Netanyahu defends politically appointed Oct. 7 inquiry: ‘How can anyone oppose this?’

In a video statement defending his government’s push to create a politically appointed commission of inquiry into the failings surrounding the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, rather than a widely demanded independent commission, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argues that an event on such a scale necessitates a “special commission.”

“This will be an equal commission of inquiry,” he says, adding that neither the government nor the opposition — each of which is slated to pick half of the panel’s members — “will have any advantage in appointing the members of the commission.”

However, the bill as advanced stipulates that if the opposition refuses to cooperate by selecting its half of the commission’s members, the Knesset speaker will appoint the remaining members, giving the coalition complete control of the inquiry.

“The government could have established a governmental review committee, whose entire composition would be determined solely by the government,” Netanyahu maintains. “But I believed that such a committee would earn the trust of only part of the public.”

“Likewise, a commission of inquiry whose composition would be determined exclusively by Justice Isaac Amit, as proposed by the opposition, would gain the trust of only a small segment of the public that believes in it,” Netanyahu continues, avoiding calling the Supreme Court president by his title.

In fact, successive polls have found that most of the public favors a state commission of inquiry — either appointed exclusively by Amit, or jointly with his deputy Noam Sohlberg, both options that Netanyahu has ruled out.

Earlier today, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted to back the contentious bill to create the new form of commission of inquiry, whose members would be picked by the Knesset instead of by the Supreme Court president as mandated under the current law for state commissions of inquiry.

Netanyahu repeats an oft-used line of argument that the US established a special commission after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks: “No one then complained about political bias, and I must say that its conclusions received broad legitimacy precisely for this reason. That is exactly what we are doing.”

“If the goal is truly to reach the truth,” he continues, “if there is truly no desire to allow a cover-up, how can anyone oppose this?”

“I say to the opposition: Go ahead — bring whatever experts you want, ask whatever questions you want, investigate whomever you want — including me,” he says.

“All issues will be examined, without exception,” he pledges. “The political, the security, the intelligence, the legal — everything.”

Netanyahu says that he brought together a team of ministers to present various options for the mandate of the investigation, which will be determined solely by the government.