Eisenkot accuses Netanyahu of ‘fabricated defense’ in Oct. 7 probe response

Former IDF chief of staff and ex-Knesset member Gadi Eisenkot wrote a letter to State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman on Friday, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of submitting a “fabricated defense” in response to the comptroller’s investigation into the failures surrounding Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.

On Thursday night, Netanyahu released the full 55-page document of his answers given to the state comptroller as part of the ombudsman’s investigation into the October 7, Hamas-led atrocities, pinning the failure to prevent the onslaught on political rivals and security chiefs while presenting himself in a positive light and deflecting his responsibility for the attack.

Netanyahu earlier in the day presented lawmakers on the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee with materials he had previously submitted to the state comptroller from the years preceding the October 7 attack, the most devastating in Israel’s history and the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

The prime minister has the authority, subject to proper procedure and legal challenge, to release and redact such materials.

In his answers to Englman, Netanyahu sought to build the case, with partial, curated quotes from cabinet protocols, that he had repeatedly pushed for assassinating Hamas leaders, but security chiefs consistently argued against the idea.

That assertion contradicted reports that he actually rejected assassinating then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on several occasions.

Subsequently, Eisenkot charged in the letter to Englman that Netanyahu “constructed and published a fabricated defense adapted to his needs from confidential minutes, while abusing his exclusive authority to see and publish minutes from sensitive meetings.”

“The situation in which one of the main responsible parties, if not the main and foremost one, can publish misleading and false statements and gain an advantage over all the other witnesses, is unacceptable,” continued Eisenkot, who, since leaving Benny Gantz’ National Unity party, has formed his own political party to run in elections later this year.

Continuing, Eisenkot accused Netanyahu of using secretive documents deliberately in an election year “out of a desire to improve his image, distance himself from blame and harm the other candidates facing him.”

Eisenkot requested that the State Comptroller’s Office allow the relevant people to review the full minutes of the meetings referenced by the premier in his “partial and manipulative” response, and told Englman that he will be happy to “set the record straight” regarding his own actions during his time as IDF chief.

Eisenkot’s letter came after similar criticisms from opposition figures, including from Netanyahu’s own defense minister on October 7, Likud colleague Yoav Gallant, who had publicly warned in March 2023 that the national rift over the coalition’s planned judicial overhaul had come to pose a tangible threat to Israel’s security.

“Even today, Netanyahu doesn’t miss a chance to lie and incite, as well as harm the IDF and Shin Bet,” Gallant said Thursday after the release of the document, adding, “It is no surprise that Netanyahu is opposed to a state commission of inquiry, which would surely expose his lies.”

Former defense minister and leader of the Yisrael Beytenu party Avigdor Liberman responded to the document by reposting a video from September 28, 2023, of him touring the Gaza border area and slamming the response to recent violence along the frontier.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said that “in contrast to his claims, Netanyahu was again and again warned before October 7, including by me, and ignored all the warnings.”

MK Elazar Stern, a lawmaker from Lapid’s Yesh Atid party who is a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said he wrote a letter to Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, the committee chair, demanding that committee members receive full access to the security cabinet protocols quoted by Netanyahu in the premier’s response to the state comptroller.