We’re still almost two months away from the fateful October 27 election, but the level of personal mudslinging has already reached a dismal nadir.
The worst are this week’s claims by Sara Netanyahu, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, that Yair Golan, leader of The Democrats party, had prior knowledge of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack in which over 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered and that launched the war that continues to this day.
Golan is a former deputy IDF chief of staff, and as the events of October 7 unfolded, he donned his IDF uniform and drove to the Supernova music festival in the South to help.
Golan is no saint, however. By May 2025, he had soured on the war efforts and proclaimed that Israel was killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby.” As a result, Defense Minister Israel Katz was permanently barred from reserve duty and called his remarks a “blood libel.”
His political views are one thing, but thinly veiled claims of treason are another. Sara Netanyahu, in an interview with the right-wing Channel 14 on Monday, said he must have had advanced warning of the Hamas attack.
“A military man of such high rank, claiming that you fought on October 7, that already early in the morning you were there, already dressed and ready at a very, very early hour when others didn’t know, such as the prime minister…” she said.
In an Instagram post, the prime minister did not go as far as his wife, but he did say that IDF officers deliberately did not wake him for over an hour because they knew he would prevent the massacre.
According to Yaakov Katz, co-author of While Israel Slept and a former The Jerusalem Post chief editor – who wrote about Netanyahu’s comments and the failure to prevent October 7 – the prime minister would likely not have done anything differently after receiving flawed assessments from the military and intelligence echelon that Hamas was probably not preparing for a major attack.
But in election season, apparently, anything goes.
According to N12’s Dafna Liel, the media statements by both Netanyahus weren’t random but part of a deliberate Likud campaign ahead of the election to spread conspiracy theories and distance the premier from the massacre.
The October 7 conspiracy theory is nothing new and is bandied about by those on the Right whenever it comes in handy.
In a Knesset session only three weeks after the October 7 attack, Likud MK Tali Gotliev referred to a social media post by Golan in September 2023 that said, “October is approaching; the hour of decision is coming.”
Golan’s post was referring to the opening of the Knesset’s winter session and the judicial reform issue, but Gotliev’s comments unleashed a floodgate of unfounded claims that have gained steam over the ensuing three years.
Threat of lawsuit against Sara Netanyahu, conspiracy theories likely to expand
It’s time to put them to rest.
Whether Golan’s demand for an apology and threat of a hefty lawsuit against Sara Netanyahu will deter future outrageous statements about a conspiracy is questionable.
As Yashar party chief Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s main rival, wrote on Tuesday on X/Twitter: “The outrageous conspiracy theory of treason… is intended solely to fan hatred and perpetuate the Netanyahu government, whose only way of ruling is to divide.
“Netanyahu is running from responsibility for the worst failure in Israel’s history, to which he led us blindly – through negligence and by ignoring every warning sign. Some people claim that they ‘weren’t woken up,’ while others got up and rushed into action -without asking questions.”
The surest way to get to the bottom would be to hold an official state inquiry.
However, those opposed to the inquiry and those who have prevented it are the same ones perpetuating the conspiracy theories. Interesting.
The most infuriating aspect of the attention this issue has received is that it takes up the bandwidth that should be provided to the real, critical issues facing the country as it heads to Election Day.
Here’s some advice for all of the candidates: Instead of blaming others for what they did or didn’t do, focus the campaign on what you intend to do to help the country.