[hlmencken3]

Israeli intelligence is hardly perfect. Don’t forget there’s an extreme surrender-monkey left in Israel, and they are represented in the military and intelligence. They aren’t above setting others up to look bad. That said, you’re probably exactly right and this was a plausible-deniability message to Obama about inviting Iranians to Israel’s borders.

[edpc]

No...they're not perfect. The Yom Kippur War caught them totally off guard. The SA-6 and Swatter were very effective in blunting their initial attempts at counter attack. They ran into a couple of rude surprises back during operations in 2006, Southern Lebanon. They are, however, very quick to adapt and change. They've had very hard lessons in what can happen when they don't pay attention.

You are correct about elements within the military and government. Many at the source paper, Haaretz, are among those types. If Netanyahu were not calling the shots, I believe they may have targeted the low ranks to send a message.