Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received sharp criticism after he accused security chiefs in a now-deleted social media post of failing to warn him about the impending Hamas attack prior to October 7. <\/p>\n
Amid a chorus of disapproval from opponents and allies, Netanyahu deleted the post on Sunday morning, issuing a rare apology and stating Israel\u2019s security heads had his \u201cfull backing.\u201d <\/p>\n
But the incident has done little to quell increasing frustration and anger directed at Israel\u2019s leader for failing to anticipate the brutal Hamas attacks, which saw the group kill at least 1,400 people and take more than 200 hostages, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). <\/p>\n
Netanyahu\u2019s tweet\u00a0comes at a time when he is also under increasing pressure from the families of hostages for a \u201ccomprehensive deal\u201d to ensure their release. These calls are becoming more urgent amid concerns for what Israel\u2019s expanding ground operations could mean for the safety of hostages trapped in Gaza. <\/p>\n
In the now-deleted tweet, published in the early hours of Sunday morning local time, Netanyahu took a swipe at key security chiefs including Ronen Bar, the head of Israel\u2019s internal security agency the Shin Bet, and Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, the head of Israel\u2019s military intelligence. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt no point was a warning given to Prime Minister Netanyahu on Hamas\u2019s intention to start a war. On the contrary, all the defense officials, including the heads of the Intelligence Directorate and the Shin Bet, assessed that Hamas was deterred,\u201d\u00a0Netanyahu\u00a0posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. <\/p>\n
An outpouring of criticism swiftly followed Netanyahu\u2019s post, including from war cabinet member Benny Gantz, who expressed his support\u00a0for\u00a0intelligence chiefs and called on Netanyahu to retract his statements. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis morning in particular, I would like to back up and strengthen all the security forces and the soldiers of the IDF \u2013 including the Chief of Staff, the head of the IDF and the head of the Shin Bet,\u201d Gantz said in a post on X on Sunday. <\/p>\n
Gantz called on Israel\u2019s leadership to \u201cshow responsibility\u201d while the country is at war. \u201cAny other action or statement \u2013 harms the people\u2019s resilience and strength,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Opposition leader and former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid also rebuked Netanyahu. \u201cNetanyahu crossed a red line,\u201d he\u00a0posted\u00a0Sunday on X. \u201cThe attempts to evade responsibility and place the blame on the security establishment weakens the IDF while it is fighting Israel\u2019s enemies,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
Amid the flurry of criticism, Netanyahu deleted the post on Sunday morning and issued an apology. \u201cI was wrong. Things I said following the press conference should not have been said and I apologize for that,\u201d he wrote on X. Israel\u2019s security chiefs had his \u201cfull backing,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
But even in this apology, Netanyahu made no mention of his own responsibility for the failure to anticipate the deadliest attack in Israel\u2019s history. <\/p>\n
By contrast, Bar and Haliva, as well as chief of staff of the IDF Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, have all taken responsibility to some extent for failures that led to the attacks. <\/p>\n
It has been a difficult weekend for the Israeli prime minister, who met with families of the hostages in Tel Aviv on Saturday, where they demanded answers on the security of their loved ones and pushed him to secure the hostages\u2019 freedom, as Israel\u2019s offensive escalated. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe spoke bluntly and made it clear to the prime minister in no uncertain terms that a comprehensive deal based on the \u2018everyone for everyone\u2019 principle is a deal the families would consider, and has the support of all of Israel,\u201d Meirav Leshem Gonen, mother of Romi Gonen, who was\u00a0kidnapped from the Supernova dance festival, said on behalf of the families in a news conference following the meeting. <\/p>\n
An \u201ceveryone for everyone\u201d deal would involve the release of the\u00a0more than\u00a0<\/strong>200 hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians currently held in Israeli prisons, which the nongovernmental organization Palestinian Prisoners Club estimates to be 6,630 people. <\/p>\n Hamas released a statement Saturday claiming the group was willing to engage in such a trade, but any such deal would be hugely controversial in Israel. <\/p>\n As the efforts to free the hostages drag on, loved ones have also expressed alarm at the possibility Hamas\u2019 captives will be harmed in Israel\u2019s intensifying bombardment of Gaza. <\/p>\n \u201cWe came with an unequivocal demand that military action takes into account the fate of the hostages and the missing, and that any move considered will take into account the well-being of our loved ones,\u201d Gonen said on behalf of the families. <\/p>\n Netanyahu was asked about such a deal at his Saturday news conference, and acknowledged he discussed the option with the families. <\/p>\n \u201cI think that elaborating on this will not help achieve our goal. In the meeting with the families, I felt emotionally helpless,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received sharp criticism after he accused security chiefs in a now-deleted social media post of failing to warn him about the impending Hamas attack prior to October 7. Amid a chorus of disapproval from opponents and allies, Netanyahu deleted the post on Sunday morning, issuing a rare apology and stating <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}