Netanyahu Blamed for October 7th Attacks: Commission Cites Weakened Decision-Making

The Independent Civilian Commission of Inquiry into Accountability on October 7 published its findings in a severe report in which it holds that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is «responsible for having weakened all decision-making centers, including the government and the Council of national security, in a way that prevented any serious discussion that included a plurality of opinions on important security issues.” And he blames the prime minister, former defense ministers and heads of the Israeli security services for the failure during the Hamas attack. The commission says Netanyahu was responsible for silencing critics of his “money for silence” approach in running Hamas and that the prime minister “is responsible for ignoring warnings” before October 7.

After dozens of hearings and the testimony of about 120 witnesses over the past four months, the commission determined that Netanyahu was also responsible «for the fact that it was not possible to provide a response to various needs on the domestic front due to the chaos among the ministries ». While Netanyahu was responsible for the decision not to pre-emptively strike Hamas, former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid are also responsible for “maintaining the concept of money for silence, albeit in different ways,” the commission says. Government ministers, «in most of the various ministries», are responsible for «the government’s failure to provide a response to the families of missing and captive persons; of the lack of response to the needs of combat soldiers to reach the southern and northern fronts; of the lack of response and assistance for the families of displaced people and their children, both in the north and in the south”.

Likewise, the IDF and the Israeli police “are solely responsible for the lack of coordination between them and the numerous failures that prevented the rescue of many participants at the Nova festival in Reim,” the report states.