From the Liveblog of
Thursday, June 13, 2024
Ex-minister says he finally received condolence call from Netanyahu for son who fell fighting on Oct. 7
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"
Eight months after his son was killed fighting Hamas on October 7, former science and technology minister Izhar Shay tweets that he finally received a condolence call from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Only days after complaining online that he had not heard from the prime minister, Shay writes that following the end of yesterday’s Shavuot holiday, Netanyahu finally picked up the phone and “expressed to me deep shock that he had not heard about it until now.”
“I told the prime minister that I personally did not need this call, but when I expressed criticism I was speaking on behalf of everyone he has not bothered to call to this day, the families of those murdered… the families of the hostages who were murdered, the families of the kibbutzniks, the families of the ‘failures,’ not only the families of the success stories,” he tweets — referring to Netanyahu’s recent visit to the families of four rescued hostages.
“I told him he was responsible for everything that happened here, not just the successes, that he was supposed to be the prime minister of all of us, not just his voters, and that I am expressing the pain of millions of citizens who do not have a prime minister who addresses their pain,” he continues.
Shay urges Netanyahu “to call or visit to console the families of the fallen and murdered, even those who did not vote for him, even those who did not fall in heroic battles but rather those whose deaths symbolize the terrible disaster, the failure and the great pain of all the citizens of the State of Israel following” October 7.
Shay and Netanyahu’s call comes after the former minister tweeted a photo of his son standing behind Netanyahu, describing himself as “one of those bereaved parents whom the prime minister did not bother to call,” adding that “a moral and honorable prime minister would have called to comfort and strengthen” us.
Last December, Shay told Army Radio Tuesday that he has received threats and abuse since the death of his son IDF Sgt. Yaron Oree Shay, who was killed on October 7 defending an Israeli community during Hamas’s attack on Israel.
