Culture minister says October 7 probe wouldn’t point to Netanyahu as ‘main culprit’ |
Culture Minister Miki Zohar on Thursday declared that anybody who believes that an investigation into the October 7, 2023, massacre would point to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the sole or main person responsible for the failures is “living in a dream world.”
Zohar’s comments come a day after the coalition advanced a bill to create a controversial, politically appointed commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack. The scope of that inquiry is being set by a committee headed by Netanyahu, and its critics say it is an effort by the premier and his government to deflect blame for a massacre that happened on their watch.
But Zohar rejected that notion in an interview with the Walla news site. He argued that politicians across multiple governments share responsibility for the circumstances surrounding the attack.
“Anyone who thinks a commission would conclude that the main, the only culprit is Netanyahu is living in a dream world,” he said. “This is a complex methodological event that goes back decades. All Israeli citizens were complacent; we were all in a euphoria.”
He added that the proposed investigative panel would also look into the actions of “previous governments” and opposition politicians, such as “Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid, Benny Gantz, Avigdor Liberman — as well as security bodies, including the Shin Bet.”
Bennett and Lapid formed and led the........