Netanyahu and Wife Face Backlash Over October 7 Conspiracy Claims Ahead of Elections

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara Netanyahu, are facing criticism for promoting theories that security officials and political rivals failed to wake the Prime Minister during the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks. In a recent video, Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that military officers deliberately did not wake him for over an hour, asserting that if he had been awakened at 3 a.m. the outcome would have been different. He described the events as a major failure by the military and intelligence hierarchy. Sara Netanyahu further intensified the controversy in a Channel 14 interview by suggesting that Yair Golan, leader of The Democrats party and a former deputy IDF chief of staff, may have had prior knowledge of the attack. She pointed to the fact that Golan was dressed and ready to assist early in the morning while the Prime Minister was not informed. Golan has responded by threatening a defamation lawsuit against Sara Netanyahu. Other political figures, including Yashar party chief Gadi Eisenkot, have dismissed these claims as attempts to divide the public and avoid accountability for the security failure. While Benjamin Netanyahu has stated in a separate video that he does not believe there was a betrayal, he continues to maintain that he was not woken up in time. The discourse is occurring less than two months before the October 27 elections.