Lapid accuses PM of lying to Knesset about security heads’ testimony to comptroller

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of lying about the failure of former heads of security services to appear before the state comptroller.

Speaking in the Knesset, Lapid says that when Netanyahu appeared before the body on Monday, he claimed that former Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, former IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi, and former IDF Intelligence chief Aharon Haliva had not appeared before the state comptroller to testify on the October 7, 2023, attacks.

All three were heads of their respective organizations on October 7, subsequently resigned, and took responsibility for the security failure.

Lapid quotes Netanyahu as saying before the Knesset on Monday: “I appeared before the state comptroller, and who did not appear before the state comptroller? The former head of the Shin Bet, the former chief of staff, the former head of Military Intelligence.”

Netanyahu also claimed to have answered questions for “long hours” from the state comptroller about the October 7 attack. The prime minister’s rivals have cast doubt on the comptroller’s probe, in part because he was appointed by a Netanyahu-led government.

Lapid says the prime minister’s comments about Bar, Halevi and Haliva are lies, and says Bar appeared twice before the comptroller, Halevi appeared at least 10 times, and Haliva testified multiple times.

“There is no chance in the world that [Netanyahu] did not know they had testified. And yet he came up to this podium and lied to the Knesset,” he says. “The prime minister must apologize and correct his words. He blackened and slandered the senior leadership of the security establishment before the nation/”

Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected bearing significant responsibility for the failures that enabled Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught and has mostly blamed the security establishment for failing to prevent the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.