Buried deep inside an occupied mountain in the holy land is a room with no windows. Inside this room, seven nervous men sit at a roundtable. These men have not smiled in nine years. They have not had a good night sleep in nine years. They have not had a day off since Israel lost the war against Hezbollah in 2006 and Israel’s deterrence capability took a dangerous and public nose-dive.
Ever since then, these seven analysts, each with their own specialist file have congregated together to analyze new and growing existential dangers, and to find an effective way to reverse Israel’s strategic misfortunes. They have not once left this windowless room – they cannot leave this room without a workable solution in hand. The dark circles around their eyes say it all. By now, very little is spoken between them – and often in whispers. They wring hands. They pass maps to each other. They pass files with the word ‘classified’ stamped skewered in bold red.