Haaretz: Netanyahu seeks to evade responsibility for failure to predict Hamas attack

The Israeli Haaretz newspaper said on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to evade responsibility for the failure to predict the Hamas attack on October 7, and to place responsibility on the army.

Haaretz newspaper continued that Netanyahu is launching a campaign to blame the Israeli army for its failure to predict the Hamas attack.

It quoted an unnamed army official as saying, “Netanyahu is conducting a campaign… collecting evidence against the army, explaining in private conversations why he’s not to blame, and repeating that he didn’t obtain intelligence information”.

Another army official told Haaretz, “It’s clear what Netanyahu is doing… It’s disgraceful”.

Haaretz also pointed out that Netanyahu, a good spokesman, was appointed to coordinate with Israeli military correspondents, only 4 days after the war.

Haaretz explained, “Eli Feldstein worked as a spokesman for the IDF West Bank Division, which made him well acquainted with military correspondents, and he was later the spokesman for National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir”.

Haaretz said that several sources described the appointment as unusual, especially during a war, when the Minister of Defense and the Chief of Staff of the Army usually maintain constant contact with military correspondents.

According to an army source, it was a questionable move, especially considering that senior military commanders bore responsibility for failing to anticipate the attack, while Netanyahu refused to acknowledge any role.

The source, whose identity wasn’t revealed by Haaretz, considered that Netanyahu is wrong in believing that he is able to evade accountability, after senior military officials said that they bear responsibility.

“The Prime Minister has forgotten that he’s also responsible”.

Last Friday, the Israeli Walla news website said that Netanyahu is actively working to build his case against the army.

Walla news website quoted sources close to the Prime Minister as saying, “His wife, Sarah, asked him to collect all public communications and secret minutes from security cabinet meetings and discussions on defense issues”.

According to the sources, “Sarah also asked him to collect all the quotes, from former and current senior defense officials, that reflect faulty intelligence assessments regarding Hamas’ capabilities and intentions”.

Haaretz noted that, “Since the start of the war, Netanyahu has met with the heads of various media outlets in Israel for the first time in many years”.

It quoted an unnamed minister from the Likud Party as saying, “Anyone who thinks he can escape bearing grave responsibility for the worst failure since the founding of the state is committing a grave mistake”.

Referring to the possibility of dissolving the current government after the end of the war, the minister said, “The fate of this government was decided on October 7, and the fate of Likud was also decided on that Black Saturday, October 7… Things won’t continue as they were before”.

He added, “Those who seek to evade their responsibility will only exacerbate their situation… The Israeli public is angry”.

There was no official response from Netanyahu, while those close to him denied the validity of the accusations that he was trying to evade responsibility, and said, “Since the start of the war, the prime minister and his team have been busy with only one thing, which is leading the war until victory is achieved”.

After operation al Aqsa Flood, launched by Hamas and Palestinian factions in Gaza, Israeli analysts considered that the inability of the Israeli security services to predict the attack represents a catastrophic failure that will have political repercussions.
For the sixteenth day in a row, the Israeli army continues to target Gaza with intense air strikes that destroyed entire neighborhoods, killing 4,651 Palestinians, including 1,873 children and 1,023 women, and wounding 14,245, according to the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip.

There are also an unspecified number of people missing under the rubble.

While the Hamas movement killed more than 1,400 Israelis and injured 5,132, according to the Israeli Ministry of Health.

Hamas, also captured more than 200 Israelis, including high-ranking military personnel, and wants to exchange them with more than 6,000 Palestinian prisoners, including children and women, in Israeli prisons.