What the Gilboa Prison escape says about the Israeli paradox

• Author: MARK REGEV
• Published date: 23 September 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

First World Israel is a country whose intelligence services are renowned internationally for their professionalism and competence, rivaling the mythical James Bond in their bold effectiveness. They have been credited with a series of successful cyberattacks on Iran's nuclear facilities, the discovery and seizure of the Iranian nuclear archive in the heart of Tehran and the surgical elimination of the commander of Iran's nuclear weapons program, reportedly targeting him with a remote-control AI-operated sniper machine gun while he and his 11 bodyguards drove along a country road.

Third World Israel is the exact opposite. It is a country of Keystone Cops where wardens at supposedly maximum security prisons fall asleep on duty, prison intelligence is incapable of receiving advanced knowledge of escape plans, a single prison officer is unable to effectively police multiple video screens and where inmates can learn from smartphones that the prison architect's website shows an underground cavity under their cell that provides a pathway to flee captivity.

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First World Israel prioritizes the lives of its civilian population and utilizes its technological prowess to safeguard its citizens. It put a major effort into creating the Iron Dome system, developed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets fired at Israel's cities, towns and villages, providing a protective shield that has saved countless Israeli lives.

Third World Israel is a country where public safety is only given lip service. With 45 men and boys crushed to death during the Lag Ba'omer festivities on Mount Meron despite multiple warnings of an imminent disaster due to chronic overcrowding – the various state and religious institutions involved continue to vie for avoiding accountability.

First World Israel leads the world in transportation technologies, from Waze that equips drivers with GPS navigation software revolutionizing road travel to Mobileye that provides advanced driver assistance systems enhancing road safety and making self-driving vehicles a reality.

Third World Israel has a third-rate system of public transportation. Despite the multiple government decisions, the millions spent and the numerous promises made, Israel's largest metropolis still awaits a functioning underground railway network – this in "the city that never rests" and where gridlock...