The history of the Israel Defense Forces is a history of failure followed by exceptionally rapid recovery. Israel’s elite paratrooper units were born from organizations created after a series of botched retaliation raids in the early 1950s. Its armored corps became one of the world’s best after a dismal performance in 1956. Other units were created after a failed attempt in 1974 to rescue hostages held in the town of Ma’alot. Israel’s brilliant suppression of Syrian air defenses in 1982 resulted from staggering aircraft losses in 1973’s Yom Kippur War, and so on. Each time, after failure, the IDF adapts, as it will today. It is helped in doing so by a tradition of brutal self-scrutiny. Almost all of the documentation of the Agranat Commission after the 1973 war has been declassified; eventually that of the Winograd Commission, which delved into the failures of the 2006 Lebanon War, will be as well. In each case, heads rolled—ministers of defense, chiefs of staff, and even prime ministers. Following the current debacle on the Gaza border, the …