The conclusions of the Agranat Commission, created in Israel to investigate the lack of preparation and prevention of the military and political leadership to the surprise attack by Egypt and Syria that gave rise to the war of ’73, did not point to Prime Minister Golda Meir. Still, she took responsibility for the national trauma and the number of victims and she resigned several months later.
50 years later, many wonder whether the commission of inquiry into the glaring error in Israel’s defense of the Gaza border will target the government, the army or both.
While the top military official, Herzi Halevi, has admitted that they did not fulfill their obligation to defend the citizens on the fateful morning of Saturday the 7th, Benjamin Netanyahu has not commented on his share of responsibility in not preventing the worst attack in history. From Israel. Only the head of the Government’s Security Council, Tsaji Hanegbi, intoned this Saturday the mea culpa for having believed, like many others, that Hamas preferred to remain calm.
Since his return to power after the November elections, Netanyahu has faced massive protest demonstrations for 40 consecutive weeks against his ultra-conservative coalition’s judicial reform plan. But the massacres in the kibbutzim have shocked Israelis and have put an end to protests, although they have created others such as those of some relatives of kidnapped people.
On the right, they lament that Netanyahu did not fulfill his 2008 election promise to “take down the Hamas terrorist regime in Gaza.” Bibi allowed his consolidation either because the alternative was worse (anarchy) or because he contributes to Palestinian division thus burying the possibility of an agreement with President Abu Mazen based on the two-state solution.
On the left, Netanyahu’s opposition has criticized him for years for the corruption trial, for his “role in the division of the country and hatred of the left,” and for his last government and the judicial plan. “Netanyahu has shown zero leadership and zero responsibility. Until he accepts failure, he does not deserve my trust,” said former officer Noam Tibon, who, by the way, rescued people with his car during the Hamas attack.
The Government also receives criticism for bureaucratic slowness and failures to deal with a crisis of unprecedented magnitude with thousands of dead, injured, kidnapped and a war. The Hamas attack has hit hard Netanyahu’s great banner with which he could overcome the internal crisis in the short term and, in the long term, enter history: the agreement to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia. Whether or not it was one of the objectives of the Iranian-backed Palestinian group, the war has caused Riyadh to freeze its rapprochement with Israel.
On Friday, a poll by the newspaper Maariv showed a drop of 9 seats for Netanyahu compared to the one recorded before the Hamas attack while the centrist leader Benny Gantz reached 41 seats compared to 29 a week earlier. Gantz has joined the war emergency cabinet.