The ombudsman of the Israel Defense Forces, Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Brick, is a hero of the Yom Kippur War launched by Egypt and Syria against Israel in 1973. Israel came close to losing that war due to a complacent military resting on its laurels after the stunning victory in the Six Day War six years earlier, and the resulting smugness of the political echelon that almost ended in disaster.

Brick, who is winding up a decade-long term, is tasked with handling soldiers’ complaints, not dealing with operational readiness and capability or military buildup. Nonetheless, in recent months he has turned from being a troubling nuisance into a real strategic problem. It began with a report he submitted in June presenting a gloomy assessment of the IDF’s readiness and fitness for war, followed by a long and detailed document on the same issue that he sent to senior defense officials. This month, he issued an additional document, no less detailed, that includes a demand for an external commission of inquiry headed by a retired Supreme Court justice to examine his claims.

Scarred forever by the strategic surprise of the Yom Kippur War, Brick has himself become a strategic surprise. Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot did not expect trouble from the aging general who fought in a war 45 years ago while Eizenkot was celebrating his bar mitzvah and has now become an alarmist as he prepares to retire.

“No wonder [Hezbollah Secretary General] Hassan Nasrallah said a few weeks ago that he had read the Israeli media and understood that the IDF was not ready for war and Israel was deterred by Hezbollah,” a senior military official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “Unfortunately, some people would rather spread unfounded fear and glorify Israel’s enemies instead of checking the numbers, the facts and the situation as it is.” Nasrallah’s comments fit with an episode described in “Fear: Trump in the White House,” the book just out by veteran Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, in which he quotes one of US President Donald Trump’s advisers as warning that Israel’s security apparatus "would be inadequate” to defend the state against Hezbollah.