Daniel Wolfram
Benjamin Netanyahu is doing damage control while more reports keep coming out.
As reported here on Dagens.com, a new book details how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was warned of the October 7 attack 10 days in advance, back in 2023, by UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed.
Since then, major news outlets like The New York Times have confirmed the report in the book that Netanyahu was personally warned, but failed to alert any of the security establishment in the government.
A new report just revealed that the Israeli Prime Minister held a secret meeting with the same UAE President last week. There, he asked him to deny the reports.
A secret meeting
Sources told Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper that first broke the story, that Netanyahu asked for the secret meeting to personally ask bin Zayed that he would publicly deny reports about the warning before the attack on October 7, 2023.
Netanyahu also sought “moral support” to avoid embarrassment at home right before the election. Israel’s Channel 12 News confirmed the unannounced one-hour encounter took place on Sunday.
The UAE Foreign Ministry did not officially comment on whether or not the meeting took place, but instead stated that the UAE maintains “open and direct lines of communication” with Israel and shares “all relevant intelligence.”
Egypt also warned Israel
Egypt had also issued warnings to Israel. The Wall Street Journal revealed that Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel reached out repeatedly to Netanyahu throughout 2023 to warn about an impending attack.
In September 2023, Kamel warned Israel that Gaza could “blow up in everyone’s faces,” WSJ reported.
Apparently, Netanyahu brushed off the concern, saying, “In Gaza, we are in the picture, we are in control. Our problem is with the West Bank, and that’s where we are also diverting forces.”
A lawsuit is coming
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied the reports and promised a libel suit against Haaretz. His office insisted no intelligence warnings ever reached him from Cairo or the UAE.
Writing on social media, the administration stated, “In the months preceding October 7, Prime Minister Netanyahu did not meet or speak with Abbas Kamel, who was then the head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service, and no Israeli intelligence source conveyed an Egyptian warning to the Prime Minister.”
He added that “Netanyahu has never met or spoken with the head of intelligence of a foreign country without their Israeli counterparts.”
While Netanyahu continues to deny that he personally was warned about the attacks in the weeks leading up to October 7 and failed to tell anyone, more and more reports keep coming out suggesting the contrary.
