Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has strongly denied the report that the president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, gave him a direct warning about an impending Hamas attack before Oct. 7, 2023, calling the claim an “absolute lie.”
The allegation surfaced in a newly released book, Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment by journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, and was regurgitated in the radical, Netanyahu-hating Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
According to the book’s authors, three anonymous foreign senior sources claimed that the UAE head called Netanyahu 10 days before the attack, warning that Hamas senior leader Yahya Sinwar was planning a major operation that could destabilize the region.
So, this is the source of the headlines around the world today. Three anonymous foreign senior sources in a book released and promoted by Haaretz. Nothing more. Sounds almost too perfect, does it not?
Yet prior to Oct. 7, not a single person went to the press, went to the people, jumped up and down, warning that Hamas was planning an attack—at least, not with any specificity about the nature of the attack. There was none of the usual anonymous leaks to the Israeli media. Zippo.
The Jerusalem Post, a hugely influential news outlet in Israel, had no news stories about it. In fact, not a single Israeli media outlet reported anything. Even the retired generals in Israel’s political parties seeking to become prime minister or part of a new government said nothing beforehand as a warning, at least not publicly as best as I can tell. Odd, if they had some knowledge of an impending terror attack of the kind that occurred on Oct. 7.
The timing of the book’s release and the anonymous foreign sources promoted by Israel’s most radical news outlet are not lost on anyone, as Netanyahu’s political and media opponents pounce weeks before the election scheduled for Oct. 27. It’s particularly repulsive to watch Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, former premiers themselves, all over the media demanding new investigations, etc.
We know, as a matter of fact, that there was a comprehensive 40-page Hamas battle plan codenamed “Jericho Wall” that laid out aspects of the invasion strategy later executed on Oct. 7, which was acquired by Israeli intelligence in April 2022, while Bennett, who is again running for prime minister, was serving as such. Lapid, I believe, was alternate prime minister and foreign minister.
Netanyahu didn’t return as head of the government until Dec. 29, 2022. You would think that these two men would be more circumspect about the allegations they are launching.
The allegation from anonymous sources in a book just released for maximum marketing attention and sales—literally weeks before the Israeli election and promoted by a radical news outlet that seeks Netanyahu’s defeat—is ugly stuff.
It’s a well-organized and well-timed political ambush.
Originally published on X.
