On Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, at 3:55 a.m., a representative of the Prime Minister’s Office received a phone call updating him on the unusual signs the security establishment had detected up to that point in the Gaza Strip, including the SIM cards. That representative decided not to wake his superior, who later that morning would wake the prime minister at 6:29 a.m.
In other words, Netanyahu’s office knew about the developments but decided not to wake the prime minister. It is convenient for Netanyahu now to claim, “They didn’t wake me,” because indeed, they did not wake him. But contrary to the ugly insinuations by his wife, Sara, his office knew very well about the developments.
It is of course convenient for Netanyahu to focus the discussion on the night of October 7 and on the question of whether he was or was not awakened. He can claim, as he said in an interview on Channel 14, that “if they had woken me, everything would have looked different.” But not only would nothing have changed had they woken him, after they did wake him, Netanyahu did nothing that changed even slightly the catastrophe unfolding in the south or the major delay in the arrival of forces.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Netanyahu’s remarks focus on that night because he is trying forcefully to conceal everything that happened between Israel and Hamas beforehand, in the weeks, months and years that preceded it.
Netanyahu is the father of the very conception that cultivated Hamas as the governing authority in Gaza, that saw it as deterred and that held that if we transferred money to it, that would keep it deterred. This is the conception that said again and again that Hamas was restrained and preferable to the Palestinian Authority.
And therefore, Netanyahu and his people were the ones who pushed with all their might to transfer cash in suitcases to Hamas, institutionalize direct and indirect communication with it, turn Qatar into a kind of landlord in Gaza and, even when they knew that Qatari money was going directly to the military wing, preferred to continue funneling $360 million a year into its coffers, an enormous sum in Gaza terms. Netanyahu employed three advisers who were paid by the main sponsor of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar, and even after he learned about it he continued to employ at least one of them.
The brazenness of Netanyahu and his wife knows no bounds. This is the man who refused time and again Shin Bet demands to assassinate Sinwar and strike senior figures in the organization. Even on Oct. 1, 2023, during a Cabinet discussion, Ronen Bar told those present that “Sinwar feels strong and needs to be confronted” and that an operational plan should be prepared to eliminate senior figures. On August 21 as well, Ronen Bar, the same man Netanyahu’s admirers so love to hate, recommended to the prime minister that Sinwar be targeted and warned that Israeli deterrence in the Strip was eroding.
Avi IssacharoffPhoto: Yuval ChenRonen Bar’s predecessors, Nadav Argaman and Yoram Cohen, also recommended a “decapitation operation,” but Netanyahu refused, delayed, evaded and settled for decisions devoid of substance or meaning.
Netanyahu, he and no one else, instructed the military and the Shin Bet that the main directive regarding Gaza for the 2023 High Holiday period was quiet. There were indeed logical reasons for that, including prioritizing other arenas, but the truth about October 7 is difficult and terrible for Netanyahu. He is the father of the conception that led to the massacre, and he is the one who wanted Hamas in power in Gaza rather than another Palestinian alternative.