Israeli cabinet meeting “exploded” after Netanyahu allies and military officials clashed over IDF plan to launch inquiry into security failures surrounding deadly Hamas attack.
An Israeli cabinet meeting devolved into a bitter argument Friday in the wake of the IDF chief announcing plans to launch an inquiry into the military’s failure to respond to the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.
Several ministers lambasted IDF Chief-of-Staff Herzl Halevi during a discussion on “the day after” the Gaza War over plans for the IDF to form an investigatory team to probe the security lapses surrounding Hamas’ deadly incursion into Israel.
From The Jerusalem Post:
At issue was opposition to an IDF plan for an internal investigatory committee that would include former Defense Minister and former IDF Chief-of-Staff Shaul Mofaz, IDF intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi Farkash and former IDF southern command chief Sami Turgeman.
The committee would be tasked with investigating the military failures that contributed to the Hamas-led October 7 attack, in which over 1.200 people were killed and another 250 were taken hostage.
The results of the committee were intended for internal use, to immediately improve flaws in IDF operations moving forward, and were not expected to constitute a formal investigatory committee.
“This is our professional review – not about policy, but how the IDF acted,” Halevi said.
“Something happened here that the army should learn from. Tomorrow if an incident happens in another sector we want to understand what caused the failure in the chain of command. This is an operational investigation that has implications for the fighting in the north.”
Critics of the IDF investigation plans included allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, such as Transport Minister Miri Regev, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
The dispute reportedly turned into a shouting match between them and defenders of the IDF chief such as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Education Minister Yifat Shasha Biton.
“I didn’t know about the investigation, but I give the Chief of Staff my full backing. It is his job to check and investigate. If the chief of staff decided to establish an investigation team – I support him,” Gallant said, telling the ministers, “if they do investigations – it’s none of your business.”
Ben-Gvir reportedly defended his right to question the chief of staff, saying “not all criticism is blasphemy, we are the ministers and this is our job.”
Netanyahu himself ended the meeting at midnight.
Unlike other members of his cabinet, Netanyahu has avoided taking responsibility for the security failures on Oct. 7 amid calls for investigations into him and his government over what led to Hamas’ successful terrorist invasion that killed over 1,400 people.
“Everyone will have to give answers on the debacle — including myself — but all that will happen only after the war,” he said in an address to the nation. “As prime minister, I am responsible for securing the future of the state. And right now, my job is to lead the state of Israel and the people to a crushing victory over our enemies.”
Israel’s stunning security failure raised questions about whether an operational stand down had been ordered as false flag to justify a full-scale assault on Gaza.
According to Jewish Pro-Life Foundation leader Cecily Routman, government sources claimed Netanyahu ordered a 7-hour military stand down to allow Hamas to launch its attack to justify Israeli retaliation against Gaza meant to ultimately wipe the Palestinian enclave off the map.
“Israel as the most sophisticated intelligence in the world. There is no way the government didn’t know that that was going to happen,” Routman said.
Reports later surfaced showing the Israeli government was aware Hamas was planning a large-scale attack a year prior but allegedly didn’t take intelligence reports about it seriously.