From the Liveblog of
Sunday, October 29, 2023
Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Tibon, who led rescue battle at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, demands Netanyahu resign
Noam Tibon, a retired general who drove to Kibbutz Nahal Oz on the morning of October 7, and led a rescue effort against Hamas terrorists there, including saving his own son and family, calls on Benjamin Netanyahu to resign with immediate effect.
Netanyahu’s continued presence as prime minister harms the war against Hamas, he says, and likens the imperative for change at the top to Britain replacing Neville Chamberlain with Winston Churchill to defeat the Nazis.
“On that black Shabbat,” Tibon tells Channel 12, “Hamas, a not very large organization, humiliated the IDF and humiliated Israel.
“There are people who are to blame for the failures: the chief of staff has already taken responsibility, and I have no doubt that at the end of the campaign, he and all those in the IDF responsible for this failure will go home. The head of the Shin Bet has already taken responsibility and I’m sure there’ll be a similar process there.
“The only one who has not taken responsibility is Benjamin Netanyahu, and now he is shooting from inside the APC,” Tibon says, referring to Netanyahu’s tweet overnight, later deleted, in which the prime minister blamed intelligence chiefs for the failure to prevent Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.
Tibon estimated that 80 percent of Israelis do not believe Netanyahu will lead Israel to a decisive victory over Hamas, and that 90% of Israelis do not believe Netanyahu will protect their families and children.
“People have lost their entire sense of security in the past three weeks,” says Tibon. “And therefore I say directly to Netanyahu: Take responsibility. Resign now. It will help the campaign.”
Tibon adds: “The people need to feel security — they need to be sure that we are going to be victorious. I don’t think he can lead us to victory.”
He then indicates that members of Knesset should remove Netanyahu if he does not step down. “The British in World War II replaced Chamberlain with Churchill,” he says. “We have to win. That is more important than Netanyahu.”
Concludes Tibon: “Within the year, with Gaza in ruins, all of Hamas’s leaders dead, and all who took place in that murder, that slaughter, dead, [there needs to be] a thriving bloc of communities [in the Gaza-envelope area where the slaughter took place] — with people returned to their communities because they feel it is safe to live there, and me able to go back to visit my grandchildren without a gun.”
