Haaretz: Netanyahu is unqualified and unworthy
Haaretz newspaper reported that State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman was lenient with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by publishing a relatively lenient audit report on the government’s failure to respond to the public’s civil response after the October 7, 2023, attack.
The State Comptroller’s Office concluded that successive governments over the past 17 years, most of them headed by Netanyahu, have failed to learn the lessons learned and have not implemented the necessary recommendations to create an effective infrastructure capable of managing the Israeli home front.
Haaretz newspaper asked in its editorial: Why this leniency?
It noted that Netanyahu deserves far harsher criticism, and that the failure of the Home Front Command is no coincidence, given the bloated government, comprising 33 ministers, five government ministries with overlapping powers, and the appointment of unsuitable individuals to key positions.
The Israeli government held a special session in the biblical City of David in Silwan to mark the so-called “unification of Jerusalem,” during which it approved a plan to encourage the relocation of foreign embassies to the city.
Haaretz newspaper viewed this as evidence of ongoing negligence, manifested in the security and political failures that led to the events of October 7, noting that criticism was directed at Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and former Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office Yossi Sheli.
Netanyahu, who is evading the findings of the government commission of inquiry that must be formed, chose to attack Englman and play the victim, as is his custom, according to Haaretz, saying, “The prime minister rejects the report’s absurd conclusions and considers them irrelevant”.
Haaretz explained that Netanyahu’s reaction to the report is no different from his reaction to the criticism directed at him for assuming absolute responsibility for failures in general, and for the greatest failure in Israel’s history in particular.
He added that evading responsibility, blaming others, and discrediting anyone with the slightest expectation is his habit.
Haaretz expressed surprise that the man who insists on saying “I commanded” evades responsibility whenever the public pays a heavy price for his failures.
It noted that Netanyahu was the one who viewed Hamas as an asset and encouraged the injection of billions of dollars into it, allowing it to consolidate its power, while simultaneously humiliating and weakening the Palestinian Authority and preventing any progress on the diplomatic track.
Even Israelis who joined the struggle of the families of the detainees were attacked by Netanyahu.
Netanyahu, the man who handed over national security to the Kahanist Itamar Ben-Gvir and the occupied territories to Bezalel Smotrich, shamelessly declared, “The organized political demonstrations against the government have crossed all boundaries… They said they would surround my house, the prime minister’s residence, with a ring of fire”.
