A growing list of Israeli officials have accepted responsibility for failing to prevent Hamas’ brutal attack on Israeli communities.

A growing list of Israeli officials have accepted responsibility for failing to prevent Hamas’ brutal attack on Israeli communities during the Oct. 7 incursion that triggered the current Israel-Hamas war. Conspicuously absent from that roll call is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Following the horrific assault, which saw the deadliest day for Israelis since the country was established 75 years ago, Netanyahu has repeatedly sidestepped accountability. He has instead blamed others, in what critics say shows a leader thinking more about his own political survival than soothing and steering a traumatized nation.

“Netanyahu is fighting a personal battle of survival and that takes precedence over fighting Israel’s war against Hamas,” said Netanyahu biographer and journalist Anshel Pfeffer. “As part of that battle, he’s prepared to malign those who are now commanding Israel’s army and intelligence services.”

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    6•8 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    “During war, leadership must act responsibly,” Benny Gantz, a former military chief of staff, posted on X, formerly Twitter, calling on Netanyahu to take back his words.

    Shafran Gittleman pointed to his apparent refusal this year to accept their warnings that a planned overhaul of the country’s judiciary threatened state security.

    Scores of senior reservists and fighter pilots, key pillars of the military, had threatened to stop serving if the overhaul continued, though they have rushed back to duty since Oct. 7.

    Netanyahu’s allies and the core of his nationalist base say the Israeli leader is facing unfair and poorly timed criticism by the same figures in the media and in the public who have long opposed him.

    It has shattered his carefully manicured image as a strong leader with burnished security credentials who has worked tirelessly to protect Israel from its myriad threats.

    Noam Tibon, a former military general who was outspoken against the judicial overhaul and rescued his son and his family from the Hamas attack, said the country needed unity to win the war but that Netanyahu was sowing division.

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