This Shabbat marks four weeks since the massacre of October 7, and there are a few things that, almost inconceivably, the prime minister still hasn’t done.
It’s been almost one month since the horrific morning that took the lives of over 1,400 Israelis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not attended even one of the hundreds of funerals of victims who perished during the vicious pogrom that was carried out by Hamas. Besides meeting with families of hostages, he hasn’t met with any of the civilians who managed to escape from the Gaza border communities, or with the security teams that courageously rescued them. Netanyahu has not visited even one of the thousands of wounded survivors lying in beds in Israel’s hospitals. He has not visited with any of the more than 21,000 civilians who were displaced from their homes in southern or northern Israel, and are now scattered in hotels around the country. He held two meetings with 13 families whose loved ones are being held captive in Gaza, but has not spoken – not even by phone – with more than 227 other families who are fraught with worry for their loved ones.
Moreover, there are three words that Netanyahu has yet to voice: “I am responsible” – for the worst catastrophe to befall Israel since the establishment of the state, which took place under his watch. Every one of Israel’s military and security leaders has publicly admitted their responsibility for the failures and shortcomings that led to the tragedy that took place on October 7: Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, Military Intelligence chief Aharon Haliva, Israel Air Force Commander Maj.-Gen. Tomer Bar, OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yaron Finkelman, and National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi. Every one of these figures has acknowledged his shortcomings that led to the catastrophe. Even Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and a few Likud ministers admitted during interviews that the responsibility lies with the government, although they immediately afterward added, “but now is not the time to play the blame game.” Netanyahu also said last week that “we will all need to provide answers, including me” – but only after the war.
How Netanyahu is trying to avoid taking the blame for another tragedy
In a previous statement he made to the media, Netanyahu actually did say “I am responsible,” but immediately added, “for Israel’s future security, and victory.” In doing so, he made it clear that he was not referring to anything that might have happened in the past, but only to the future, and that he was already calculating about what will happen the day after the war is over.
Netanyahu has a long history of slinking away from each and every disaster under his tenure, the most recent of which was the deadly crowd crush on Mount Meron in 2021, which claimed the lives of 45 people. Last year, in his testimony before the official commission that was appointed to investigate the disaster, the prime minister was asked, “As the person who was head of the government for the last 12 years, do you believe that you are publicly and morally responsible for this disaster?” He replied, “One cannot be held responsible for something one did not know.”
In a similar mindset, Netanyahu is focused on the postwar inquiry, and therefore he is avoiding saying the words “I am responsible” so that these specific words will never be recorded in any protocol. Natan Eshel, one of Netanyahu’s closest associates, sent a detailed message to journalists this week explaining the legal distinction between direct responsibility and ministerial responsibility, revealing the prevailing sentiment among his inner circle: “If a soldier failed to show up for guard duty and a terrorist succeeded in entering the army base, is the prime minister responsible?”
While Netanyahu avoids taking responsibility, and requests to wait until after the war is over to examine the failures, his political propaganda machine has been operating since the very first day in an effort to pin the failure on others. According to reliable sources, at the onset of the war, the prime minister’s wife, Sara, instructed his closest associates to gather quotes of statements made by senior IDF and security establishment leaders, from both public sources as well as confidential security meetings, in which they downplayed the severity of the threat and Hamas’s capabilities and intentions. According to these sources, the list of the people whose statements and conversations they were instructed to scrutinize is extensive, and includes current and former IDF chiefs of staff, such as Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, both of whom are currently part of the emergency war cabinet, as well as past prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, defense ministers, Shin Bet heads, and the like. In short, anyone who in recent years expressed the sentiment that substantial deterrence of Hamas had been achieved is on the list.
Some of the quotes of the incorrect assessments voiced by senior IDF officials and the security establishment that were presented to Netanyahu in the last few months, including just days before the massacre, have already found their way to the media, alongside new details regarding the depth of the IDF’s intelligence and operational failures that led to the October 7 massacre, which are published every few days. And the magnitude of the tragic failures assists Netanyahu and his closest circle in formulating a line of defense.
“In the end, there’s Military Intelligence, the Shin Bet, the Mossad, and the IDF chief of staff. A leader needs to say, ‘I hear what the professionals are saying,’” Transportation Minister Miri Regev, one of the Netanyahu family loyalists, said two weeks ago on Channel 14. According to another report on Channel 12, the director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office, Yossi Shelley, explicitly told politicians and colleagues: “Blame the military leaders, not the political leaders.”
What was at first just whispered behind closed doors and hinted at in TV studios, was exposed to all in a miserable tweet posted late on Saturday night on Netanyahu’s X (formerly Twitter) account. The tweet revealed his line of defense – and his accusation of the security establishment – for all to see. “Contrary to the false claims: Under no circumstances and at no stage was Prime Minister Netanyahu warned of Hamas’s war intentions,” read the tweet, which directly targeted the Military Intelligence and Shin Bet heads for presenting the assessment that Hamas had no intention to start a war. The tweet shook the country for hours. At the height of the war, just as the IDF began to expand its ground operations inside the Gaza Strip, and while hundreds of thousands of soldiers and reservists are defending the border and risking their lives in battles, the prime minister initiated a blame game against the senior IDF and security brass. As it happened, at the very moment the tweet was sent, the Shin Bet head and the IDF chief of staff were busy carrying out the complex rescue operation of Pvt. Ori Megidish, an IDF soldier, from Hamas captivity in Gaza. One can only imagine how they must have felt when they read the tweet.
Behind the scenes, even more drama unfolded. A few hours before the tweet was posted, Netanyahu held his first press conference since the war had begun, during which a journalist asked him about written documents that he’d received from the head of Military Intelligence, Haliva, and the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, in the months leading up to the war that indicated an increasing likelihood of war. “Your description of what took place before is not accurate,” Netanyahu replied simply. But his household found his answer insufficient. According to reliable sources in Netanyahu’s circle, Sara Netanyahu demanded to publish a clear, strong-worded denial and pushed for the extremely harsh wording, including the personal accusations of Haliva and Bar.
“A number of advisers tried to prevent the tweet from being sent, and expressed strong opposition to it. An actual struggle broke out, but Sara overpowered all of them,” the sources said. Only the next morning did they understand the full extent of the damage.
Eight-and-a-half hours after the tweet was posted, it was deleted. During that time, it was widely denounced, especially by Netanyahu’s fellow members in the war cabinet, Gantz and Eisenkot, who demanded that he delete it at once. Former IDF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi, whom Netanyahu had been consulting with since the war broke out, also called upon Netanyahu to delete the tweet and then apologize: “We are at war,” he told Netanyahu. Netanyahu understood that just deleting the tweet would not be sufficient, and in an attempt to minimize the damage, he did something highly unusual: He admitted his mistake, took responsibility, and asked for forgiveness. “I made a mistake. The things I said should not have been said and I apologize for that,” he tweeted in a new message, adding that he “fully backs” all of the heads of Israel’s security organizations.
The next day, he continued with his charm offensive, and on two separate occasions he publicly praised the IDF chief of staff and the head of the Shin Bet. However, this late attempt to make amends for his tweet does not necessarily convince the top brass of the IDF, especially when Netanyahu’s close associates continue spreading the same claims on social media. “Trust in him in the security establishment has fallen immensely. No one believes any of his statements or that his intentions are genuine,” stated a senior government official.
Some of Netanyahu’s advisers have been pressuring for him to make a public claim of responsibility, if only so that he can put this issue behind him and move forward. But even if he does so eventually, it will be too little, too late, and is likely to be legally formulated. However, even if Netanyahu never actually utters these words with his own voice, he is still responsible. Period.
Netanyahu has been prime minister for 13 out of the last 15 years. He is the one who promised to eliminate Hamas in 2009, but instead preferred to strengthen it by handing over suitcases of dollars from Qatar and pushed to weaken the Palestinian Authority. He is the one who ignored the warnings from the IDF chief of staff and the head of Army Intelligence about the security implications of the rift and danger caused by the judicial reform, and continues to undermine them even while the cannons roar on multiple fronts. The military and intelligence failure of October 7 is indeed enormous and unfathomable, but Netanyahu will be held accountable.
Between security updates in the bunker at the Kirya military headquarters and tours of IDF bases and outposts, Netanyahu has been filling his daily schedule with photo ops with world leaders, generals, and soldiers, and has isolated himself from the deep grief, pain, anger, and anxiety the people of his country are experiencing. Disconnected from the public, he doesn’t yet realize how angry he is. He still believes that he can survive, after achieving a significant victory, both on the battlefield, as well as in public opinion. But even if it turns out that the entire IDF leadership was derelict in its duties, and regardless of whether Netanyahu explicitly admits his responsibility or not, he is the one standing at the top. As time goes by, his attempts and his inner circle’s attempts to rewrite history will not stand up to public scrutiny.
Translated by Hannah Hochner.•