Accountability cannot be outsourced to a ballot box. The public debate surrounding October 7 continues to bypass the central question: establishing responsibility. It is clear that the catastrophe was not the work of one man alone. The IDF failed, Military Intelligence failed, the Shin Bet failed, and the political leadership failed. The entire strategic conception collapsed.

However, collective failure cannot become collective immunity. The prime minister, who stood at the head of the establishment and shaped Israel’s security and strategic policy toward Hamas for years, bears the highest political responsibility. That responsibility does not disappear simply because other actors also faltered.

Recent investigative reports make confronting this reality more urgent than ever. According to an investigation based on a book by journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed reportedly warned Benjamin Netanyahu less than two weeks before October 7 that Yahya Sinwar was planning a massive escalation described as an........

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