When Israel rejected Egypt’s realistic peace initiatives, when Egypt acquired advanced jet fighters, Scuds and Surface-to-air-missiles, when Sadat out-thought his enemies and came up with a good plan, he caught Israel and its military and political leadership by surprise even though every action he took was in plain view in broad daylight.
It even turned out, though the information was suppressed for many years, that the IDF had actually obtained the battle plans for the Syrian offensive in April 1973 (with an update courtesy of the CIA at the end of September) but did not believe them. The intelligence was completely accurate, in terms of manpower, materiel, location, approach and strategy.
