It was days before the April 2019 election, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was giving an interview to Channel 13 television. Why, asked right-wing journalist Sharon Gal, was he not launching a large-scale military offensive against Hamas in Gaza?

At the time, the Palestinian terror group was leading mass marches and rioting at the Gaza border under the banner of the “March of Return” — a return to Israeli land it said belonged to the Palestinian people.

The premier replied that Israel had to deal occasional blows to the terror group, but also had to keep the humanitarian situation in the Strip stable.

He boasted that over a year of mostly low-level unrest at the border, encouraged by Hamas, 300 Palestinians and no Israelis had been killed. “They wanted to storm the border, kidnap our soldiers, infiltrate our towns… they suffered blows,” he said.

“But your [voter] base expected more,” countered his interviewer Gal.

Netanyahu didn’t challenge that statement, answering that he was against starting “unnecessary wars” and adding that he was willing to pay a political price for his seemingly unpopular decision not to launch one.

“I want every mother and father in Israel to know that I am not sending their boys to an unnecessary war,” Netanyahu declared.

Noting he’d lost friends and comrades in past wars, the premier added, “I am willing to employ all the force necessary, but war is the last option.”

Indeed, for all his hawkish rhetoric and self-cultivated image as “Mr. Security,” over the years, Netanyahu was repeatedly described by top officials who worked with him as decidedly cautious, even squeamish, when it came to taking significant military action.

Now, more than two years after Hamas’s mass invasion and onslaught of October 7, 2023, Netanyahu is seeking to portray himself as having sought far-reaching action against Hamas, while being thwarted by the objections of security chiefs and the lack of public backing for such a move.

On Thursday night, the longtime leader released a 55-page document of answers he gave to State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman as part of the ombudsman’s investigation into the Hamas attack. Among the selective citations from classified discussions over the years were quotes........

© The Times of Israel