Netanyahu insists protocols will reveal ‘the truth’ about Oct. 7, which he claims wouldn’t have happened if he was awakened

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again claims the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack would not have happened as it did if security chiefs woke him up during the night, asserting that wartime protocols will ultimately substantiate his account.

Asked during his appearance on Channel 14 whether October 7 would have happened had he been awakened before the early-morning invasion and massacre, Netanyahu replies: “You want the truth? Yes. It would have looked completely different. Completely different, I think.”

“But I think that one day we will see all the protocols,” he adds, claiming that State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman was astonished after reviewing relevant material, suggesting the senior official investigating the government’s failures surrounding October 7 was sharing material with the leader of that government. “When all those protocols come out, you will know the truth,” Netanyahu says.

Returning to the question later, Netanyahu says: “You asked me what would have happened if they had woken me up — it would not have happened.”

“I’m not telling you that nothing would have happened. [Hamas] had prepared it,” he continues, blaming the failure in part on the security establishment’s prewar “conception” that Hamas was deterred, which he seeks to distance himself from.

“There was never any underestimation [on my part]…As for [Hamas’s] desire to destroy us, [to underestimate] that is such a disconnect from reality,” Netanyahu asserts.

Asked why he therefore opposes a state commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding October 7, Netanyahu claims the outcome of such an inquiry would be “predetermined.”

He says he instead favors “an equal one: half opposition, half coalition,” asking: “What could be fairer than that?”