Blocking the Truth About October 7- We Cannot Afford His Evasion

Israelis have carried the weight of October 7 with extraordinary courage. Families shattered by loss are rebuilding. Survivors and evacuees are piecing their lives back together. Soldiers return to the battlefield time and again with unwavering resolve.

Yet the government has shown none of this bravery. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to block the one step essential to understanding the country’s greatest security failure: the establishment of a fully independent state commission of inquiry.

Internal reviews are not accountability

Israel does not need another cycle of military debriefs or cabinet-appointed committees. These mechanisms — useful for tactical lessons — cannot address the strategic, political, and intelligence failures that made October 7 possible. Only a state commission, with subpoena power and full independence from political authority, can investigate the entire chain of responsibility.

Netanyahu’s refusal to authorize such a commission is not caution. It is avoidance.

Leaders cannot credibly investigate themselves

The failures of October 7 crossed institutional boundaries. Intelligence warnings were missed or minimized. Assumptions went unchallenged. Vulnerabilities long known were left unaddressed. These lapses did not remain at the professional level; they traveled upward to the political leadership responsible for oversight.

A self-selected panel cannot credibly examine the prime minister’s own decisions — from budget priorities and intelligence coordination to the political constraints placed on the defense establishment. Netanyahu understands this. That is why he prefers inquiries that begin with their conclusions already limited.

Accountability strengthens national security

Some of the prime minister’s allies argue that a serious investigation should wait until “after the war” to preserve morale. But Israel’s greatest source of strength has always been public trust — the belief that leaders are accountable and that the government learns from its failures.

Israel has established state commissions even during periods of instability: the Agranat Commission after the Yom Kippur War, the Winograd Commission during the Second Lebanon War. Both strengthened Israeli democracy and the IDF.

Avoiding accountability does the opposite. Soldiers risk their lives with the expectation that the state they defend will confront its mistakes honestly. A government afraid of scrutiny undermines that bond.

Truth cannot wait

To understand how October 7 happened — how intelligence, political leadership, and core national assumptions failed simultaneously — every level of decision-making must be examined, including the prime minister’s. An inquiry that avoids political responsibility is not an investigation. It is an attempt to preserve power – and political survival cannot come ahead of national security.

Israel deserves leadership greater than its citizens’ courage

The families of the murdered and kidnapped deserve answers. The soldiers returning to Gaza and the northern front deserve leaders who match their integrity. Millions of Israelis deserve a clear accounting that only a truly independent commission can deliver.

Every day without such a commission deepens the suspicion that what Netanyahu fears most is not political damage, but the truth.

Israel cannot afford that fear. After October 7, anything less than full accountability is not leadership — it is a deceptive abandonment of responsibility.