Lapid: Police may need to probe Netanyahu’s ‘intentional forgery’ of October 7 protocols

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid on Monday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of falsifying security protocols in an effort to deflect blame from himself over his government’s failures on October 7, calling for police to consider a criminal probe of the premier.

“The Netanyahu document is a forgery of security protocols in an official document issued by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, in a way that must be intentional,” Lapid declared, referring to a 55-page document released by Netanyahu last week containing his answers given to State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman as part of the ombudsman’s since-frozen investigation into the attack.

In the document, which contains selective, curated quotes from cabinet protocols, Netanyahu sought to pin the failure to prevent the onslaught on political rivals and security chiefs, while presenting himself in a positive light and deflecting responsibility for the attack. The release of the document sparked outrage from many opposition officials as well as former Netanyahu allies who accused the prime minister of lying and misrepresenting his past positions.

Lapid, speaking to reporters ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s faction meeting in the Knesset, said that by releasing the document, Netanyahu “made a mistake. He opened Pandora’s box, and they are trying to close it again. It will not work for them.

“The problem is not that Netanyahu is lying. The fact that Netanyahu is lying is not exactly news. This is much more serious. The biased editing of protocols of security discussions is a violation of the Official Secrets Law,” Lapid said.

Those involved in publishing the 55-page document in question “are involved in a cover-up, fraud, and a conspiracy designed to deceive the state comptroller, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and the Israeli public,” Lapid alleged. “This is a conspiracy aimed at damaging our ability to learn the lessons of October 7 and to defend ourselves in the future.”

Lapid told reporters that he wrote to the Defense Ministry security authority, the Prime Minister’s Office’s legal adviser and the Defense Ministry’s legal adviser, “demanding answers. Depending on the answers provided, the Shin Bet and the police will have to decide whether to open a criminal investigation, and against whom.”

According to Lapid, Netanyahu’s description of a security assessment he held with senior defense and security officials on October 1, 2023, less than a week before the attack, omitted key details, providing only a single misleading paragraph.

“What actually happened in that meeting,” alleged Lapid, is that “then-Shin Bet director Ronen Bar recommended preparing for a series of escalation scenarios and targeted preventions in Gaza. In that same meeting, then-chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi recommended preparing a plan for a broad campaign in the Gaza Strip.”

He went on: “The recommendations of Ronen Bar and Herzi Halevi came following particularly grave and urgent intelligence warnings about Hamas’s preparations for combat in Gaza. I was familiar with these warnings; the entire system was familiar with them,” Lapid said. “We all thought the danger was immediate and tangible.”

According to Lapid, Netanyahu “determined in that meeting that it was not the time for a strike in Gaza, as normalization with Saudi Arabia was the top priority.

“In the summary of the actual discussion, Netanyahu instructed to move forward with civil arrangements with Hamas — meaning more money for Hamas and increasing the number of laborers entering from Gaza — and to move forward, and this is also a quote: ‘under a directive of quiet.'”

Lapid said that the document provided by Netanyahu is “no longer just a ‘version’ of events. This is the falsification of security protocols in an official document issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, in a way that must have been intentional. They did this because they thought no one knew the truth, or that if someone did, they wouldn’t dare speak it.”

Netanyahu released the document in question last week, hours after appearing before a closed-door session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee during which he reportedly accused Bar of falsifying the protocol of a meeting held early on morning of October 7, just prior to the Hamas attack. He also claimed that he had wanted to assassinate Hamas leaders in 2014 but was opposed by the security establishment.

Speaking ahead of his own faction meeting on Monday, Blue and White leader Benny Gantz called the 55-page document a “rewriting of history,” noting that he was present in the room on many occasions as both IDF chief and later in successive Netanyahu-led governments, when the premier chose not to pursue various policies — decisions he has since blamed on the defense and intelligence establishment.

“I was there as chief of staff when I told him we were ready to strike Iran and he decided not to,” said Gantz. “When I presented the implications of conquering Gaza and the entire cabinet decided not to conquer it, and when, after I proposed seizing [Gaza’s] Netzarim Corridor, the political echelon decided not to seize it.”

Gantz said: “Even if we ignore the rewriting of history, Netanyahu has presented a severe indictment against himself. He was the one who insisted on leaving ‘Hamas deterred and weakened’ in power.”

Yoav Gallant, who served under Netanyahu as defense minister in 2022-2024 until he was fired by the premier, issued a furious response to the document in an interview on Saturday, calling the prime minister a liar.

“I did not think I would have to come here to the studio and say, ‘We have a liar for prime minister. The prime minister is a liar,” Gallant said in a Channel 12 interview.

“Netanyahu’s first priority is himself, then his government, and then the country,” Gallant continued, adding that the premier “takes credit for actions after they are completed, if they succeed. If they don’t succeed, it’s someone else’s responsibility.”

Gadi Eisenkot, a former IDF chief who also served temporarily in the Netanyahu government at the start of the war in Gaza, accused Netanyahu on Friday of submitting a “fabricated defense” in his response to the comptroller’s investigation.

Eisenkot wrote to Englman that Netanyahu “constructed and published a fabricated defense adapted to his needs from confidential minutes, while abusing his exclusive authority to view and publish minutes from sensitive meetings.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.