Netanyahu claims officials withheld October 7 warning

During an Israeli election campaign, the focus shifts not only to the words of each candidate but also to the topics being discussed, as political strategist Moshe Klughaft explained on Kan Bet's morning radio show. Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sparked a controversy when she suggested that Golan, who rushed to rescue people after October 7, had been tipped off in advance.

This led to Golan filing a defamation suit against her for spreading conspiracy theories, and she countered with her own suit.

Sara's remarks came after a demonstration against her, and her comments were not scripted. She was visibly upset after seeing video of Golan cheering on protesters and dismissing her statement of feeling threatened. Sara accused Golan of embarrassment for his actions against a woman in a hair salon and contrasted it with his conduct on October 7, implying that his role as a military officer was hypocritical.

The controversy surrounding Sara's remarks has bundled together various claims under the emotionally charged words "betrayal" and "conspiracy." Sara refused to discuss the betrayal theory, stating she does not subscribe to any theories and calls for a genuine commission of inquiry. The more extreme version of the conspiracy theory is that members of the security elite, including Golan, knew an attack was imminent and deliberately failed to wake Netanyahu to damage or bring down his government. However, there is no evidence to support this allegation.

Netanyahu has consistently denied any betrayal, claiming that there was a major failure reflected in what happened before the attack. He mentioned numerous warning signs before October 7 and said that officials like IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, and Military Intelligence chief Aharon Haliva knew about them.

They held a consultation around 3 a.m., several hours before the attack began at 6:29 a.m., and Netanyahu was not awakened. Netanyahu argues that the security establishment's failure to wake him due to fear of provoking an escalation is a catastrophic professional and conceptual failure. However, he did not claim that officials knew of the imminent attack and intentionally withheld that information to damage Netanyahu, which is a separate allegation of conscious betrayal.