We are honored to welcome YAAKOV KATZ, former editor in chief of The Jerusalem Post and GARY ROSENBLATT, Publisher/Editor of The Jewish Week of New York for this important conversation at:
Temple Beth El
5 Old Mill Road, Great Neck, NY 11023
516-487-0900
Tickets for this event must be purchased directly from Temple Beth El at:
https://tbegreatneck.shulcloud.com/event/WhileIsrael25
NOTE: DOORS OPEN FOR THIS EVENT AT 6:30 AND IT WILL START PROMPTLY AT 7:00PM
WHILE ISRAEL SLEPT tells the gripping inside story of how Hamas, Israel’s weakest enemy, succeed in launching a surprise attack on one of the world’s most powerful militaries.
How did Israeli intelligence convince itself that Hamas wasn’t preparing for conflict? How did the military fail to recognize how easily its electronic surveillance could be neutralized? Why did political leaders disregard mounting warnings that Hamas was stronger than they believed?
Through a detailed examination of the events leading up to October 7, 2023, this important book exposes the intelligence and strategic failures that enabled this devastating invasion. It takes readers back in time, showing how years of complacency, mistaken intelligence analysis, and a misguided policy of containment enabled Hamas to prepare for an assault that Israel did not believe was possible and that would change the Middle East.
By exposing these failures, WHILE ISRAEL SLEPT offers a stark, sobering account of how overconfidence and complacency paved the way for disaster, while underscoring the critical lessons Israel must embrace to safe¬guard its future.
YAAKOV KATZ
Yaakov Katz is an Israeli-American author and journalist and a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute in Jerusalem. Between 2016 and 2023, Yaakov was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post where he continues to write a popular weekly column. Yaakov also writes a regular column for Newsweek and the Jewish Chronicle, is the host of the JPPI weekly podcast and appears regularly on CNN and BBC as an analyst on Israel affairs. Yaakov is the author of three books - “Shadow Strike – Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power”, “Weapon Wizards - How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower” and “Israel vs. Iran: The Shadow War”.
Prior to taking up the role of editor-in-chief, Yaakov served for two years as a senior policy adviser to Naftali Bennett during his tenure as Israel’s Minister of Economy and Minister of Diaspora Affairs.
In 2013, Yaakov was one of 12 international fellows to spend a year at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Originally from Chicago, Yaakov has a law degree from Bar Ilan University. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Chaya and their four children.
GARY ROSENBLATT
Often cited as “the dean of Jewish journalism,” Gary Rosenblatt has spent his professional life in the field.
He was editor and publisher of The Jewish Week of New York, the largest and most respected community Jewish newspaper in America, from 1993 to 2019. Prior to that he was editor of the Baltimore Jewish Times for 19 years.
Rosenblatt has won numerous awards from both the Jewish and secular press for his writing. He was one of two finalists for a Pulitzer Prize in 1985 -- the first time an article in the Jewish media was cited in the competition. He now writes regularly on Jewish life on his Substack newsletter, Between The Lines, at garyrosenblatt.substack.com