Knesset panel to oversee IDF probes into October 7 failure
New subcommittee will oversee the military’s internal investigations but cannot serve as a substitute for a state commission of inquiry, says chairman and Likud MK Yuli Edelstein
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
In light of the government’s failure to establish an official state commission of inquiry into the events of October 7, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Thursday announced that it is establishing a special panel to oversee the military’s internal investigations into its failures in the lead-up to the Hamas terror group’s October 7 massacre.
The “Special Subcommittee to Examine the Investigations of the Events of October 7 and the Iron Swords War” will be headed by Likud MK Yuli Edelstein and will be comprised of lawmakers from both the coalition and opposition.
Members include Ram Ben Barak (Yesh Atid); Meir Cohen (Yesh Atid); Merav Michaeli (The Democrats); Ze’ev Elkin (New Hope); Tzvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism); Gadi Eisenkot (National Unity); Yinon Azulai (Shas); Sharon Nir (Yisrael Beytenu); Moshe Roth (United Torah Judaism); Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit); and Boaz Bismuth (Likud).
“For many months, I have been calling for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry, which is the only one authorized by law to access the highest [level of] classified materials,” announced Edelstein, who also chairs the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
“It is the nature of a vacuum to be filled, and in the absence of a state committee, the army began to investigate on its own. The subcommittee was established in order to supervise the IDF’s investigations and make sure that they are done in as professional, comprehensive and objective a manner as the law allows,” he said — adding that “the IDF’s and other investigations are not and will not be a substitute for a state commission of inquiry, whose establishment would have been better if done much earlier.”
“In the absence of a state commission of inquiry, the forum will be a tool for the supervision and oversight” of all IDF investigations and will summon all “relevant” parties, “military, governmental and civilian” to testify in the Knesset, the committee said in a statement.
The Israel Defense Forces has been progressing with its internal investigations into the military’s failures in the lead-up to the Hamas terror group’s October 7 massacre, recently releasing its probe into the battle at Kibbutz Be’eri.
The probes are aimed at drawing operational conclusions for the military and will not look into the policies of the political leadership, avoiding a fight with government leaders opposed to such a course of action.
The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Despite growing demands to do so, including from his own defense minister, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far resisted forming a state commission of inquiry into the policy failings leading up to October 7 or the government’s handling of the war.
He has said investigations must wait until after the fighting ends and has repeatedly avoided committing to forming a state commission, which is the inquiry body that enjoys the broadest powers under Israeli law. With the war now in its 10th month, pressure has been growing to begin investigating events.
Seventy-two percent of Israelis think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to resign over the failures of October 7, according to a Channel 12 poll published earlier this month.
The establishment of his special subcommittee appears to be yet another assertion of independence from Netanyahu by Edelstein. The veteran Likud lawmaker has recently refused to push government-backed measures extending reservists’ terms of service and regulating ultra-Orthodox enlistment through his committee without achieving what he calls a “broad consensus.”
While current investigations are “critical for drawing lessons and applying them,” even during wartime, they “cannot replace the work of the state commission of inquiry, which must be established,” stated MK Elkin, who led a similar probe in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee during Operation Protective Edge in 2014.
“I congratulate the Chairman of the Foreign and Defense Committee, MK Yuli Edelstein, for the initiative and intend to take a very active role in it,” he said.
The establishment of Edelstein’s subcommittee was also welcomed by UTJ’s Roth, who called it “helpful,” and The Democrats’ Michaeli, who tweeted that Israelis’ tendency to assert that things “will be fine” is “part of what led us to the terrible disaster on October 7.”
“I will do everything and thoroughly investigate each and every oversight and will be on guard to do everything so that the oversights do not recur. We will learn, investigate and insist on improving for the security of all,” she posted.
Edelstein’s announcement comes a week to the day after several groups representing survivors of the Hamas massacres and the families of those killed announced the formation of a “civil commission of inquiry” aimed at “reaching the truth and preventing the next disaster.”
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
