Responsibility for the attacks of October 7, 2023 continues to animate the legislative campaign in Israel. Benyamin Netanyahu is attacked for defamation by Ronen Bar, the former head of the internal security service (the Shin Bet). He accuses the Israeli Prime Minister of lying about their respective responsibilities regarding the deadly Hamas attack on Israel.
According to the complaint filed Wednesday October 14 by Ronen Bar, who headed the Shin Bet at the time of the attack, Benjamin Netanyahu brought against him "accusations which he knew were false, with the aim of diverting the debate from his own responsibility in the events of October 7". In a text published on social networks on September 28, the leader of the Likud (right), allied to the far right, asserts that "the left-wing media have launched a vile and falsely thought campaign to blame [him] for all the failures and crimes of Ronen Bar before October 7."
Benjamin Netanyahu says he received no warning
The leader maintains in particular that Ronen Bar had, the night before October 7, "numerous conversations" with the army chief of staff and the head of military intelligence, "during which they discussed all the warning signs" of the attacks. However, "Ronen Bar decided not to call the Prime Minister, not to alert the forces of the Israeli army on site, not to evacuate the Nova festival", affirms Benyamin Netanyahu. He blames the heads of the army and the Shin Bet for not waking him up on the night of October 7, assuring that things "would have happened differently if that had been the case."
Several media outlets, including The Atlantic and the Wall Street Journal, claimed that Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel had transmitted several warnings to the Israeli Prime Minister in September and early October 2023 about a possible Hamas attack. The Israeli leader denies: he maintains that he did not meet or discuss with Abbas Kamel "in the months preceding the October 7 attack", and that "no Israeli intelligence official transmitted [him] an Egyptian warning".
“Dozens” of alerts, according to Ronen Bar
Ronen Bar disputes this presentation of the facts, and claims to have telephoned the Prime Minister's military attaché before the attack, on the basis of information indicating potential threats, specifying that he did not have Benjamin Netanyahu's direct number. The former head of the Shin Bet also claims to have alerted Benjamin Netanyahu on several occasions, before October 7, of potential threats linked to Hamas.
Quoted by the Israeli media The Times of Israel, which details the content of the complaint and the sequence of events as described by Ronen Bar, the latter asserts that his complaint "completely demolishes the Prime Minister's assertions and highlights an extraordinary series of warnings about an imminent catastrophe, recommendations and operational plans that I have presented dozens of times, all of which have been ignored by [Benyamin] Netanyahu". The former head of domestic intelligence also accuses the Prime Minister of trying to "evade all responsibility, but also of attacking those who tried to rid his cabinet of people acting on behalf of the Qatari government, a supporter of Hamas."
“Ronen, are you serious?” replied the Prime Minister, quoted on Wednesday by his party, the Likud. “Yet you had my number on the red line and you could call me immediately, as all the heads of the security services do,” retorted Benjamin Netanyahu, adding: “How many lives could we have saved if only you had called in time?”
