Breaking with PM and coalition, Likud minister backs state probe into Oct. 7

Breaking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and just about the entire ruling coalition, Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter expresses his support for the launch of a state commission of inquiry into the government’s failures that allowed Hamas’s October 7 onslaught to unfold.

“In Israel, fortunately, there are few dramatic events that warrant the appointment of a state commission of inquiry. Without a doubt, the Yom Kippur War was a war that required one. The October 7th attack is another event that requires one,” Dichter says in an interview with Channel 12’s ‘Meet the Press.’

Dichter argued that the probe should be anchored by legislation passed in the Knesset or through an agreement reached between the coalition and the opposition.

Netanyahu and others in the coalition have chafed at the idea, arguing that such a probe should only take place after the war is over. The premier has also rejected efforts to establish a state commission of inquiry, with his supporters arguing that they don’t trust the former Supreme Court justices who are tasked with heading such panels.