Knesset Speaker Ohana reportedly among Knesset figures briefed by PM before Iran strike

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana about Israel’s plan to attack Iran last month, three days before the campaign’s start, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

According to Kan, Netanyahu invited Ohana to the Kirya IDF Headquarters in Tel Aviv, where he was required to sign a confidentiality agreement and then presented with the outline of the attack. Brig. Gen. Roman Gofman, the IDF military secretary, was also in attendance, adds the network.

The report comes after the New York Times claimed over the weekend that senior Haredi lawmaker Moshe Gafni was also informed by Netanyahu about the Iran attack three days ahead of time, in an attempt to defuse the former’s threat of voting in favor of dissolving the Knesset over the failure to pass a law exempting Haredi yeshiva students from conscription.

Other senior political figures, including Shas leader Aryeh Deri and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chair Yuli Edelstein, were reportedly briefed in advance — contributing to their decision to compromise on the military draft issue and avoid early elections.

In contrast, United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf was left out of the loop, a spokesman said. Unaware that the Iran strike was imminent, he resigned from his ministerial post in protest of the government’s failure to pass the legislation.

The same New York Times report, denied by Netanyahu, said that the premier prolonged the war in Gaza in order to stay in power.