"Netanyahu Bears Responsibility for This Israel-Gaza War"

(This editorial appeared in the leading Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz on October 8th.)

The disaster that befell Israel on the holiday of Simchat Torah is the
clear responsibility of one person: Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime
minister, who has prided himself on his vast political experience and
irreplaceable wisdom in security matters, completely failed to
identify the dangers he was consciously leading Israel into when
establishing a government of annexation and dispossession, when
appointing Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir to key positions,
while embracing a foreign policy that openly ignored the existence and
rights of Palestinians.

Netanyahu will certainly try to evade his responsibility and cast the
blame on the heads of the army, Military Intelligence and the Shin Bet
security service who, like their predecessors on the eve of the Yom
Kippur War, saw a low probability of war with their preparations for
aHamas attack proving flawed.

They scorned the enemy and its offensive military capabilities. Over
the next days and weeks, when the depth of Israel Defense Forces and
intelligence failures come to light, a justified demand to replace
them and take stock will surely arise.However, the military and
intelligence failure does not absolve Netanyahu of his overall
responsibility for the crisis, as he is the ultimate arbiter of
Israeli foreign and security affairs. Netanyahu is no novice in this
role, like Ehud Olmert was in the Second Lebanon War. Nor is he
ignorant in military matters, as Golda Meir in 1973 and Menachem Begin
in 1982 claimed to be.

Netanyahu also shaped the policy embraced by the short-lived
"government of change" led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid: a
multidimensional effort to crush the Palestinian national movement in
both its wings, in Gaza and the West Bank, at a price that would seem
acceptable to the Israeli public.

In the past, Netanyahu marketed himself as a cautious leader who
eschewed wars and multiple casualties on Israel's side. After his
victory in the last election, he replaced this caution with the policy
of a "fully-right government," with overt steps taken toannex the West
Bank, to carry out ethnic cleansing in parts of the Oslo-defined Area
C, including the Hebron Hills and the Jordan Valley.

This also included a massive expansion of settlements and bolstering
of the Jewish presence on Temple Mount, near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as
well as boasts of an impending peace deal with the Saudis in which the
Palestinians would get nothing, with open talk of a "second Nakba" in
his governing coalition. As expected, signs of an outbreak of
hostilities began in the West Bank, where Palestinians started feeling
the heavier hand of the Israeli occupier. Hamas exploited the
opportunity in order to launch its surprise attack on Saturday.

Above all, the danger looming over Israel in recent years has been
fully realized. A prime minister indicted in three corruption cases
cannot look after state affairs, as national interests will
necessarily be subordinate to extricating him from a possible
conviction and jail time.

This was the reason for establishing this horrific coalition and the
judicial coup advanced by Netanyahu, and for the enfeeblement of top
army and intelligence officers, who were perceived as political
opponents. The price was paid by thevictims of the invasion in the
Western Negev.