“The Yom Kippur War was a lesson that we should learn every day and every hour, to understand that every one of us could make a mistake in understanding reality. Therefore, it is our responsibility to make sure arrogance, complacency and intellectual tyranny do not take over,” said Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon at this year’s official memorial ceremony held Oct. 5 on Mount Herzl, commemorating the fallen of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. It was a deceptive statement, intended to give the impression that the country’s leadership is acting out of insightfulness and humility.
Until just a few weeks ago, the defense minister was engaged with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a long and complicated round of exhausting fighting against Hamas in Gaza. For a short moment, one could have thought that the defense minister understood the risks inherent to maintaining the diplomatic status quo and the need to think creatively about the Palestinian Authority after the stalemate that ended Operation Protective Edge.
