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Friday, February 6, 2026
Yesh Atid MK requests full transcripts of meetings selectively referenced by PM in defense committee session on Oct. 7
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Yesh Atid lawmaker Elazar Stern writes to the chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, MK Boaz Bismuth, to request full transcripts of various cabinet meetings referenced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a closed-door committee meeting yesterday.
During the meeting, the premier was reported to have tried to distance himself from the failures surrounding Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, averring that the intelligence presented to him did not indicate such an invasion and that his previous efforts to deter Hamas were thwarted by defense officials.
To back up his claims, Netanyahu presented snippets from various cabinet meetings and security discussions held in the weeks and months leading up to October 7.
Stern, in his letter to Bismuth, says that the committee’s “ability to fulfill its role” will be impaired if it does not receive the full transcripts of all the meetings referenced by Netanyahu.
He writes that he had warned during yesterday’s meeting that Netanyahu, “with the help of his aides sitting next to him, only quotes the parts of sentences and discussions that are convenient for him.”
He suggests that Bismuth should either reconvene the committee for another closed-door discussion to present the full minutes of all relevant meetings or, if he prefers, distribute the minutes to committee members ahead of time and convene to review them afterward.
“Since partial quotes have already been provided, if you do not respond to my request, this will continue to seriously harm the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s ability to fulfill its role, in deliberations and in voting,” he writes.
Stern publishes the letter online, and again warns in an accompanying statement that “presenting partial and biased quotes” harms the committee’s ability to function.
“Failure to present the full material will harm the status of the committee and the public’s trust in its work, and will portray it as acting out of narrow political considerations rather than security considerations,” he says.
The Times of Israel Community.