Netanyahu apologizes and deletes a tweet blaming security forces for the Hamas attack
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was embroiled this Sunday in his biggest internal controversy since the Hamas attack on the 7th. Amid growing anger over his refusal to take responsibility for the political and security fiasco that followed the death of more than 1,400 people, Netanyahu posted a tweet that he eventually deleted.
The content indirectly responded to a question posed to him this Saturday by a journalist from Israel’s military radio in his first press conference since the disaster, asking whether he had received military reports in recent months warning of the growing possibility of one warned of war. After the press appearance, Netanyahu tweeted: “Prime Minister Netanyahu was never warned of Hamas’s war intentions at any time or at any stage.” On the contrary, everyone responsible for security, including those in military intelligence and the Shin Bet [los servicios secretos en Israel y Palestina]“They assumed that Hamas had been dissuaded and was interested in reaching an agreement.”
Since sentiment against Netanyahu was already heated, the tweet did not go unnoticed. Especially because it points directly to two people – Aharon Haliva and Ronen Bar – and because the political and military establishment is waging a hidden battle over the burden of guilt that, while Israel remains at war, is still tacitly and through leaks positions is attached.
The country’s current highest-rated politician, Benny Gantz, who left the opposition to join the emergency government created specifically for the war, did not take long to call on the prime minister to recant. So did Gabi Ashkenazi, who was his foreign minister and chief of staff, and former prime minister Yair Lapid, who accused him of crossing “a red line.”
Shortly afterwards, Netanyahu wrote on X, the social network formerly called Twitter: “I was wrong. The things I said after the press conference should not have been said and I apologize for that. “I give all security force chiefs my full support.”