Brig. Gen. (res.) Dror Shalom, the former head of the IDF Military Intelligence Research Division and former director of the Defense Ministry’s Political-Military Bureau, sharply criticized Israel’s strategic position on Monday, saying that despite extraordinary operational achievements, the country has failed to secure a decisive outcome on any front.

“There have been exceptional achievements here; the facts speak for themselves,” Shalom said at the Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth National Security Conference, held in partnership with the Institute for National Security Studies. “But strategically, this has been a resounding failure on every front. Hamas is still standing, Hezbollah is far from disarming, and Iran is negotiating with the Americans over Hormuz, not over the nuclear issue.”

Shalom, who now serves as a senior adviser at JPMorgan and has rarely given interviews since leaving his position in 2020, said Israel could have brought home more hostages and done so earlier. He credited President Trump and public pressure from demonstrators with pushing the U.S. administration toward a decision on the hostage issue.

“Without that support, I doubt we would have gotten the hostages back,” he said. “It was possible to bring them home earlier and to bring back more of them. I believe earlier decisions could have been made regarding the timing of their return, but that is already water under the bridge.”

Looking ahead, Shalom said Israel must create a new order in Gaza, but argued that this is not happening because of a lack of strategy. He called for advancing President Trump’s 20-point plan, establishing a governing alternative to Hamas and eliminating Hamas officials operating abroad.

Addressing Iran, Shalom said the 2015 nuclear agreement was bad, but warned at the time that withdrawing from it without an alternative plan would lead Iran to begin violating the deal and bring the military option closer. He called for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry to examine years of discussions between Israel’s political, military and intelligence leadership regarding both Iran and the Palestinian issue.

Shalom also said Israel’s international standing has reached an unprecedented low and that relations with the United States are not at their best. “We invested a great deal of kinetic energy and received potential energy in return,” he said. “Contrary to the laws of physics, we are losing that energy, and that is unfortunate.”

He urged Israel to strengthen its relations with the United States, Egypt and Jordan, and to deepen the Abraham Accords into regional alliances. He also called for greater investment in education and academia alongside an increased defense budget, warning that Israel must prevent a brain drain.

“National security is something far more holistic,” Shalom concluded. “If we do not invest in the engineers and geniuses of the next generation, we will not succeed in making the quantum leap that is required.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)