-Sinwar a classified assessment of “the impact of protests in the ranks of the ‘enemy army’ on operational readiness and the security situation on the fronts.” July 25, 2023
- The enemy army is in the midst of a crisis of increasingly serious protests among reserve soldiers and officers, who are considered a key pillar in the army’s operations, especially in the Air Force. This will negatively affect the army’s operational capability if the intensity of the demonstrations and refusals escalates and reaches more significant levels. It will also affect the army’s offensive capability and its preparedness to deal with the challenges existing on the front. The demonstrations have so far focused on several sectors [of the army], the most prominent of which are the Air Force and Intelligence
Document 6.2: A Hamas military intelligence report sent to al-Sinwar, July 25, 2023
- The enemy army has received a letter signed by 1,142 soldiers and officers in the Air Force reserve, threatening to stop their voluntary service if the “reasonableness clause” is finally approved. The data shows that the number has increased to 1,194 officers and soldiers. The number and distribution of air force soldiers and officers refusing to serve, follows.
- The effects of the crisis depended on the number of soldiers and officers who did not report for service, their roles and the difficulty of the command echelon in maintaining cohesion within the army and separating the army from the social and political crisis. The greater the number of those avoiding service, the greater the direct impact on operational capability and readiness for conflict, especially a multi-sector conflict. Pilots were considered the most influential because “their number was modest compared to other specialties and their role was extremely important.”
Document 6.5: From an intelligence report issued by Hamas’ military wing and sent to Yahya al-Sinwar, July 25, 2023
- The enemy is faced with the increasing offensive spirit from the ‘resistance’ forces, especially Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, and with their desire to exploit the internal situation within the Zionist entity to their advantage. The commanders of the Zionist intelligence community are spreading the information to push the political forces in Israel to reach internal understandings, since preoccupation with the political crisis weakens strategic deterrence.
- The IDF would still be capable of managing a confrontation with the Gaza Strip unless more than half of the reserve pilots did not participate, whereas the lack of a quarter of the reserve pilots would impair readiness for a multi-front confrontation.
- “The assessment: The number of soldiers and officers refusing service does not yet significantly affect the army’s operational readiness. However, the refusal crisis may worsen … As a result, the military command will face extensive challenges and there will be a direct, though partial, impact on its level of preparedness and operational readiness regarding confrontation and large-scale war. The enemy’s readiness will not be damaged unless more than half of the reserve pilots refuse service. However, refusal by a quarter of the reserve pilots would constitute a significant blow to its ability to cope with a multi-front confrontation. The crisis could become fundamental (a state of general chaos, significant weakening of military strength and a basic strategic decline in army readiness). In the event of a flare-up on any front against the enemy, some of the soldiers and officers will regret their refusal and return to military service.”
- “The recommendations: 1. Avoid entering a military confrontation based on the development of the internal crisis within the enemy. The crisis should be allowed to deepen further, since if it does not become a severe crisis, the benefit of the internal crisis in any military intervention will not be significant. 2. Coordinate with the comrades [other ‘resistance’ organizations] to conduct psychological warfare, and focus on disseminating information that will inflame the internal situation. 3. Invest in demonstrations to promote the issue of the captive soldiers and present it to the enemy’s public as one of the matters Netanyahu has failed to manage. 4. Continue to make the connection between the collapse of the political entities of the Jews due to internal disagreements and the exploitation of the current situation by the enemies. 5. The movement’s leadership [Hamas] should respond to the political situation within the enemy entity before the [Palestinian] public and the national forces, and present the situation as an opportunity to achieve the goals of the Palestinian people.”
The activities of Israel’s most decorated soldier Ehud Barak – specifically, the protests he funded and managed – have caused significant harm to the military readiness of the Israel Defense Forces prior to October 7, 2023. Hamas understood that the demonstrations which Barak catalyzed and his calls for pilots and Special Forces to go AWOL – in their eyes, these were a strategic influence which weakened Israel and left it less protected and less prepared for battle. And all the while, day by day, the D-Day for the jihadi massacres of October 7, 2023 drew closer.
How shall we then pray?
- Pray for the leaders and the nation of Israel to embrace the gift of repentance toward the God of Jacob, to humble ourselves as a nation, and to learn the lessons we need to grasp
- Pray for the leaders and elders of Israel – in the domains of politics, in the military and intelligence, and in law – be given the wisdom to draw sound conclusions and make wise preparations for the next round
- Pray for the entire people of Israel to seek and find salvation in Messiah Yeshua
- Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth!
Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.
In Messiah Yeshua,
Avner Boskey
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