Shin Bet Warned Netanyahu of 10/7 Attack Hours Before It Began

Attack attack attack
Admit nothing, deny everything
Always claim victory

—Roy Cohn’s 3 rules

Bibi Netanyahu never met Roy Cohn, the muscle behind Sen. Joe McCarthy.  Nevertheless, he lives by Cohn’s three golden rules.

The ever widening gyre of scandal envelops Bibi Netanyahu. The latest episode began in the early morning hours of 10/7, when the Shin Bet forwarded a warning about unusual Hamas activity, interpreted as preparations for a potential attack.  The information was passed on by the Shin Bet to the national security council, which reports to the prime minister. This should have aroused an alert and defensive measures.  It did not and was ignored.

חשיפה: ההתרעה שנשלחה לדרג המדיני ולמשטרה.
7 באוקטובר, 2:58 לפנות בוקר, שעות לפני פלישת חמאס, שב”כ שלח התרעה על הסימים שנדלקו עם אמירה שייתכן ומדובר בפעילות התקפית כלשהי של חמאס. ההתרעה נשלחה למערכת המבצעית של המל”ל שכפוף לדרג המדיני ולראש הממשלה, וגם למשטרה. דבר לא נעשה עם המידע

— עמרי מניב Omri Maniv (@omrimaniv) October 20, 2024

Tweet translation:

The warning sent to the political echelon [the PM] and police: 10/7 at 2:58AM, hours before the Hamas invasion, the Shin Bet sent a warning about [Hamas] SIM cards which were switched [from Gazan to Israeli, to permit communication inside Israel] indicating preparations for a potential Hamas attack.  The warning was sent to the operations center of the national security headquarters, which reports to the political echelon and prime minister, and to the police. Nothing was done with the information.

In this Israel HaYom report of last February, Netanyahu conveniently absconds from responsibility:

…On the night between October 6 and 7, the Israeli intelligence apparatus picked up data showing that potentially hundreds of cellular devices using Israeli SIM cards were activated within the Gaza Strip, apparently after terrorists took out their Gaza SIM cards so that they could operate their devices in Israeli territory after their invasion.

…Hours before the attack, intelligence information was received at the Shin Bet headquarters regarding an important event in the Gaza Strip. The agency chief Ronen Bar arrived at the Tel Aviv headquarters, received updated information about a suspicious occurrence in the Gaza Strip area, and held security consultations with professional bodies around him. After the consultations, a dedicated team dubbed “Tequila” was sent to the Gaza area as an advance force to figure out the unusual information…

Days after the start of the fighting, the Prime Minister’s Office stressed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not received an early warning regarding the Hamas surprise attack and only at 6:29 with the outbreak of fighting and many alarms across the country received an initial update on what was happening.

How convenient. In light of the events described here, Netanyahu lied. That is what he and his aides were seeking to erase. The Shin Bet and IDF chiefs each publicly took responsibility for their failures. Netanyahu, as is characteristic of him, did everything he could not to.

Though it’s possible the report was transmitted to a senior PMO official, rather than directly to Netanyahu, given the seriousness of the matter it seems inconceivable he wouldn’t have been immediately informed.  Otherwise he would not have tasked his underlings with falsifying the cabinet meeting transcripts (more on this later).

Which raises the critical question: can investigators tie Netanyahu directly to this sordid plot. This is not a question of whether he was involved. He must have been. Rather it is whether the police can prove he was. Another tangential issue is whether the police, which fall under the auspices of Judeo terror minister Itamar Ben Gvir, will be able to withstand pressure to abort the case.  As a key ally of the prime minister, Ben Gvir can exercise tremendous influence in the matter.

The police are investigating a blackmail scheme against a member of the PMO military secretariat.  This officer was responsible for records of cabinet meetings and security-related phone consultations.  He kept these records in his office where presumably he alone had access to them. Netanyahu’s staff learned that a female staff member in the PMO exchanged text messages, presumably of an incriminating nature, with the aide. They confiscated her cell phone, on the pretext of investigating a leak of sensitive information. In actuality, they sought to find the damaging information in order to blackmail him into their criminal conspiracy.

• Save

They wanted him to doctor the transcripts of cabinet meetings after 10/7, during which the security ministers discussed events leading up to, and during the attack. The most damaging was a warning transmitted to senior military and political leadership about unusual Hamas military activity signaling a possible mass attack.

Also, ministers discussed Israeli strategy regarding possible ICC war crime proceedings.  Netanyahu and defense minister Gallant were the two figures for whom the chief prosecutor sought arrest warrants.  The former certainly wanted to entertain ways to insulate himself from any possible arrest or trial.  He would not want such deliberations made public, because it will appear that he is afraid he will be held culpable for these crimes.

An unnamed member of the PMO staff alerted the chief military aide, Gen. Avi Gil, of the scheme. He then drafted a sealed letter sent to the attorney general, outlining what had happened.  She and the police opened an investigation three months ago.  It appears that the transcripts actually were altered, though it’s not known whether there are original unaltered versions.

Netanyahu is terrified of a commission of inquiry into the events of 10/7.  When the issue is raised, he rebuffs it saying that the question should wait for the end of the war.  An outcome he is doing his best to avoid.  He knows he will be held responsible for the debacle: not the only figure, but certainly among the most critical.  The cabinet proceedings are precisely the documentation that commission members will scour to understand what happened, what went wrong, and to assess responsibility. He knows he is culpable.  He knows he ignored the 10/6 warning. He also remembers the punishment imposed on Ariel Sharon for his role in the Sabra and Chatilla massacre.  He was banned from political office for several years. He later became prime minister.  Since Netanyahu is already prime minister, it is likely if he were banned his political career would be over.

The accurate minutes, when revealed to the public, will show who among the ministers took issue with him; who blamed him for ignoring the warning; who blamed him for refusing a hostage deal; who called him out for blaming the Shin Bet and IDF for the 10/7 massacre.

That’s why Benny Gantz, a then-member of the security cabinet released this damning statement about the earlier scandal, which is relevant to the current one:

“Without going into the details of the case under investigation concerning activity in the Prime Minister’s Office, it is important to emphasize one thing: the prime minister is the one responsible for what is done in his office. For better or for worse.”

It almost goes without saying that Israel has become a thug state. While committing genocide against Palestinians, it engages in criminal conspiracies and rides roughshod over individual rights and laws.  Its citizens appear powerless to stop it.  The world takes little notice.  It is an augury of what the world can expect for the next four years of a Trump presidency.