A former close adviser to Israel’s prime minister, , has revealed that immediately after the October 2023 attack that sparked the two-year war in Gaza, the Israeli leader ordered him to find out how he could evade responsibility for the security breach, a scandal for which he is still being held accountable by the public.
Specifically, Netanyahu’s former spokesperson, who is facing trial for allegedly leaking classified information to the press, made the explosive accusation during an extensive interview with the news channel on Monday night.
Critics have repeatedly accused Netanyahu of refusing to accept responsibility for the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. However, little is known about his behavior in the days after the attack, while the Likud leader has consistently resisted an independent state investigation.
Speaking to Kan, Feldstein said that “the first task” he received from Netanyahu after October 7, 2023 was to suppress calls for accountability. “He asked me, ‘What are they talking about in the news? Are they still talking about accountability?'” Feldstein said. “I wanted him to think of something he could say to counter the media hype around the question of whether the Prime Minister had taken responsibility or not,” he denounces.
“I wanted him to think of something he could say to counter the media hype around the question of whether the Prime Minister had taken responsibility or not.”
He added that Netanyahu seemed panicked when making the request. Feldstein claimed that people in Netanyahu’s inner circle later asked him to omit the word “responsibility” from all his statements.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants murdered around 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 hostages back to Gaza. Israel then launched a devastating war in Gaza that has killed nearly 71,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says about half of the deaths were women and children.
Blood in a house in Kibbutz Kissufim, attacked by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
“False accusations”
Netanyahu’s office called the interview a “long series of mendacious and recycled accusations made by a man with clear personal interests who is trying to deflect responsibility from himself,” Hebrew media reported.
Feldstein’s remarks come after his indictment in a case in which he is accused of leaking classified military information to a German tabloid to boost public perception of the prime minister following the killing of six hostages in Gaza in August last year.
Feldstein is also a suspect in the scandal, one of two close advisers to Netanyahu accused of accepting money from Qatar while also working for the prime minister.
A politicized commission
Two days ago, Netanyahu defended the bill proposed by one of his deputies – which will be voted on preliminarily in Parliament today, Wednesday – to establish a commission of inquiry into the failures prior to the 7th massacre. “This is an independent investigative committee, with full powers, as stipulated in the Investigative Committees Law,” Netanyahu said in a video message, adding that “contrary to what is stated, politicians will not be members of the committee,” but rather it will be made up of academics, security experts and, as observers, parents who lost their children.
However, voices in the opposition – and even Israelis directly affected by the Hamas attacks and the subsequent war – criticized this commission as insufficient, since they believe that it will always be subordinate to Netanyahu. “In the proposal by Netanyahu and (his deputy, Ariel) Kelner to create an investigative committee, the Government has control over the hearings, the invitation of witnesses and the setting of the agenda. They will interrogate the late Isaac Rabin long before interrogating Netanyahu,” the opposition leader said on his X account, . “This is not a commission of inquiry, it is a death certificate for the truth,” he added.
“This is not a commission of inquiry, it is a death certificate for the truth”
For their part, some members of the October Council, made up of grieving families demanding a state commission of inquiry, demonstrated today in front of the prime minister’s office and broke into Knesset (Parliament) committee meetings, according to images released in local media. In response to the criticism, Netanyahu appealed to the opposition in his speech: “Bring in whatever experts you want, ask whatever you want, interrogate whoever you want, including me.”
The proposed commission would be made up of six members. Initially, Parliament would have 14 days to appoint them by consensus with the support of 80 deputies and, if not achieved, the coalition government and the opposition would appoint three members each.
The (IDI, an independent Israeli research center) reports that, according to the Commissions of Inquiry Law of this country of 1968, a state commission of investigation is independent and its members are appointed by the Supreme Court, which is given full power to investigate the case.
“There is no other framework – neither a review committee appointed by the Government nor a public committee composed of representatives of the coalition and the opposition and, of course, not a parliamentary or ministerial committee -, it has the same independence, authority and public legitimacy as a state commission of inquiry,” states an IDI article published following the government proposal.
