Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly said the events of October 7 were “a severe intelligence failure, but not a betrayal," during a confidential security assessment at the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Thursday.
The meeting sparked outrage among opposition MKs on the panel who left the discussion early. It went on for approximately five hours.
Netanyahu arrived at the meeting with folders containing the protocols from a decade prior to the October 7 massacre, and read quotes from officials to show that there was no foresight of the event, according to a KAN News report.
Among the quotes Netanyahu read were from former prime minister Naftali Bennett, Yashar! party leader and ex-IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, and former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) director Ronen Bar.
Netanyahu is the only major official from the October 7 massacre who has not resigned. The political echelon has repeatedly blocked a state inquiry into the events surrounding October 7, despite polls showing huge public support for this type of investigation.
Netanyahu’s remarks led Yesh Atid MKs to leave the meeting. The party released a statement that they “will not take part in the prime minister’s media circus.”
Yesh Atid said the meeting was “intended to evade the truth investigation into the October 7 disaster and turn the committee into an empty PR show.”
Netanyahu arrived with pre-prepared talking points from his office, in a desperate attempt to engineer public perception and rewrite history, Yesh Atid said.
“No spin will obscure the failure: 2,000 Israelis were murdered, communities were overrun, children were burned, and civilians were kidnapped on his watch.”
MK Elazar Stern’s (Yesh Atid) office told The Jerusalem Post that committee chairperson MK Boaz Bismuth (Likud) tried to kick Stern out of the meeting when he attempted to ask questions. Stern then left the discussion early.
Netanyahu slammed for 'selective memory'
Eisenkot slammed Netanyahu after the meeting, calling his memory selective and raising a number of points against the prime minister's remarks.
"On October 7, you were the prime minister, I was five years past the end of my tenure as chief of staff," he said.
"You are avoiding the establishment of a state commission of inquiry that would reveal the full protocols, not just your selective parts. I will fight for the establishment of such a committee and will be the first to testify before it," Eisenkot stated.
In recent months, the government has been advancing a controversial bill that aims to establish a politically-appointed committee to investigate the failures surrounding Hamas’s October 7 attack.
The bill aims to promote a new investigative framework that diverges from the traditional independent state commission of inquiry mechanism overseen by the Supreme Court.
Speaking on Iran, the prime minister told committee members that Israel would "respond with force never before seen" should the Islamic Republic choose to carry out strikes against Israeli targets.
Netanyahu also reportedly said in the meeting that the controversial haredi (ultra-Orthodox) bill will be passed very soon.
The haredi draft bill has been being advanced by Bismuth in the committee since the summer. Last week, Bismuth announced that the bill had advanced and would soon undergo its first vote in the committee.
Amichai Stein contributed to this report.