Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Israeli security officials of deliberately withholding word of Hamas’s Oct 7 attack, deepening a bitter national reckoning ahead of elections.
“Why didn’t they wake me? Because they knew I would immediately have ordered the entire army onto alert,” he said in an Instagram interview.
He blamed military commanders and former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar for fearing his response would trigger a wider escalation with Hamas.
His remarks followed his wife Sara’s claim that opposition leader Yair Golan knew of the attack beforehand, despite Golan personally rushing to rescue festival survivors that morning.
Golan threatened legal action, demanding an apology and compensation, calling the accusation a “vile” attempt to rewrite history.
Former army chief Gadi Eisenkot, a leading challenger to Netanyahu, condemned what he called a “mad conspiracy of betrayal.”
A recent poll found 40 percent of Israelis believe internal treason enabled the deadliest assault in the country’s history.
