Nadav Eyal
@Nadav_Eyal · Israeli journalists — political, diplomatic, legal
Nadav Eyal is a senior analyst for Yedioth Ahronoth and one of Israel's most-read commentators on the war and foreign affairs.
One of the prime minister’s people, and not one of the smarter ones, thought that putting this out would help him. It’s a catastrophe for him. If Netanyahu indeed understands and fears that the threats are real, and knows how to give them a timeline, why did he do nothing? He is not a “senior security official.” What does it mean that he “fears”? And if by the end of August he was already afraid, and warnings from various sources had been received, why didn’t he act?
Translated from HebrewThe UAE with a dramatic statement this evening, Middle East time - a response to the scoop by Shlomi Eldar and Ruti Yovel: that days before October 7, Netanyahu received a personal warning from the leader of the UAE himself, MBZ. Hamas in Gaza, Netanyahu was told, was planning "an earthquake." Now read this sentence from the UAE statement: "When necessary, all relevant intelligence has been and continues to be communicated between the relevant entities."
Breaking: In an official statement, the United Arab Emirates does not deny the scoop by Shlomi Eldar and Ruti Yuval.
Translated from HebrewSince this article was published this morning, I have been receiving messages from doctors. Those who left, those who are still here. The situation is *much more* serious than what is being reported. This is the main comment I am receiving: that the data do not capture the magnitude of the expected departure. Netanyahu's mouthpieces will deny and deny, and in the end will arrange private treatment for themselves by flying abroad, as in dictatorships.
Translated from HebrewDoctors leaving is evidence of an existential danger: the collapse of Israel as a First World country due to the departure of strong, working, and professional populations. The process has already begun. This is connected to the judicial overhaul, Israel's attractiveness in the world, and the way in which a Haredi far-right government paved the way for the destruction of the liberal state that is Israel. My article in ynet
Translated from HebrewThat is to say, against unity. Winter is more Netanyahu than the Haredim. This is Netanyahu through and through; Winter’s party is Smotrich from three years ago. That’s all. They will drag the entire country into elections if Bibi does not form a government.
Translated from HebrewWinter says he’ll go with Bibi. On the record. That’s all you need to know. Anyone who thinks that such a small right-wing party would prefer to go to another election over Haredi conscription rather than go with Bibi—there’s a plot of land a little west of Tel Aviv Beach for sale.
Translated from HebrewOfer Winter’s party, Smotrich, Feiglin for sure, Yaron Zelekha—all the same. The Bibi bloc, certain, locked in. Bibi will shut them down before the election. Whoever votes for them surely knows that they are voting for another 4 years of Benjamin Netanyahu. There will be no change at all: a fully Haredi–far-right government. It is the voters’ right, but there is a vague impression surrounding some of these people. There is no fog at all. Just listen to them.
Translated from HebrewThe Israeli healthcare system is a rare gem of success among deteriorating public systems. The education system has effectively already collapsed and functions at Third World levels. The healthcare system functions *better* and saves lives, at lower cost, compared with the overwhelming majority of Western countries. Only someone who has lived abroad for a period will understand how good healthcare is here, and how good a job the female and male doctors, nurses, and medical management are doing. I had my realization after two years in Britain, where there is supposedly a functioning public healthcare system. The emigration of doctors, despite fairly high salaries at the health funds, endangers everyone’s health. What is needed here is a swift and critical plan to halt this emigration, through strong incentives and clear rules regarding tuition fees (subsidized by the public), and bringing back those who left.
Translated from HebrewYesh Atid has an excellent list. Impressive parliamentarians, people who stood in the way of the government and the coalition during the darkest days. The people he chose did not defect; and when Lapid now had to remove people from the list, it was done quietly and with respect. As usual, the bloc, or parts of it, is trying to undermine its leaders—instead of uniting around simple goals. Lapid was the architect of the change government, the only thing that has managed to replace Bibi since 2009. Whoever does not know how to point to the good will not be able to replace the bad.
Translated from HebrewSo much hate and antisemitism in the comments below. Here’s my answer: more learning. My fall course at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) is now open for registration. It’s called “The Intersection of Foreign Policy and Domestic Politics in Israel.” If you’re lucky enough to be a Columbia student- graduate or undergraduate- the course is open to you. I’m a believer in an old-fashioned idea of learning: rigorous study of the facts before opinions, knowledge before judgment. https://t.co/TJKfjW5ubF
Pay attention to this: Netanyahu said again and again, including in the latest “interview” with the coalition channel, that the “protocols” would be exposed and it would become clear that he was not responsible for the October 7 failure. This morning I published: The investigations were never presented to Netanyahu. When the IDF asked several times to set a date, Netanyahu did not get back to them. There is no reason to believe he read them; they were not transferred from the IDF. And also about the lie that the IDF does not eliminate those responsible for October 7 in Gaza for legal reasons. My column in the Saturday supplement of Yedioth Ahronoth.
Translated from HebrewThree years after the massacre, 18 months after they were presented: Netanyahu did not read or receive an in-depth briefing on the military investigations into Hamas’s invasion at all. When they offered it to him, his office simply did not get back to them.
Translated from HebrewFirst report: Netanyahu and the October 7 investigations. A year and a half after they were completed, Prime Minister Netanyahu, despite offers from the IDF, refrained from receiving a structured briefing from the military on the October 7 investigations. He held no discussion with the chief of staff, current or former, regarding the investigations’ conclusions. “We have no reason to believe he read them,” a security official told me; “they did not reach him from the military at all.” The IDF offered Netanyahu, while the investigations were still being conducted and before they were presented, to hold a special event and present him with the conclusions of the operational failures. Netanyahu did not get back to them “and showed no interest,” according to a senior security official. After the investigations were presented to the public, the prime minister’s chief of staff, Braverman, sent a letter complaining that the prime minister had not received the investigations before the public. Once again, the former chief of staff’s office reached out and asked to coordinate a formal meeting on the matter at which everything would be presented. The Prime Minister’s Office never responded to the inquiry. A week later, Chief of Staff Zamir took office. The office of Chief of Staff Zamir also received no outreach regarding the investigations and did not deal with the matter at all with the Prime Minister’s Office. The assistant to the prime minister’s military secretary attended the presentation of the investigations to Defense Minister Katz, and it is possible that summaries of them or certain presentations reached Netanyahu through the former military secretary, Gofman. But the investigations themselves contain highly classified elements, sensitive details concerning the battles and the dead. This is an exceptional number of investigations, concerning all the sites of the massacre, the intelligence failure, the events of the night before Hamas’s invasion, the performance of Southern Command, the performance of the Operations Directorate, and more. This is astonishing: the investigations may not be perfect, but they are the only structured inquiry conducted in the State of Israel following the October 7 failure. If Netanyahu did not read them in detail and did not hold discussions about them with the military, what reason is there to believe that he understands the essence of the failure at all and can act to prevent the next failure? My full story is in the Shabbat supplement of Yedioth Ahronoth.
Translated from HebrewMinister Karhi is wrong, and Nir Popov, his security guard, was murdered at the entrance to Kibbutz Mefalsim. Not in Kfar Aza.
Translated from HebrewLet us agree on one thing: Everyone who held a senior position, in politics and in the security establishment, bears responsibility for the terrible failure in the history of the State of Israel. And the prime minister, as the leader of the state, bears absolute responsibility. No conspiracy will hide this truth.
Translated from HebrewNetanyahu and his family have injected “betrayal” into Israel’s bloodstream; this is dangerous, it could cost blood. We are in the midst of the dirtiest campaign in the state’s history, and there are still two months to go. About the conspiracy the prime minister is hiding, and it is the absolute truth—the shocking facts of the failure of October 7. No spin will hide them. My article on ynet
Translated from HebrewListen to his testimony. Shlomo Karhi, a resident of the Gaza border area and a minister, had a security guard with him, in an “armored Transit,” as he put it, crossing the roads of death with bodies on the road. This is what he did on October 7. Imagine what could have been done that day with an armored vehicle and security in the Gaza border area. It is easy to imagine: Others went south, even without weapons, rescued people, again and again; some of them were killed. They did not have an armored vehicle or a security guard. Now Karhi is spreading lies and baseless hatred against those who risked their lives. Karhi is the demonstration of a combination of cowardice and deep hatred—and this is what dictated our lives here for years.
Translated from HebrewThe conspiracy Netanyahu is spreading is bigger and more dangerous than the lie his wife spread. Netanyahu knows he is presenting a false version when he claims he would have scrambled the IDF; 1. He knows he never ordered a mobilization contrary to professional recommendations, solely because of excessive caution (I asked the Prime Minister’s Office about this months ago—they did not have a single example). 2. He knows he exercised publicized restraint, not to say notorious leniency, toward the terrorist organizations, foremost among them Hamas and Hezbollah. Including Hezbollah’s tent in the north. There are unequivocal illustrations of more serious situations in which Netanyahu refrained from responding or preparing. 3. Netanyahu knows that, insofar as there was concern about miscalculation, it came from him. The prime minister personally ordered the Shin Bet, and this is documented, to maintain calm in Gaza. Not to use kinetic means. He also consistently rejected proposals to resume targeted killings. These things are well documented. 4. The last thing the heads of the security establishment feared was that they would wake the prime minister and he would order overly aggressive action or preparation. The opposite. They knew very well that he demanded calm in Gaza because normalization was on the way. 5. Netanyahu knows that his military secretary’s office was updated about the events of the night of October 6. He has an office, and it knows how to wake him. 6. Netanyahu knows very well that the heads of the security establishment did not possess intelligence indicating an operation in the immediate term. There were not “many” telltale signs, and that is precisely the problem and the foundation of the entire intelligence failure. 7. The entire purpose of firing the heads of the security establishment was to reach this moment, in which Netanyahu would invent a lie about October 7 and his wife would add a conspiracy. When these officials respond, Netanyahu will say that he fired them and that they cannot be believed. 8. Finally, in his world Gallant is part of the same group. But they did not wake Gallant either. Why? What, did they think he, like Bibi, would order preparations? Does anyone actually believe this nonsense? After all, these conversations are documented. Can anyone imagine that Herzi Halevi said to Ronen Bar, “Let’s not wake Bibi; he’ll want to call up the reserves”? This is nonsense. 9. The simple answer is awful: They did not think an attack on the State of Israel was expected in the immediate term. And they did not think so because intelligence failed. The political echelon failed in the concept that the murderous tiger in Gaza could be tamed, that the real problem was actually the Palestinian Authority. The military echelon failed in intelligence and in preparing for the attack. 10. The ultimate responsibility for Israel’s security rests with the government and the prime minister. He refuses to take responsibility, refuses to pay a price, refuses to establish a state commission of inquiry. No lie and no spin will change that.
Translated from HebrewExclusive: Israel’s Military Chief Warns Netanyahu of a Dangerous Loss of Control in the West Bank Due to Jewish Extremism and terror. https://t.co/yKKL7cauFp https://t.co/ONvps1QPQJ
If, at the end of this campaign, it turns out that once again Ben Gvir and Netanyahu received vastly more free publicity from the Israeli media than the opposition, the media is truly failing in its duty. *P.S. If you continue to respond to every stupid and provocative video, the campaign managers will be very happy. If you turn them into news items, that is free publicity.
Translated from HebrewTonight these are heinous acts of violence. Next week he will condemn violent crimes. After that, horrifying atrocities, wild riots, disgraceful aggression and illegal violations of the law. No one is buying the merchandise of empty condemnations anymore. Netanyahu is personally responsible for what is happening in Judea and Samaria and for the moral and national bankruptcy there.
Translated from HebrewHeadlines from my column related to the worsening of Jewish terrorist activity and the possibility of an outbreak in the West Bank. 1. The Shin Bet has increasingly begun using its elite operational unit against Israeli suspects in the West Bank, at the request of the division responsible for such subversion (known as the “Jewish Department”). 2. The IDF continues to reduce its use of territorial defense soldiers (Hagmar) because of the serious incidents in which they were involved. At present, throughout the West Bank, there are fewer than 800 compared with many thousands after October 7. Many of the current videos are of civilians in standby security squads, unlike the territorial defense soldiers. 3. The security establishment is following with great concern the movement seeking a return to Areas A and B, and is continually approaching the heads of the settlements to stop it. Without success for the time being. 4. The chief of staff gave the prime minister a personal warning about the possibility of losing control in the West Bank because of Jewish terrorism. The IDF regularly transfers the names of suspects who violated a closed military zone to the police for questioning (everyone knows what the police does).
Translated from HebrewFirst report: IDF Chief of Staff Zamir personally warned Prime Minister Netanyahu about the possibility of losing control in Judea and Samaria and an escalation resulting from “Jewish nationalist crime.” This was on Thursday, last week. The Shin Bet began operating its operational unit against Jewish terrorism with increasing intensity. But this week, Netanyahu and Katz summoned the IDF chief and the Central Command chief to an urgent discussion - only to spin it at their expense, claiming that in a moment we need to prepare for a war against the Palestinian Authority in the territories. My column this week brings new and exclusive details about a very dangerous moment we are in - and the irresponsibility displayed by the government. Link in the next tweet.
Translated from HebrewPay attention to this. A whiff of Egypt and Qatar.
Translated from Hebrew
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