Nadav Eyal
@Nadav_Eyal · Middle East
Nadav Eyal is followed by Storyz World for journalism and current affairs coverage across the Middle East chapter.
One of the prime minister’s men, and not the wisest among them, thought that getting this out would help him. This is a catastrophe for him. If Netanyahu indeed understands and fears that the threats are real, and knows how to place them on 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 already feared it, and warnings had been received from various sources—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. Some who left, some who are still here. The situation is *much more* serious than what is being published. This is the main comment I am receiving: that the data do not capture the scale of the expected departure. Netanyahu’s mouthpieces will deny and deny, and in the end arrange private treatment for themselves abroad, by flying there, as in dictatorships.
Translated from HebrewDoctors leaving indicates an existential danger: the collapse of Israel as a first-world country because strong, working and professional populations are leaving. The process has already begun. This is connected to the judicial overhaul, Israel’s attractiveness in the world, and the way the far-right Haredi government paved the way for the destruction of the liberal state that is Israel. My article on Ynet
Translated from HebrewThat is, against unity. Winter is more Netanyahu than the Haredim. This is Netanyahu through and through, Winter’s party is Smotrich from 3 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—it’s all the same. The Bibi bloc, definitely, locked in. Bibi will strike a deal with them before the election. Anyone who votes for them surely knows that they are voting for another four years of Benjamin Netanyahu. There will be no change at all: a full-on ultra-Orthodox–far-right government. It is the voters’ right, but there is a vague impression around some of them. There is no fog at all. Just listen to them.
Translated from HebrewIsrael's health system is a rare diamond of success amid deteriorating public systems. The education system has effectively already collapsed and operates at Third World levels. The health system performs *better* and saves lives, at lower cost, compared with the overwhelming majority of Western countries. Only someone who has lived abroad for a while will understand how good the healthcare here is, and how well the female and male doctors, nurses, and medical management do their jobs. I had my realization after two years in Britain, where there is supposedly a functioning public health system. The emigration of doctors, despite fairly high salaries in the health funds, endangers everyone's health. What is needed here is a rapid 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, the kind who stood in the government's and coalition's way 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 dignity. 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 HebrewPay 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 respond. There is no reason to believe he read them; they were not transferred by the IDF. And also—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 even read or receive an in-depth briefing on the military investigations into Hamas's invasion. When they offered them to him, his office simply did not respond.
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, has refrained from receiving a structured briefing from the army on the October 7 investigations. He has held no discussion of the investigations’ conclusions with the chief of staff, current or former. “We have no reason to believe he read them,” a security official told me, “they never made it from the army to him 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 findings on 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, Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Braverman sent a letter complaining that the prime minister had not received the investigations before the public. Again, the office of the former chief of staff reached out and asked to coordinate a formal meeting at which everything would be presented. The Prime Minister’s Office never responded to the request. A week later, Zamir took office as chief of staff. The office of Chief of Staff Zamir also received no inquiry regarding the investigations and did not deal with the matter at all with the Prime Minister’s Office. The prime minister’s assistant military secretary attended the presentation of the investigations to Defense Minister Katz, and it is possible that summaries or certain presentations reached Netanyahu through former military secretary Gofman. But the investigations themselves contain highly classified components, sensitive details concerning the battles and the dead. This is an extraordinary number of investigations, concerning every site 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. It is astonishing: the investigations may not be perfect, but they are the only systematic 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 army—what reason is there to believe that he understands the nature of the failure at all and can act to prevent the next failure? My full story is in the weekend supplement of Yedioth Ahronoth.
Translated from Hebrew"Here in the Sealed Carriage" is a poem by Dan Pagis, a Holocaust survivor, dealing with the deportation of Jews to the death camps. The desecration Urich is committing here is entirely fitting for him and for this government. Truly symbolic; using a poem that contains depth, memory, and thought for some banal and stupid nobody, as part of a degraded tribal brawl. This is Bibism and what it has done to Israel.
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 HebrewOne consensus is enough: Everyone who held a senior position, in politics and the security establishment, bears responsibility for the terrible failure in the history of the State of Israel. And the prime minister, as the country’s leader, bears absolute responsibility. No conspiracy will conceal this truth.
Translated from HebrewNetanyahu and his family have introduced "betrayal" into Israel’s bloodstream; it is dangerous, it could cost blood. We are in the midst of the dirtiest campaign in the history of the state, and there are still two months to go. On 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 in ynet:
Translated from HebrewListen to his testimony. The resident of the Gaza border area and minister Shlomo Karhi was with a security guard, crossing the killing roads with bodies on the road in an “armored Transit,” as he put it. This is what he did on October 7. Imagine what could have been done that day with an armored vehicle and security protection 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 and a security guard. Now Karhi is spreading lies and gratuitous hatred against those who risked their lives. Karhi is the embodiment of a combination of cowardice and deep hatred—and this has 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 that he would have scrambled the IDF; 1. He knows that he never ordered a scramble contrary to professional recommendations, merely 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 that he exercised famously restrained, not to say notoriously accommodating, conduct toward the terrorist organizations, led by Hamas and Hezbollah. Including Hezbollah’s tent in the north. There are unequivocal examples 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 PM and he would order immediate aggressive activity or preparations. The opposite. They knew very well that he demanded calm in Gaza because normalization was on the way. 5. Netanyahu knows that his military secretariat 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 pointing to an operation in the immediate time frame. There were not “many” warning 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, when Netanyahu would invent a lie about October 7 and his wife would add a conspiracy. When these people respond, Netanyahu will say that he fired them and that they cannot be believed. 8. Finally, in his world Gallant is part of that same group. But they did not wake Gallant either. Why? What, did they think he was like Bibi and would order preparations? Does anyone actually believe this nonsense? These conversations are documented. Does anyone imagine that Herzi Halevi said to Ronen Bar, “Let’s not wake Bibi; he’ll want to scramble the reserves”? That is nonsense. 9. The simple answer is horrifying: They did not think an attack on the State of Israel was imminent. And they did not think that because intelligence failed. The political echelon failed in the conception that it was possible to tame the murderous tiger in Gaza, and that the real problem was the Palestinian Authority. The military echelon failed in intelligence and in preparing for the attack. 10. The ultimate responsibility for Israel’s security lies with the government and the prime minister. He refuses to accept responsibility, refuses to pay a price, and 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, then it is truly failing in its role. *P.S. If you continue responding to every stupid and provocative video, the campaign managers will be absolutely delighted. If you turn them into news items—that’s free publicity.
Translated from HebrewTonight these are criminal acts of violence. Next week he will condemn violent crimes. After that, horrifying atrocities, wild riots, despicable aggression and unlawful 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 state 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 begun using its operational elite unit more and more against Israeli suspects in the West Bank, at the request of the division responsible for this kind of subversion (known as the “Jewish Department”). 2. The IDF continues to reduce its use of Home Guard troops (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 local emergency squads, unlike the HAGMAR. 3. The defense establishment is following with great concern the movement calling for a return to Areas A and B, and is making unceasing appeals to settlement leaders to stop it. Without success for now. 4. The IDF chief of staff delivered a personal warning to the prime minister about the possibility of losing control in the West Bank due to Jewish terrorism. The IDF regularly transfers to the police the names of suspects who violated a closed military zone so that they can be investigated (everyone knows what the police do).
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.” It 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 chief of staff and the Central Command chief to an urgent discussion - only to make a spin at their expense, that in a moment we need to prepare for 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 the government is showing. Link in the next tweet.
Translated from HebrewSenior military official: The claim that the IDF has issued a warning of a "barrel reversal"—that the Palestinian Authority will start a war against the IDF—is "nonsense." He adds that the IDF of course also has an operational plan for that. Another security official: "We are in the midst of a dangerous campaign coming from political elements regarding the creation of escalation in the West Bank."
Translated from Hebrew
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