Netanyahu slams ‘organized pressure campaign’ by former officials against government’s Oct. 7 probe

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubles down on his decision not to form an independent state commission of inquiry into the October 7, 2023, massacre, decrying what he calls an organized campaign against the investigating panel that the government has decided to establish.

“In recent days, we are seeing an organized pressure campaign by senior ‘former’ officials, who seek to distort the facts and dictate to the government how it should act,” Netanyahu says in a statement.

Among these officials is former Shin Bet director Ronen Bar, who on Tuesday called for the government to establish a state commission of inquiry in his first public address since leaving his post in June.

Netanyahu accuses these officials of allowing “anarchy” to infiltrate the country and “undermine cohesion in the IDF.”

“Today, they are trying to influence the nature of the investigation that will examine the failures they led in the October 7 disaster,” he writes.

“We will ensure that the national commission of inquiry will be broad, clean, professional, will represent the entire public, the opposition and the coalition equally, and will be committed to only one thing: the truth for the sake of Israel’s security,” he writes.

Netanyahu compares the probe he is establishing to the 9/11 Commission, a bipartisan investigation set up by the US Congress to investigate the September 11 terror attacks.

“What is good for America is good for Israel,” he writes.