These feats offer Australia a masterclass in the use of special operations in modern state-on-state conflict. They demonstrate the necessity of clandestine special operations and the long-term planning and preparation such activities require. Israel’s special operations and intelligence elements have repeatedly pulled off complex, multi-domain activities that orchestrated special operators, human-intelligence networks and conventional military forces. Australia’s special operations community has been marred by various accusations of misconduct and tasked to reorientate an operating model developed for past conflicts. Nevertheless, they can inform discussion of the future of Australia’s special operations and intelligence capabilities, and how they may be employed.