A Haaretz investigation published Tuesday morning alleging that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had received a major warning on Oct. 7 from a regional leader but chose to ignore it has ignited a full-blown firestorm in Israel's opposition. The report claims that UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed warned Netanyahu 10 days before October 7 that Hamas was preparing a major move.
The warning arrived in an unusual 45-minute phone call at the end of September 2023, a week and a half before the war erupted. Details of the conversation are based on the book "Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment," a book by Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval. In the call, the UAE president cautioned that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning a significant event and urged Israel to prepare. The warning followed a message Sinwar had relayed to a mediator saying he was preparing an "earthquake."
According to the exposé by Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, Netanyahu reassured bin Zayed in their conversation, assessed that Hamas had its sights on the Judea and Samaria, and kept the information from major decisionmakers.
The prime minister briefed neither the defense minister, nor the IDF chief of staff, nor the heads of the Shin Bet (Israel's domestic security agency) and the Mossad on the content of the call. Former IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi and former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar confirmed that they were not informed of the warning. Around the same time, Egyptian Intelligence Minister Abbas Kamel conveyed a similar message to the Prime Minister's Office. The answer he received was that Israel controlled the situation in Gaza and was concentrating forces in Judea and Samaria.
The investigation exposes similar conduct in the war's opening days, this time on the hostage issue. On the evening of October 7, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al Thani approached Mossad chief David Barnea with word that Hamas was prepared to release all the civilians in exchange for an agreement on mediation. Barnea turned the offer down, making clear that Israel was refusing to talk to Hamas at that point.
Security establishment officers who pushed for quick deals ran into a wall put up by the civilian leadership. In one of the discussions held in those days, Netanyahu's foreign policy advisor, Ophir Falk, made clear that Israel would not negotiate, instructing the professionals to change their mindset and internalize that this was an organization that would receive nothing.
The Prime Minister's Office, in response to the Haaretz report, called it "An absolute lie!" The statement read as follows: "Prime Minister Netanyahu did not speak with the president of the United Arab Emirates during the period in question and did not receive any warning from him."
The collapse of the "no one woke me" claim
Within hours of publication, opposition party leaders unleashed a scathing assault on the prime minister. They renewed their demand for a state commission of inquiry (an independent panel headed by a supreme court justice) and called for replacing the government in elections now just 50 days away.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, chairman of the Beyachad party, said the report's revelations place personal, direct responsibility for the failure on Netanyahu's shoulders, effectively negating Netanyahu long-held claim that the security chiefs had chosen not to call him in the fateful hours just before dawn on Oct. 7, when there was a growing body of intelligence indications to suggest something was brewing in Gaza. Bennett accused the prime minister of criminal negligence. In those fateful days, he argued, Netanyahu never went out into the field, never convened the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet, and never alerted the heads of the security establishment.
Instead, Bennett added, Netanyahu kept propping up Hamas with funds and laborers to buy quiet, deeply captive to the so-called "conception" (the pre-October 7 assessment that Hamas was deterred) and deaf to warnings from regional leaders. Netanyahu, Bennett concluded, has been blocking a state commission of inquiry for fear of what it would uncover.
Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of the Yashar! With Eisenkot party, trained his fire on attempts by Netanyahu's circle to peddle conspiracy theories and hide behind the claim that "they didn't wake him." The facts, Eisenkot made clear, show Netanyahu knows the truth full well, is terrified of it, and is running from responsibility. Netanyahu received dozens of warnings and ignored every one of them, he said, a record that renders him unfit for office. Eisenkot pledged that the moment the next government is sworn in, a state commission of inquiry will be established to probe the events of the past decade and get to the truth.
"Criminal abandonment" – a petition to the High Court of Justice
The sharpest words came from the chairman of The Democrats, Maj. Gen. (res.) Yair Golan, who branded Netanyahu's conduct conscious, criminal abandonment rather than a lapse in judgment. The investigation, Golan argued, shatters the prime minister's lies. Netanyahu was warned again and again, he noted, both by the security establishment and by the hundreds of thousands of citizens who filled the streets in protest before the war. The prime minister chose his personal survival over the country's security, Golan said, which is why his place is in prison and why there is no escaping his immediate replacement.
The Movement for Quality Government (an Israeli good-governance watchdog) added its voice to the political outcry, stressing that every day without a state commission of inquiry only compounds the failure. The movement, which has petitioned the High Court of Justice demanding the commission's establishment, made clear that delaying the decision denies the public the truth, shields the echelons that failed, and endangers the country's ability to draw lessons and prevent the next disaster.
The October Council (an organization of October 7 survivors and families) said, "Whoever argues over whether Netanyahu was woken up on the night of October 7 is ignoring the truly big question – how many times did they try to wake Israel before the massacre?" The organization claimed that Netanyahu and his people are trying to steer the discourse toward the hour he woke up on the morning of the attack, while a series of publications points to earlier warning signs, such as the warnings from Egypt and the Emirates that were never conveyed to the security establishment."
