Peloni: Why is it that politics makes men so stupid? The ranks of the Bibists and the Never Netanyahu crowd are each responsible for denying the truth about the longest serving premiere in Israel’s history, and the most accomplished public servant in modern democracies. This is not to hail Netanyahu as some form of saint, which he is not, but none the less these are simple facts. It is also true that Netanyahu has been conflicted by a need to reform the judicial norms which have seriously damaged Israel, both internally and externally, and yet this issue, which was a major theme in the last election, has yet to be slightly achieved. This too is a fact. These facts do not conflict with one another, but the two camps which divide the nation around the personality of its highest civil servant after service of too many years to count, are incapable of reconciling these and MANY other attributes of Netanyahu’s long reign as PM. The reason is that politics make men stupid. It makes them ignore simple realities so that political choices might seem more obvious than perhaps they are. The cost is that the divisions between these two camps have exposed the nation to ridicule, divisions, external manipulations and foreign attacks, both figuratively and literally, in an age which the safety and security of every Israeli in the country is at threat. Among the facts ignored in supporting the dichotomous ideologies about Netanyahu is that we still do not know the full scope of what happened on October 7, why the Gaza border was not only completely exposed to attack but was also ignored for most of the first day while individual warriors and trapped civilians were denied any support from what we have seen to be the greatest integrated military and intelligence institutions in the world. Until such time as the insanity which prefers to weaponize selective facts as the full truth to accomplish a political outcome is set aside, we will never be capable of either learning or grasping the truth about that fatal, unforgiveable failure which made the October 7 slaughter so successful… and therefore, it is easily not inconceivable that it could all happen again. Let the truth be told though all the sacred cows fall, and political agendas be damned!
Avi Abelow | Meta
Hamas gunmen capturing civilian hostages from Kibbutz Beéri on October 7 2023. Photo by Bodycam footage: No human authorship – WSJ, Public Domain, Wikipedia
Do you know that while the mainstream media tells us to blame the government for the lack of an October 7 investigation, two active investigations were actually taking place, only to be deliberately stopped by elements within the military and the justice system?
How is the mainstream media hiding this information from the public? Important findings and operative conclusions are being buried. Yet almost nobody knows this!
Nearly three years after the October 7 invasion and massacre, one question should unite every Israeli, regardless of politics: Why are there still no comprehensive, publicly available findings identifying responsibility and implementing real accountability for the greatest security failure in Israel’s history?
As someone who served in the IDF in Gaza, Lebanon, and Judea and Samaria, I know that defending a border begins with the basics: intelligence must be assessed, warnings must be acted upon, forces must be positioned, and commanders must prepare for the worst.
On October 7, all those fundamentals failed catastrophically.
Not only was the army not positioned on the Gaza border that morning according to the most basic military requirements, but the army was nowhere to be found for many hours after the attack began. There was no coordinated military response capable of stopping the invasion, and no airforce to stop the invasion.
Numerous communities fought largely on their own while local security teams, police officers, civilians, and individual soldiers bore the initial burden of defending Israeli lives for many hours. They are the heroes who prevented a much greater massacre, as the high command of the army failed to respond.
One of the most troubling questions that still demands a full public accounting is why the Israeli Air Force, trained to scramble aircraft within minutes to respond to threats, failed to provide effective air support over the Gaza border during the critical early hours of the invasion. One October 7 recording captures an IDF soldier on the ground desperately pleading for air support, only to hear the response: “I’m trying to convince the Air Force commander to send support.” That recording alone highlights the shocking failure at the highest levels of command. Why did they need convincing? The Israeli people deserve a clear, transparent explanation of what happened, what decisions were made, and why.
Equally disturbing are the apparent failures in the most basic principles of border defense.
A hostile border, especially one facing an enemy that had openly declared its intention to destroy Israel, with female IDF spotters issuing repeated warnings about Hamas forces training daily along the border fence, should have been defended by alert, prepared forces ready for an assault at first light. That is basic border protection 101, and it was not done.
Instead, another early IDF morning Oct 7 recording captures an officer ordering forces to literally retreat from the border fence all morning until 9 a.m. Who gave that order and why? Such a command makes absolutely no sense, yet it was issued on the very morning when Hamas terrorists breached the fence in a surprise invasion that should never have happened, if only the repeated warnings from IDF spotters had been heeded.
The Israeli people deserve straight answers.
Yet Hamas terrorists were able to breach dozens of locations along the Gaza border simultaneously, overrun military positions, and penetrate deep into Israeli communities.
Whether these failures resulted from flawed intelligence assessments, operational decisions, command failures, or a combination of all three is precisely what comprehensive investigations should establish.
Israel’s citizens, and especially the families who lost loved ones, deserve more than partial answers. They deserve a complete explanation of how the most heavily defended border in the country collapsed on October 7, and what changes in the military and intelligence have already been implemented to ensure such a catastrophe can never happen again.
That failure deserves the most searching examination possible.
Of course, the investigation cannot stop with military tactics. Israel must also examine the broader political, strategic, legal, and judicial decisions that shaped policy before October 7. Decisions regarding deterrence, rules of engagement, border security, intelligence priorities, and legal constraints on military operations all deserve scrutiny.
Every relevant institution should be examined.
Yet despite the magnitude of the disaster, accountability appears to have moved at a frustratingly slow pace.
Junior soldiers are routinely disciplined for losing equipment, failing to safeguard military property, or violating procedures.
Commanders are investigated for operational mistakes. Individual soldiers can face prosecution for split-second battlefield decisions.
But after the greatest intelligence and operational collapse in Israel’s history, many Israelis still struggle to understand why no comparable public accountability has reached the highest levels of IDF/intelligence command.
Adding to the deep frustration is the fate of two significant investigative efforts, which the mainstream media has blatantly ignored, refusing to ask the obvious question of why they were suddenly stopped, with their critical findings forbidden from being released to the public.
The first was led by Brigadier General (Res.) Oren Solomon, a veteran IDF officer, active in the high command of the Gaza Division, who fought heroically on the morning of October 7 at the Nova music festival after leaving his home near Gaza and joining the battle with a small group of responders, including his son.
According to published accounts, Solomon fought face to face with Hamas terrorists for hours while civilians and communities awaited larger military forces.
Following the attack, Solomon was appointed to lead the Gaza Division’s internal operational investigation. His investigation identified serious command failures at the highest levels, yet he was stripped of his command, forbidden from presenting his findings, and ultimately removed by former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi after reaching uncomfortable conclusions about the failures of senior security leadership.
The IDF claimed that his removal was due to a separate “information security investigation”, which was later closed without any proof or charges. Oren maintains that this vindicates him and proves that he was removed precisely to bury his uncomfortable findings and cover up the serious failures of the senior command on October 7.
Regardless of where one stands in that dispute, the Israeli public deserves to know Solomon’s investigative findings.
The second major effort was the investigation conducted by State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman. Beginning in January 2024, the Comptroller launched wide-ranging audits into the failures surrounding October 7, examining numerous government bodies, including the Prime Minister’s Office, the Defense Ministry, the IDF, and the Shin Bet.
Unfortunately, the Chief Military Advocate General (MAG), Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi, petitioned the Supreme Court to halt the State Comptroller’s investigation. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the Comptroller must stop his probe — even though it had already included questioning the Prime Minister and senior security officials.
Even though the law clearly requires everyone summoned by the State Comptroller to appear, various senior intelligence officers — including the most senior official from the Gaza Division, known by the code name “Oscar” — brazenly refused to cooperate and appear for questioning.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, who had already spent days being thoroughly questioned by the State Comptroller and handed over massive amounts of secret government and cabinet protocols to provide the full facts about decisions made over the years, ended up presenting those very protocols to the current cabinet. They were reportedly shocked by the information that the Supreme Court has forbidden from being published.
This is not transparency. This is a cover-up at the highest levels. The Israeli people deserve the full truth.
The Chief Military Advocate General (MAG) who petitioned the Supreme Court to shut down the state comptrollers investigation and forbid publishing his findings is the same Chief Military Advocate General (MAG) who admitted responsibility for leaking a proven fabricated video to the media that led to a global blood libel against IDF soldiers for allegedly raping Hamas terrorists in jail.
Why did the Chief Military Advocate General (MAG) petition to stop the state comptroller’s investigation? Why did the Supreme Court stop it?
The practical consequence is impossible to ignore: nearly three years later, not a single comprehensive, independent investigation has been allowed to be conducted and published. While the IDF has released findings from some internal probes, they have focused almost exclusively on individual battles and tactical incidents. What the people of Israel truly want and deserve to understand is how the border was so catastrophically breached on the morning of October 7 — not just how soldiers responded in a kibbutz once the enemy was already inside. The answers to those critical questions remain buried, suppressed by elements within the army and the justice system that seem determined to avoid accountability at the highest levels.
That is why I believe the national conversation should evolve.
Instead of the media narrative constantly blaming the government for failing to establish a national investigation, the national discourse must include asking:
Why has the army and justice system stopped two major investigative efforts? What lessons have already been learned from those investigations whose findings have been forbidden to be published? And what additional independent inquiry is still needed?
Israel owes the families of those murdered, the hostages and their families, the wounded, the soldiers who fought, and every Israeli citizen clear answers.
Accountability is not revenge.
It is how democracies restore trust.
It is how militaries learn.
And it is how nations ensure that a catastrophe like October 7 never happens again.
Unfortunately, because the fundamental questions surrounding October 7 remain unanswered, all kinds of dangerous conspiracy theories have filled the vacuum, including wild claims of a government stand-down order.
The truth is clear: Prime Minister Netanyahu did not order any stand-down. In fact, the former Chief of Intelligence Ronen Bar himself admitted in the Supreme Court that he received serious warnings of a Hamas invasion as early as 1:30 a.m., yet waited until 6:30 a.m. to even call the Prime Minister.
So what exactly are the senior security officials, intelligence officers, and justice officials so desperate to hide from the public?
As someone who has followed every development since even before the outbreak of this war, from the divisive political protests, to the critical battlefield decisions, to the shocking legal proceedings launched by the Military Advocate General against our own IDF soldiers (like the brave members of Force 100 who were despicably tarnished for supposedly “raping” Hamas terrorists), while releasing senior Hamas officials (such as the director of Shifa Hospital, who had full knowledge of Hamas activities there) from jail, the real story is becoming impossible to ignore.
Senior figures in the military, intelligence, and justice systems disregarded government decisions and the authority of the elected government, as my friend Erez Tadmor meticulously details in his new powerful book, The Rebellion of the Generals. They bear significant responsibility for the catastrophic failures of October 7, which is precisely why they are fighting tooth and nail to prevent the publication of any comprehensive conclusions that would expose those at the very top.
Instead, the political left and mainstream media push for an investigation led by a Supreme Court judge, an institution that itself desperately needs to be investigated for its long record of decisions that have tied the hands of our IDF soldiers and directly enabled the catastrophic failures of October 7, knowing full well that half the country would never trust the results of such an investigation.
The people of Israel deserve the full truth, not more cover-ups. The time for real accountability is long overdue.
Am Yisrael Chai!!!
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