Tel Aviv bus bombing: Has Netanyahu failed to protect Israel…again?

A ripple of scare went through Israel on Thursday after bombs planted in commuter busses parked in the Tel Aviv town of Bat Yam went off. No one was killed or injured in the attack, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was quick to blame the Palestinian groups.

Netanyahu has ordered additional forces of the Israeli military to enter the occupied West Bank to look for alleged perpetrators.

It was widely reported -based on the information that Israeli police circulated - that investigators had found bags of Arabic literature in some of the busses.

By Friday, the storyline appeared to be shifting as Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, said it had arrested three individuals suspected of assisting those who planted the explosive devices.

The catchline? Some of the detainees are Israeli Jews, and all have been taken in for further investigation.

“Israeli society is deeply divided between those who want the war to continue and those who do not. This latest attack appears to benefit the faction opposing a ceasefire, which was about to enter its second phase after completing its sixth stage,” says Husamettin Inac, the head of the political science and international relations department at Dumlupinar University.

“The fact that it was carried out by Israeli citizens suggests it may be driven more by theological motives than geopolitical goals,” he tells TRT World.

Experts point out that Netanyahu is propping the war hysteria among the Israelis while sidestepping the biggest question: the failure of his government to stop miscreants from planting bombs and then getting away with it.

How did Israel’s intelligence fail—again?

Despite being regarded as a country that has one of the world’s most advanced intelligence networks, Israel’s security establishment was blindsided by yet another attack.

Israel’s vulnerabilities stem from overconfidence, security exhaustion, and a fundamental miscalculation of its own security doctrine, the expert says.

“Israel assumes that advanced US-supplied military technology grants it absolute deterrence. But what it fails to grasp is the deeply rooted will of people defending their homeland—because it has never developed that same sense of belonging,” says Inac.

Israel’s security doctrine collapsed on October 7, 2023, when Hamas carried out an unprecedented assault.

Inac says that Netanyahu’s government, which operates like an “ultra-militarised” group, has failed at its most basic objective: protecting Israel’s core.

“Since 1948, Israel has positioned itself as a fortress state, seeing security as paramount. But its enemies have infiltrated central Israel, bombs are detonating in its cities, and the illusion of control is crumbling,” Inac warns.

Inac believes Israel is now exhausted from being a security state for the past 77 years.

“When a state constantly engages in aggression, it expects retaliation. This creates an atmosphere of perpetual anxiety and tension. Israel’s fatigue is now contributing to its vulnerabilities,” he explains.

Meanwhile, following the latest bus attacks, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced that he had ordered an escalation of military offensives.