Jerusalem, 11 November, 2025 (TPS-IL) — Fourteen months after the October 7 Hamas attack that killed more than 1,200 people, a damning State Comptroller report released Tuesday reveals that Israel has operated for more than seven decades without a formally approved national security concept—a gap some analysts say may have contributed to intelligence and defense failures leading up to the deadliest day in Israeli history.
“The report highlights a long-standing failure in which the political echelon has not fulfilled its responsibility to ensure that the State of Israel is prepared for changing security challenges based on a regular, updated, and officially approved national security concept,” State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman said. Experts who spoke with The Press Service of Israel said the findings expose deeper structural issues in how Israel’s leaders and defense establishment have managed national security planning for decades.
The State Comptroller, also known as the State Ombudsman, regularly releases reports auditing Israel’s preparedness and the effectiveness of government policies. Tuesday’s report reveals that successive prime ministers, security cabinets, and governments never officially ratified a national security doctrine, leaving the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and other security agencies to plan force structure and operations largely based on their own assessments rather than clear political direction.
Professor Eitan Shamir, a political scientist at Bar-Ilan University and director of its Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, told TPS-IL that the lack of a formally approved concept does not mean Israel operates without guidance. “You mean the absence of a written and approved concept by the government. The fact that there is no such written concept does not mean that there is no security concept. It is an oral tradition. There are understandings regarding preferences and allocations between various elements, such as the minister of Defense, members of the Cabinet, etc. Through these understandings, instructions are given to the lower echelons.”
Shamir added, “I think it is lacking that there is no process that ultimately results in a national security policy document. Gadi Eisenkot tried to pass a law requiring such a thing after years that it did not happen. I do not think there was any connection to October 7. I look at countries that have such documents, such as the US, and yet they have experienced terrible strategic failures, from 9/11 through the mire in Afghanistan and Iraq, so that does not prevent major failures.”
‘Deficient’ Oversight
Englman’s report warned that without an approved concept backed by resource allocation according to set priorities, “the ability of the political echelon to guide the IDF in long-term strategic vision, to challenge it, and to exercise control and supervision over it is deficient, and in certain cases does not exist.”
Shamir said that expecting consistent political guidance on highly sensitive security matters is realistic, but the failure in addressing Hamas and Gaza involved both political and military echelons. “In this case, the failure in addressing Hamas and Gaza, both the political and security echelons were captives of the same conception and reinforced each other,” Shamir told TPS-IL. “It is impossible to exempt the military echelon, but neither the political echelon. The political echelon could perhaps have intervened more, but its essential perceptions were no different from the army’s. Everyone agreed with the policy toward Gaza. I don’t see a situation where the lack of supervision would have changed anything.”
The audit examined major attempts to formulate a comprehensive security concept, including efforts in 1998, 2006, 2017, 2018, and 2021. Most notably, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu initiated the development of “National Security Concept 2030” between 2017 and 2018, presenting it to the Security Cabinet and defense agencies. However, Netanyahu never brought it to formal approval and “did not complete what he began,” the report concluded.
The comptroller’s report also said the October 7 attack “demonstrated the simultaneous collapse of three foundational principles: deterrence, early warning, and defense.” Months before the attack, Netanyahu told the Security Cabinet that Hamas “has been deterred since [Operation] ‘Guardian of the Walls,’” referring to the May 2021 Israeli military campaign in Gaza. He also said Hamas “discovered they are blocked thanks to the iron wall we built to protect Israel’s citizens.” Similar statements about the Gaza border barrier were made by former Defense Minister Benny Gantz, the report added.
Planning Without Formal Doctrine
Asked how Israel’s security agencies operate without a formally approved doctrine, Shamir told TPS-IL, “There there are common understandings among those involved. A concept paper is useful, but the Middle East changes constantly, and written documents quickly become outdated. Much of Israel’s security planning relies on shared knowledge and an oral tradition.”
Lt. Col. (res.) Elie Dekel, a former military intelligence officer, offered a more critical perspective. Asked how Israel’s security agencies compensate for the lack of a formal doctrine when planning force structure and operations, Dekel told TPS-IL, “The ear of Israel’s leaders in recent years has been mainly turned to so-called ‘academic’ research institutes — most of which are really not like that. Most decisions are made based on axioms and statements without scientific basis.”
Unlike the United States, where the president must submit comprehensive national security strategy reports to Congress, or Britain, Germany, France, and Japan, whose leaders regularly publish and sign such documents, Israel “has never approved a national security concept or national security strategy and has not published a concept or strategy document,” Englman’s audit said. The National Security Council, established by law in 2008 to examine Israel’s security concept and propose updates, “has not fulfilled its role,” never bringing an updated security concept to the Security Cabinet for discussion and decision, Englman added.
The report recommended that the Prime Minister lead an orderly process to formulate and approve a written national security concept, publish it to the public, and use it as a compass for guiding security agencies. In June 2025, the Knesset passed bipartisan legislation requiring the next government to approve a national security strategy within five months of the government’s formation. The law tasked the National Security Council to spearhead the initiative with input from the foreign and defense ministries, intelligence agencies, and other government bureaus.
Around 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken captive by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. The bodies of three Israelis and one Thai national are still held in Gaza.
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