Netanyahu is looking weak

If the Israeli public had expected Benjamin Netanyahu to take responsibility for failing to foresee Hamas’s attack on 7 October, for years of neglecting the safety and security of the towns near the border with Gaza and for allowing Hamas to build a substantial armed force – they would’ve been disappointed by his speech on Wednesday night.

Netanyahu, in a typical manner, did not accept responsibility. Unlike the IDF’s Chief of the General Staff, Herzi Halvi, and the head of Israel’s general security service Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, both of whom have publicly admitted to failures for predict the attack, Netanyahu declared that an investigation into the events will take place after the war is over. Everyone will be answerable, ‘including myself’, he added. Unsurprisingly, reports in the media suggest that Netanyahu is already trying to swerve any responsibility away from himself, and towards the IDF. However, this failure expands beyond the intelligence services and army’s ability to foresee Hamas’s attack.