The obsessive preoccupation of an entire state on the night before October 7, instead of in the years, months and days leading up to it, serves the interests of one person: Benjamin Netanyahu.
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The prime minister of Israel goes to great lengths to focus on the events of that night, as he was not involved in them, rather than addressing the failed diplomatic strategy he led for years. The state already knows the schedule of the IDF chief of staff, the head of the Shin Bet, the Southern Command chief, and the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate on the night between October 6 and 7.
Yet it fails to ask the simplest question: Who wanted to strengthen Hamas? Why did the prime minister nurture the organization's rule in Gaza to such an extent? How is it that $360 million a year was transferred to Hamas, in cash, with the knowledge of the man who claims he knew nothing? And, perhaps most importantly, why when Shin Bet chiefs Yoram Cohen, Nadav Argaman and Ronen Bar recommended to Netanyahu to embark on a "targeted assassination" operation, namely the elimination of Yahya Sinwar and other senior Hamas figures, did Netanyahu not heed their advice?
It's no surprise that the leak of the story of the Israeli SIM cards used by Hamas happened on the far-right Channel 14. It's also not surprising that it involves a serious breach of censorship. What's even less surprising is that the leak itself is distorted, far from reality, and the so-called "truth-seeker" presenter doesn't bother for a moment to stop, warn or question, but rather the opposite.
Here's the opportunity for Channel 14 viewers to once again attack security officials and the intelligence community, and here's the opportunity for Netanyahu loyalists to come to his defense – while in the process, they trample on the people who have been leading the difficult fight against Hamas and Hezbollah for four and a half months.
For a moment, Channel 14 viewers might forget that Netanyahu is the one who released Sinwar from prison, as well as many others from Hamas' current leadership, as part of a prisoner swap deal that set an unimaginable precedent: one soldier in exchange for 1,027 prisoners, many of them with blood on their hands.
The list of Netanyahu's failures regarding Hamas is long and is expected to grow even longer as a real examination of what preceded October 7 takes place. How many times did the man at the helm of the system receive warnings about Hamas' intentions, how many times exactly did he receive recommendations to target Hamas leaders, how many times were warnings given not to continue funding Hamas, and yet the man ignored it all and, in the name of his political agenda, weakened the Palestinian Authority and strengthened Hamas?
He allowed its transformation from a marginal terror organization to an empire of terror that, even after months of war in Gaza, we still haven't managed to defeat. Every rocket fired now from Gaza, every RPG, and every tunnel dug, is not the result of an intelligence failure that occurred (and did occur) on the night between October 6 and 7, but rather the result of a deliberate, foolish and failed policy that has been going on for years, intended to strengthen Hamas and weaken the Palestinian Authority.
The IDF and the Shin Bet are systems that know how to investigate and examine their failures. Already now, the heads of these systems have taken responsibility for the intelligence and operational failure. However, the political echelon, especially the prime minister, not only fails to examine their failures but also tries to blame others, evade responsibility like fire, and repeatedly claim that the man who has served as prime minister for so many years - who led the system - knew nothing about the story of the SIM cards.
Unfortunately, Netanyahu's policy, which he dictated, led, navigated and conducted, ultimately succeeded. On October 7 at 6:30 a.m., we received the proof of Netanyahu's "success": Israel encountered a significantly empowered Hamas while the Palestinian Authority failed.