Hamas launched a 'surprise' attack on Israel, but for Netanyahu's critics, the writing was on the wall for months

• Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing at least 70 people.
• Critics have long been warning of a security lapse as a result of internal civil unrest in Israel.
• They warned that protests linked to judicial reforms were impacting Israeli national security.

Hamas' surprise attack on Israel, which has killed at least 70 people so far and left hundreds wounded, is one of the biggest surprise attacks on Israel since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

However, for those critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government, particularly of his judicial reform that led to months of protests and general strikes, this outcome was predictable.

Security experts and Netanyahu's opponents in Israel have been warning for months that the country's civil unrest, which even led to military reservists pledging not to show up for duty, has created an opportune moment for such a security lapse.

Journalist Yuval Sade of the Israeli business publication Calcalist wrote on Saturday: "The IDF has been warning for months about a reduction in readiness, a decrease in deterrence capability, and the possibility of a multi-front flare-up."

He went on: "The government responded by disdainfully dismissing those concerns and by pouring gasoline on the fire."

Netanyahu's judicial reforms, which were proposed in January and eventually passed in July, seek to limit the Supreme Court's power to exercise judicial review and declare legislation unconstitutional.

It sparked significant backlash, with opposition to the changes cautioning that Israel was sleepwalking into a dictatorship.

Netanyahu last month accused those protesting against his reforms of "joining forces with the PLO and Iran," characterizing them as being anti-Israel.

But among the opposition was a vocal chorus of critics warning that the civil unrest stemming from the controversial reforms, as well as a series of other rogue policies on Palestinian prisoners' rights, would have severe security repercussions.

Just last month, opposition leader Yair Lapid warned that Israel was "approaching a violent, multi-front confrontation," citing warnings from former senior officials of the security establishment.

A group of more than 180 former Israeli security service leaders, who held roles in the Mossad, the Shin Bet domestic security agency, the military, and the police, described Netanyahu's government as a threat to Israel's security.

"We were used to dealing with external threats," said Tamir Pardo, a former head of Israel's Mossad and a part of the new group, according to the Los Angeles Times. "We've been through wars, through military operations, and all of a sudden you realize that the greatest threat to the state of Israel is internal."

The group said Israel's cohesion as a society was collapsing as a result of judicial reforms, which makes it harder to counter threats from Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran.

In July, a high-ranking military official, Major-General Tomer Bar, who leads the Israeli Air Force, issued a similarly grim warning.

He said that Israel's enemies may seek to exploit the country's political crisis.

He said in an address to his forces that they needed to remain "vigilant and prepared" because enemy forces could "try to test the frontiers" amid the internal strife.

And in March, Netanyahu fired his then-defense minister Yoav Gallant after he voiced concerns that the government's proposed judicial reforms were resulting in a "deepening split" that was seeping into the military and security institutions.

"This is a clear, immediate, and real danger to Israel's security," Gallant said at the time.

Though many people tried to warn Netanyahu that Israel was failing to prepare for an unprecedented surprise attack, he stayed the course and persisted with his government's contentious agenda.

Now, as Netanyahu is leading a country in "a state of war," his critics are asserting that the signs were there all along, but his government chose to look in other directions.