From the Liveblog of
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Lapid: Defense establishment failure to thwart Oct 7 ‘inexcusable’ but ‘does not negate political echelon’s responsibility’
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"
Despite repeatedly warning the prime minister that national security had been eroded by his coalition’s efforts to advance its judicial overhaul agenda last year, “instead of acting, [the defense establishment] waited for the political echelon’s instructions,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid tells an independent commission of inquiry probing the government’s failure to stop Hamas’s October 7 attack.
“There is no excuse for it, there can be no justification for it,” he continues.
Nonetheless, Lapid stresses, the IDF’s responsibility for the disaster “does not negate the political echelon’s responsibility” for the worst mistake in Israeli history.
“This catastrophe was preventable,” he insists.
He says “the discussion about Prime Minister Netanyahu’s motives or mental state is none of my business.”
“I cannot say here with certainty why he did not act in accordance with the intelligence material. I can tell you that the definition of the role of the prime minister and the cabinet, perhaps the most critical definition of that role, is the duty to stop everything in the face of this type and quality of intelligence and information, and mobilize the entire system to stop the threat. The first job of a prime minister in Israel is to prevent the death of civilians,” he argues.
