Bennett urges state commission of inquiry into Oct. 7, slams ‘pathetic’ leadership
Ex-PM, who is eyeing comeback, says IDF wasted vital hours gearing up for war instead of sending troops to south immediately as Hamas slaughtered; praises ‘lions’ who rushed to scene
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday urged the formation of a state commission of inquiry into the events of October 7, 2023, saying he was shocked at the failure of Israel’s “pathetic” leadership to stop the massacre on that day.
Writing on Facebook on the eve of Simhat Torah — the Hebrew calendar date on which the shock assault took place — Bennett said he had rushed to the base of his old army reserve unit, only to discover the army was preparing for war when it should have sent troops to fend off the massacre at the Gaza border communities, an hour away.
“A war is measured in days, weeks,” wrote Bennett. “A massacre is measured in seconds and minutes!”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far refused demands by the opposition and attorney general to establish a state commission of inquiry into Israel’s failure to prevent thousands of Hamas-led Gazans from storming southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people and take 251 hostages. Netanyahu has insisted any investigation should wait until after the war sparked by the shock assault.
He is thought to prefer a lower-level inquiry, with more limited investigative powers. Critics say he seeks to avoid being blamed for the failures of that day.
Until now, Bennett hadn’t publicly joined the calls to establish the state commission, and — unlike former premiers Yair Lapid and Ehud Barak — did not testify before the independent civilian commission created in its stead.
About half an hour after the massacres began, Bennett said on Facebook, he began to receive pleas for help from residents of Kfar Aza. He explained that he had used to give his number to residents with whom he’d stayed to show support during previous escalations.
“I was shocked that there was an infiltration in Kfar Aza,” he wrote. “I didn’t yet understand that it was an attack all along the [Gaza border] fence.”
Bennett said he told “some very senior people” to send troops to Kfar Aza immediately. When they said they were aware of the infiltration, “I assumed that in five minutes the troops would be there and take care of the situation,” Bennett said.
As the hours went by and nobody came, Bennett said, he continued pressuring the officials, and urged commanders from the 98th Brigade, his former reserve unit, to send forces to Kfar Aza.
He said he sped to the unit’s base in Ramle, and was encouraged to see a long line of cars outside it, indicating “thousands of soldiers” had arrived.
In the base, “I saw hundreds of reservists preparing” for the war the government had declared, he said: signing off on equipment and receiving rations and ammunition — a roughly “6- to 10-hour” process, Bennett added.
Bennett wrote that battalion commanders he spoke to rejected his pleas to rush the process until he showed them the messages on his phone. He said he had considered posting a video calling on armed people to go south, but decided it would be unseemly since he was not in office.
Praising the thousands who did go to battle independently as army forces failed to arrive, Bennett said he often wonders if he could have done more.
“On that day we discovered that we are a nation of lions, but we also saw how pathetic our leadership is,” he wrote.
He said Israel must bring back the remaining hostages in Gaza and return evacuated residents to their homes in the north and the south.
“Then we can begin the journey to restore our country,” he added.
Bennett has signaled that he will contest the next election, which is expected to take place in October 2026, if it is not moved up. Though he ended his one-year term as prime minister in 2022 as part of the unity government with Lapid broadly unpopular, and did not seek reelection, polls show a party led by the former prime minister could snag the most votes, amid widespread dissatisfaction with Netanyahu.
A one-time aide of Netanyahu, Bennett has reportedly mulled a run atop a slate of other right-wing former Netanyahu allies.
In the past, he has led factions that positioned themselves to Netanyahu’s right.
He has refused to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, accusing him of supporting terrorism, and opposes a Palestinian state, though as premier said he wouldn’t annex the West Bank.
Bennett’s ties with much of the right ruptured when he served as premier atop a coalition comprising anti-Netanyahu parties, including left-wing and Arab factions. The government fell in 2022, having survived for a year.
