Israeli discords are expanding as Opposition Leader Yair Lapid trade blame with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over failures of October 7 attacks.
Lapid on Thursday testified before an independent civilian commission of inquiry into the failures of October 7. The Yesh Atid party chairman said that on the evening before the Knesset voted to pass the so-called reasonableness law in July 2023, he received a security briefing from Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, who provided him with “unprecedented warnings” about “the security consequences of the coup d’état and the internal rift it was causing.”
Lapid was referring to the occupation government’s highly divisive judicial overhaul it advanced last year.
He pushed back against the frequent claim that the Israeli government had not received advance warning that Hamas was no longer deterred.
“During the months leading up to the disaster, the prime minister and cabinet ministers received a series of serious, unprecedented warnings. From the middle of 2023 there were more and more voices within the terrorist organizations that said that the moment they had been waiting for had arrived,” Lapid said, as quoted by The Times of Israel.
He recalled asking Bar “if these warnings were also brought before the prime minister and cabinet ministers, and the answer was: ‘Of course they were.’”
“President [Isaac] Herzog also received updates regarding the growing security risk and expressed this in his talks with the prime minister,” Lapid added.
On August 21, 2023, Netanyahu’s military secretary Brig. Gen. Avi Gil gave both the premier and Lapid a security update during which he warned that “Israel’s enemies had identified weakness on the Israeli side,” Lapid told the commission.
The Israeli opposition leader also recounted that Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi sought to meet with Netanyahu about the national security repercussions of the divide in the Zionist entity over the judicial overhaul, and was refused.
Halevi instead resorted to writing to Netanyahu about the dangers, Lapid said, adding: “Halevi wanted it on record that he had warned and been ignored.”
“There is no excuse for it, there can be no justification for it,” he continued.
Nonetheless, Lapid stressed, the Israeli military’s responsibility for the disaster “does not negate the political echelon’s responsibility” for the worst mistake in Israeli history.
“This catastrophe was preventable,” he insisted.
Netanyahu Office Hits Back
For his part, Netanyahu’s Office accuses Opposition Leader Yair Lapid of lying.
“Yair Lapid is lying again. Prime Minister Netanyahu did not receive any warning about the war in Gaza — not a month before and not even an hour before October 7. The opposite is true and the protocols prove it,” the Israeli premier’s office said in a statement.
“Lapid, who brought in workers from Gaza and gave free gas to [Hezbollah S.G. Sayyed Hasan] Nasrallah while promising that this would prevent war, is the last one who can preach in matters of security,” the statement read.
Source: Israeli media
