Things are looking bleaker by the day for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, most notably for his standing as a competent leader in full mastery of his office.  After allegations were made that he had received warnings from the United Arab Emirates leader President Mohamed bin Zayed (MBZ) that the 7th October 2023 attack by Hamas was, if not imminent then certainly most likely, a sense of paralytic denial has taken hold. 

The claim by Haaretz, based on research for the book Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment by Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, finds Netanyahu being told, in unambiguous terms, that an attack by Hamas was being planned.  A 45-minute conversation apparently took place between the UAE President and Netanyahu, in which the Emirati leader warned of the potentially destabilising intentions of the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Talks between Hamas and Netanyahu’s office that had begun in 2023 in search of temporary truce had stalled.  Sinwar was getting testy.  

The Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel has also emerged as another prominent figure to bulk the warnings on Hamas’s ominous intentions, with The Wall Street Journal reporting as much on 27th September.  To this can be added the initial revelations from the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, and recent work done by Vivian Salama for The Atlantic on the subject.  “Kamel’s 2023 visit, details of which have not been previously reported,” writes Salama, “underscores what dozens of sources have told me: that the Israeli government was repeatedly told of threatening activity by Hamas in the lead-up to 7th October.”  

What is telling for Netanyahu is the fact that he received three warnings in........

© Middle East Monitor