Netanyahu: 'We didn't know their hold on Mandelblit'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded Wednesday evening to the NIS 3 million defamation lawsuit filed against him by former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, rejecting Bar's allegations concerning the conduct of the security establishment in the period preceding the October 7 attack. In an interview with Ayala Hasson on Kan News, Netanyahu said, "You can sue for 30 million, what difference does it make? It's a trick, a publicity stunt." He subsequently addressed Bar's claim that he had not called Netanyahu on the night of October 7 because he did not have the Prime Minister's telephone number. Netanyahu rejected the explanation, saying that the Shin Bet chief could have contacted him through the secure hotline, known as the "red phone." "Tell me, are you serious? The Prime Minister has a red phone through which he can be reached at any moment. And who has the red phone? Shin Bet security guards," Netanyahu said. "They are with me 24/7, always with two red phones. He could have reached me at any moment." The Prime Minister also addressed the 22 meetings and warnings, from November 2022 through October 1, 2023, that Bar detailed in his lawsuit. According to Netanyahu, he submitted nearly 1,000 documents to the State Comptroller that he claims contradict Bar's allegations. As part of his argument, Netanyahu quoted an intelligence report by the Shin Bet chief dated October 3, 2023, four days before the attack: "Renewing the understandings between Israel and Hamas, based on the principle of security calm in exchange for concessions, holds the potential to preserve stability in the Gaza Strip, possibly even over the long term." Netanyahu claimed that the warnings presented to him in the period preceding the attack concerned the danger of an escalation stemming from the crisis surrounding the judicial reform, while the Gaza Strip was explicitly excluded from those warnings. "They always excluded one arena: Gaza. Gaza was outside the picture. In Gaza, there was calm, there was an arrangement, Sinwar wanted an arrangement, wanted workers, we needed to maintain the quiet, and we would get quiet in exchange for quiet," he said. Netanyahu alleged that the State Comptroller's investigation into the events of October 7 was halted by order of the Supreme Court shortly after he submitted the documents. He said that if he wins the elections, he will resume the State Comptroller's investigations. Later in the interview, Netanyahu was asked why the government had not established at least a government-appointed commission of inquiry, similar to the Winograd Commission established after the Second Lebanon War. Netanyahu replied that a commission appointed by the government would, in his view, be rejected by part of the public on the grounds that it was biased. He also rejected the possibility of establishing a state commission of inquiry. According to Netanyahu, such a commission would be "anything but impartial," because its members are appointed under the law by the President of the Supreme Court. Referring to Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, Netanyahu claimed that "he has clear political views." The Prime Minister said he had proposed establishing a commission modeled on the one created in the United States following the September 11 terrorist attacks, with half its members appointed by the coalition and half by the opposition. According to Netanyahu, "The opposition did not agree." Netanyahu was also asked about the landing of the Egyptian intelligence chief's aircraft at Ben Gurion Airport on September 26, 2023, 11 days before the October 7 attack. According to Netanyahu, the Mossad chief, the head of the National Security Council, and the Defense Minister denied meeting with him, while the Shin Bet was still attempting to determine who had met with the senior Egyptian official. When asked whether it was possible that the aircraft had been registered under the name of Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel but that Kamel himself had not been in Israel at all, Netanyahu replied, "I have no idea." Referring to a meeting he held with Kamel at the Prime Minister's Residence in 2021, Netanyahu said that foreign intelligence chiefs occasionally come for meetings, but that such meetings are always held in the presence of their Israeli counterparts. Asked who had attended that meeting, Netanyahu replied, "It was Ronen Bar, we need to check." He further claimed that "the Egyptians deny that they conveyed any warning at all." In another part of the interview, Netanyahu addressed his ongoing criminal trial. He said it had been important for him to appear in court this week because, from his perspective, it represented "the decisive moment" and "coming full circle." He repeated his familiar statement, "There will be nothing because there was nothing," and alleged that, by contrast, "many criminal offenses were committed on the part of the prosecution and the police." According to Netanyahu, the proceedings against him constituted "a political witch hunt aimed at bringing down a strong right-wing Prime Minister." When asked about former Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who filed the indictment against him after Netanyahu had previously appointed him Cabinet Secretary and subsequently Attorney General, Netanyahu replied: "We did not know how much of a hold they had over him, and even today we do not know the whole story there." Netanyahu alleged that Mandelblit signed the indictment without reading it and, in some instances, used a scanned signature. When asked whether he believed that the case against him had been fabricated, Netanyahu replied: "I don't think so, I know so. It was crudely stitched together, and the seams are coming apart, and everyone can see it." Hasson pointed out that the officers and investigators who testified during the trial had acknowledged that mistakes were made but had not said that the case was fabricated. Netanyahu responded that one of them "even said 'illegal.'"