Israel Can’t Postpone Its Reckoning Forever

O n October 13 of last year, Hamas released its last living Israeli hostages—20 Jews in various states of disrepair.

And Israel, along with a remarkably small fraction of the rest of the world, allowed itself a brief moment to celebrate.

Among the Israelis paid to contain his relief was Zohar Palti, who served as Mossad’s head of intelligence from 2011 to 2016.

He joined me for dinner in a northern suburb of Tel Aviv two days later.

Looking on the bright side, he told me, was “a waste of time” for someone whose job was to think about all that could go catastrophically wrong.

Palti said he was happy to see the hostages freed, but Israel’s future would probably look like its past.

And that meant more war.

“My dad is 92 years old,” he said.

“He fought in Gaza in ’56, in ’67, and in ’73.

I myself was there in the ’90s, in 2000, and in 2010.

My son is there right now.” Then he smiled.

“Trust me: My grandson will be there as well.” “I know what you are thinking: typical cynical Israeli ,” he said, but added that he was not a pessimist; he was reasonably sure that Israel would be able to manage, if not solve, its conflict with the Palestinians.

He was also confident about his country’s preparation to handle Iran, whose government has committed itself to Israel’s physical elimination.

“If you speak with the generals, the security people who invest their lives in this issue: What is the essential threat to Israel? No one will say, Something from the outside .” They do not fret about Iran or Gaza or Syria, he said.