PM implies he views a probe of Oct. 7 as a bureaucratic nuisance amid war on Hamas
At Knesset, PM compares himself to Duke of Wellington during Napoleonic wars, who mocked the need to inspect the condition of a battalion’s ‘jam jars’ during fighting
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected calls to swiftly establish a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 disaster during a debate on the matter in the Knesset on Wednesday.
Speaking at a so-called 40-signature debate — a session the opposition can call once a month with the signatures of 40 MKs and which the prime minister is legally obliged to attend — Netanyahu compared current demands for an investigation of the October 7 massacre to bureaucratic inspections of the British military during the Napoleonic wars over 200 years ago.
The focus of the debate was the need to thoroughly investigate the failings that enabled the disaster of October 7.
Netanyahu has resisted forming a state commission of inquiry into the failings leading up to October 7 or the handling of the war. He has said investigations must wait until after the fighting ends and has repeatedly avoided committing to forming a state commission, which is the inquiry body that enjoys the broadest powers under Israeli Law. With the war now in its 10th month, pressure has been growing to begin investigating events.
“Let me tell you something about an investigative committee,” Netanyahu said as he addressed lawmakers in the plenum. “I have a letter written by the [British officer and statesman] Duke of Wellington to the government in London. They sent a commission of inquiry to him. He was in Spain on his way to Portugal, fighting Napoleon, on the way to Waterloo [the decisive battle in 1815]. The inquiry committee was sent and asked him to give a precise account of the number of horse saddles he was using, the number of tent sheets, the number of tent poles.
“Wellington responded: ‘I very much appreciate this inquiry, and I would like to report on missing pounds sterling in one battalion… and there’s also a question of jam jars in another battalion, but please decide between two assignments: Do you want me to deal with answering your army of bureaucrats or do you want me to defeat Napoleon?'”
The premier then banged on the lectern and declared: “I now want to beat Hamas! And there will be time later to check all the jam jars as well as other things.”
The Knesset plenum ultimately voted 53-51 against a bill brought forth by Yesh Atid MK Meir Cohen that would have established a state committee of inquiry.
During his speech, Netanyahu also slammed the opposition, saying, “As the pressure on Hamas grows, so does your campaign of trolling. As the campaign in the squares and streets proves unsuccessful, you lie more and more.”
During the debate, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid demanded Netanyahu either announce his acceptance of a hostage deal during his July 24 speech to the US Congress, or cancel his upcoming trip to Washington.
“Mr. Prime Minister, are you going to announce next week on the rostrum in Congress that you accept the hostage deal?” Lapid asked. “If that’s what you will say, go in peace with our blessings. It is the right and moral thing to do. If that’s not your plan, don’t go to Washington.”
Lapid said there were people within Netanyahu’s own bureau “who think and say that you should announce in a speech to Congress that you accept the hostage deal. Not in twisty wording, not with conditions that would screw it up again,” Lapid continued, calling on Netanyahu to otherwise not “give a speech in the air-conditioning of Washington while the hostages are dying of suffocation in the tunnels of Gaza.”
Lapid also reiterated his prior criticism of Netanyahu for spending two hours during Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting discussing incitement against him, rather than focusing on the fate of those suffering because of the war, saying the premier had “not said a word about the hostages.”
“You’ve said that in the Middle East, only the strong are valued. If this is true, why did Hamas invade the territory of the State of Israel on your watch [and] kill 1,200 citizens? Did it not occur to them that there was someone strong before them that they should be afraid of? It’s because they knew something about you,” Lapid accused.
Labor MK Naama Lazimi also slammed Netanyahu, blaming him for strengthening Hamas ahead of October 7 and accusing him of playing political games while Israelis suffer.
“The reservists and their wives, the orphans of the IDF, the farmers — all these will wait. The main thing is that the [coalition] partners loot as quickly as possible before the burning tower of cards finally collapses,” Lazimi said, apparently referring to the government’s allocation of funds to priorities of Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox and far-right coalition partners.
“You strengthened those who slaughtered us. You handed [Hamas] suitcases of dollars in cash, you saw these murderers as an asset. You avoided killing the heads of Hamas at least six times. Until now you have not explained to the public why. You are afraid to meet the public because you know that lives have been ruined because of your abandonment,” she said, repeating several unverified claims against Netanyahu — charging him with preferring “political survival over saving lives.”
“The one who prevents the greatest mitzvah of ransoming captives is the one who has forgotten what it is to be a Jew and a human being,” Lazimi added, paraphrasing a hot mic comment made over 20 years ago by Netanyahu that the Left “has forgotten what it is to be a Jew.”
Later in the day Netanyahu publicly clashed on social media with opposition MK Benny Gantz after the latter, a former member of the war cabinet that oversaw the initial stages of the war alongside Netanyahu, accused the prime minister of being repeatedly hesitant in decision-making during the war and saying those failings would come to light in a future inquiry.
Gantz brought his National Unity party into the emergency government after October 7 and was one of three members of the war cabinet, along with Netanyahu and Gallant. But Gantz pulled out of the government in June while accusing Netanyahu of botching the war effort.
In a post to social media platform X, Gantz addressed Netanyahu, writing: “You were afraid” to launch the Gaza offensive, “delayed entering Khan Younis,” and “hesitated to enter Rafah,” referring to two cities that are key Hamas strongholds in Gaza.
Those failings, Gantz asserted “will be revealed when the protocols and testimonies are heard” by a state commission of inquiry.
That forum will ask “Why were you afraid, delayed, and hesitated? And what are the prices we paid and are still paying for it?” Gantz predicted.
Netanyahu shot back at Gantz posting to his own X account that it was “more fake news from Benny Gantz.”
Netanyahu said he had taken a photo of Gantz’s post and “I will recall his hallucinatory tweet when the protocols are revealed and the public will find out who looked for excuses ‘to stop the fighting for a year or two’ and who it was who really pushed ahead to continue the war until victory.”
Netanyahu was apparently referring to an interview that Gantz gave to Channel 12 after leaving the government in which he urged a hostage deal even if it meant halting the campaign against Hamas for a year or two.
Gantz responded to Netanyahu, writing “I await the establishment of a state commission of inquiry” though he added: “What is done is done. But the hostages must be brought back. If you do the right thing you will have full backing. That is what is important now.”
