09/13/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/13/2026 10:45
The Haaretz article below, titled "Netanyahu Led Israel 'Blindly to Disaster,' Eisenkot Says After Haaretz Exposé on UAE Warning Before Oct. 7," speaks for itself.
A readable PDF version of this article is available by clicking the link here or reading the story below.
Netanyahu Led Israel 'Blindly to Disaster,' Eisenkot
Says After Haaretz Exposé on UAE Warning Before Oct. 7
(Haaretz, September 8, 2026)
By: Noa Shpigel and Jonathan Lis
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led Israel blindly to disaster and is unfit to serve, leading opposition candidate Gadi Eisenkot said Tuesday, as opposition leaders responded to a Haaretz expose revealing that Netanyahu received an explicit warning from UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed that Hamas was planning a major operation against Israel.
"Those around Netanyahu are echoing disgraceful conspiracy theories and allegations of betrayal, while clinging to the most absurd statement a leader can make: 'No one woke me up,'" Eisenkot said.
Earlier Tuesday, Haaretz reported that bin Zayed, known as MBZ, personally warned Netanyahu that, in his assessment, Hamas' leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, was preparing for war. The call took place in late September 2023, about a week and a half before the attack, and lasted 45 minutes.
"Who failed to wake whom?" Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, wrote on X, referring to a key finding in the report that Netanyahu did not inform Israel's security establishment of MBZ's personal warning.
Bin Zayed assessed that Sinwar was preparing for a major event, urging Netanyahu to prepare for the threat, an adviser to the president told Haaretz.
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the Together party, said Netanyahu bore direct responsibility for the October 7, 2023 attacks. In an interview with Kan public radio, Bennett said Netanyahu "was deep in the conception."
Asked if he knew of the existence of MBZ's call to the prime minister, Bennett told Kan he was aware Netanyahu had received warnings from bin Zayed as well as Egypt's intelligence chief, but chose to ignore them.
Netanyahu was doing everything in his power to avoid the establishment of a state commission of inquiry that would "uncover the truth," Bennett said in a statement, referring to the report as truthful.
"Netanyahu was so captive to his own conception that even clear warnings from regional leaders did not move him from his seat," he added.
Democrats Party Chairman Yair Golan and party lawmaker Gilad Kariv also responded to the report, describing the findings as "criminal."
"He knew. He was warned," Golan wrote in a post on X, referring to Netanyahu. "The stories of 'I wasn't woken up' are over."
Golan accused Netanyahu of neglecting his responsibilities as prime minister through "deliberate and criminal abandonment," calling him "unfit and illegitimate" and urging that he be imprisoned for "his crimes against the State of Israel."
In a statement, Kariv described the revelations as a "crime against Israeli society and against every citizen of the country."
Kariv also said Netanyahu bears responsibility for the October 7, 2023, attacks "not only by virtue of being prime minister, but because he received warnings and alerts from multiple parties and sources and did nothing."
Kariv called for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry that would "open all the Pandora's boxes that led to the terrible massacre."