The Blogs: Who needs a state commission of inquiry?

The following are a few quotes, (complete, partial and paraphrases of current and past Israeli political leaders calling for the establishment of State Commissions of Inquiry:

“The magnitude of the failure requires the magnitude of a state commission of inquiry. Nothing less.”
“The public deserves answers, and only a state commission of inquiry with all the necessary powers can provide them.“
“…state commission of inquiry to investigate the conduct of the government and all the security bodies in everything related to the capture of Gilad Shalit and the efforts to release him.”

-A call for a state commission of inquiry to investigate the “failures in the housing market” and the steep rise in real estate prices under the government, framing it as a fundamental failure of governance.

–Demands for inquiries into the “preparedness of the home front” and the state of the “health system,” arguing that only a state commission had the power to cut through bureaucracy and get to the root of systemic failures.

Do these quotes sound familiar? They should. They all came from no other than our longest serving Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, but all of them were said when he was in the opposition. Netanyahu’s arguments for state commissions consistently revolved around several key themes:

The “Magnitude of the Failure”: He argued that significant national crises (war, systemic economic failure, a soldier’s captivity) demanded the highest form of investigation—a state commission.
Full Powers: He emphasized that only a state commission had the necessary legal powers to subpoena witnesses, compel testimony, and get to the “full truth.”
Political Accountability: His calls were explicitly aimed at the top leadership, with the clear political goal of exposing failure and forcing resignations. His demand was not just for review, but for consequence.
Contrast with Government: He consistently framed the government’s reluctance to establish such commissions as an attempt to “cover up” the truth and avoid accountability.

At the beginning of the war, most of the government coalition members (as well as most of the opposition) stated that there would have to be a State Commission of Inquiry. October 7 was too major an event for it to be handled in any other way. No one talked about any other type of Commission or investigation until Netanyahu made seemingly innocuous statements about the need for everyone to provide answers about what happened, even him. Yet the words State Commission of Inquiry never crossed his lips, nor the taking of any responsibility despite the fact that he had been Prime Minister for the better part of the past 2 decades.

On October 8, when Netanyahu’s most important meeting of the day (the day after the worst attack in the history of Israel) was with his political advisors and PR people and dealt with how Netanyahu was going to stay in power. Immediately thereafter, he began his campaign of deflection and putting blame for everything that led up to and happened on October 7 on the Security apparatus (IDF, Shin Bet, Mossad, and all the Intelligence organizations) and not having any personal responsibility for anything that went wrong. It didn’t matter to him that he has been the head of the government for so long and was the sole or primary final decision maker about all issues of security for the country throughout his varied governments and especially in this government in which he is the autocratic leader. It was time for him to rewrite the narrative. His cronies all followed suit and that was the end of the support by anyone in the coalition for a real State Commission of Inquiry. As happens in all autocratic governments, the cronies toe the line of the supreme leader which is precisely what happened here.

Netanyahu has been so afraid of a State Commission of Inquiry for October 7 because he knows that this one will be very different than the past two that found him personally responsible and to blame for major disasters that occurred as well as harming Israel’s national security.

The last 2 commissions: The Submarine and naval vessel acquisition and the Mount Meron Disaster, both found Netanyahu and others around him directly responsible for major failures.

“The ‘Submarine affair’ inquiry found Netanyahu’s decisions compromised national security. Netanyahu, the commission charged, took decisions that endangered national security and harmed Israel’s foreign relations.” (link) It’s hard to find something more damning to say about a prime minister.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel Police commanders, and local officials were personally responsible for the 2021 Mount Meron crowd crush that claimed the lives of 45 people, according to the Mount Meron Disaster Commission’s final report, submitted to the government in March 2024.

The report detailed how negligence, lack of preparation, absent governance, no enforcement of construction law, and conflict over responsibilities, authority, and land ownership by politicians, civil servants, and law enforcement led to dangerous overcrowding and hazardous and illegal facility conditions, year after year, during the pilgrimage to the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai Tomb for Lag Ba’omer.”(link)

The failures of these 2 State Commissions were that they lacked teeth. From the start, the Commission to investigate October 7 must be granted the teeth to make a difference. They must be given the power to indict or instruct the State Prosecutor to indict people for crimes committed. They must be given the power to determine that people must leave their appointed positions as well as elected officials to be removed from office, and along with this power to determine if those same individuals can ever hold public office again.

With all of this in mind, we need to understand the importance of having a State Commission of Inquiry. What are the core reasons that Israel needs a formal State Commission of Inquiry into October 7:

It is the only mechanism with full legal power to uncover the truth

A State Commission of Inquiry (ועדת חקירה ממלכתית) is the highest-level investigative body in Israel.
It can:

Subpoena any official, including from IDF, Shin Bet, Mossad, and government ministries.
Demand classified documents.
Take testimony under oath.
Operate independently of the sitting government.
Establish an authoritative, evidence-based record of what happened
Clarify timelines, warnings, decisions, failures, and silences
Replace rumors, half-leaks, and social-media narratives with facts

No other type of committee has this authority.

To understand the intelligence and operational failures that allowed the attack

Questions the country still does not have full answers to include:

What warnings existed before the attack?
Why were they disregarded or minimized?
Why were Gaza border communities left so vulnerable?
Why did emergency response systems collapse for hours and even days in some cases?
Why did the military redeployments in the south leave major gaps?

Only an independent commission can piece together the chain of failures across multiple agencies.

To examine the political decision-making leading up to the attack

This includes:

Years of policies toward Hamas, including allowing and encouraging Qatari money to fund Gaza knowing that much of that money was going directly to Hamas
Government oversight (or lack of oversight) of the security services.
The internal political climate, including judicial-overhaul turmoil.
Budget, staffing, and readiness decisions.

Since the government itself is part of what must be examined, it cannot investigate itself credibly.

To give answers and accountability to the families of the murdered, the hostages, and the survivors. Thousands of families still do not know:

Why help took so long.
Why their communities were unprotected.
Who bears responsibility for the collapses in security, intelligence, and response.
Justice delayed without process feels like erasure

A state commission is the only body widely viewed as legitimate enough to give them transparent answers.

Giving dignity to victims and survivors

Only a commission:

Can force the state to listen publicly to survivors, families, first responders
Can fully document their experiences as part of the national record
Can affirm that what happened to them matters not only morally, but civically

This is not symbolic — dignity is a real psychological need after trauma.

To restore public trust

Public trust in leadership and institutions—including Knesset, the security establishment, and the government—was deeply damaged. Only a transparent, independent, legally empowered investigation can:

Rebuild institutional credibility.
Demonstrate that no one is above scrutiny, from the Prime Minister down to the guard at the front gate (shin gimel).
Show that lessons are being learned and acted upon, not buried.
Take responsibility out of politics while removing the burden of judgement from street protests, talk shows and social media

To create authoritative lessons so the failures never recur

A commission produces:

A final, binding, public report.
Institutional reforms.
Mandatory corrective actions across security and civilian systems, not recommendations but mandatory changes.

Previous national traumas (e.g., the Agranat Commission after the Yom Kippur War) led to major structural changes. Unfortunately, many of the changes from the Agranat Commission became lost along the way opening us up to another surprise attack that could have been prevented.

Because the magnitude of October 7 demands it. October 7 was:

The deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust and the worst attack in the history of the State of Israel
A collapse of border defense, intelligence, communication, and crisis response.
An event that reshaped Israel’s security doctrine and regional standing.

Events of this scale require the highest level of national inquiry.

Because partial or internal investigations cannot be trusted. Internal IDF or Shin Bet investigations—while important—cannot:

Investigate the political echelon.
Examine cross-agency failures.
Publish full public findings.
Operate free of institutional interests.

Only a state commission is structurally independent.

Because Israel must show the world it takes accountability seriously

A credible investigation:

Strengthens Israel’s moral and diplomatic position.
Counters international accusations of negligence or wrongdoing.
Demonstrates commitment to rule of law, transparency, and democratic oversight.

To allow the country to heal

Truth is necessary for:

National mourning.
Rebuilding trust between citizens and the state.
Preparing the social and psychological groundwork for recovery.
Allowing grief without gaslighting
“It was unforeseeable”
“There was no warning”
“Now isn’t the time…”
A commission acknowledges that something went terribly wrong and your anger, grief and fears are rational. This validation is essential for collective mourning. Without a full accounting, the trauma remains open.

Creating a moral reset moment
Israel has had major events that brought about moral reset moments. Here are 3 such events: Yom Kippur, Sabra and Shatila, Rabin’s assassination

Each was a point where the country was forced to ask: What kind of country are we ? And what kind of country do we want to be?

October 7 is unfortunately the mother of such moments. A commission can anchor a moral reckoning, not just an operational one.

And here is the hard truth about the effectiveness of a State Commission of Inquiry. It can only heal if:

It is independent
Its mandate is broad
Its findings are not buried
Its conclusions lead to real consequences

Otherwise, it becomes another wound.

And finally, I end with a very appropriate idiom. “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander” – what is appropriate in one case is also appropriate in the other case in question. All we need to do is replay every single one of Netanyahu’s demands for a State Commission of Inquiry for considerably less critical events of the past until it is heard and internalized by every single one of our political representatives. We are all familiar with the idea of telling a lie enough times and repeating it, that people will eventually come to believe it. We don’t have any need for lies. We only need to have everyone listen to Netanyahu’s past demands for a State Commission enough times for them to understand, accept and demand that this is the only commission that can and must be created for October 7.