Blinken dodges question on ‘intelligence failures’ in Israel

Secretary of State Antony Blinken dodged a question on Sunday about whether Israel intelligence failed to prevent the surprise coordinated attacks by Hamas.

“George, there’ll be time to look at that and to make determinations about what may have been missed,” Blinken told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.” “And right now, the focus has to be on the effort to repel the aggression by the Hamas terrorists to push them back and to put Israel in a position where this doesn’t happen again.”

When pushed further on the United States’ close ties with Israeli intelligence, Blinken reiterated that the countries will continue to look at what may have been missed leading up to the attacks.

“We have a very close relationship with Israeli intelligence as well as with the Israeli military as well as with Israel more broadly. So yes, of course, this is something that they and we will be looking at. But the the effort right now has to be in dealing with the aggression from from Hamas with these attacks,” he said.

Blinken also noted that most of the Hamas militants who invaded Israel have been killed, but fighting in Gaza has intensified.

In a surprise move, Hamas launched a multi-pronged attack on Israel Saturday with a barrage of missile strikes and entered Israel, holding citizens and military members hostage. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally declared war as a result almost immediately after the attacks. There are at least 500 Israelis dead and more than 300 Palestinians killed so far in Israel’s retaliatory measures. 

Later that day, the prime minister vowed to destroy Hamas and avenge those left dead and injured. The situation has been ravaged with complexities as the Hamas has taken dozens of Israelis as hostage with Israel retaliating as a result.

The U.S. has reiterated support for Israel in the hours since the attacks.

“In this moment of tragedy, I want to say to them and to the world, and to terrorists everywhere, that the United States stands with Israel. We will not ever fail to have their back. We’ll make sure that they have the help their citizens need and they can continue to defend themselves,” President Biden said in remarks at the White House Saturday.