'I hold myself responsible': Netanyahu admits failure to foresee Oct. 7 massacre for the first time

As the Israel-Hamas war escalates, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepts some responsibility for failing to anticipate Hamas’ devastating October 7 massacre. In an interview with “Dr. Phil” McGraw, the Israeli premier admitted that there were “failures” in his country to deal with the attacks.

While several senior military and intelligence officials of the Jewish nation have taken accountability for the attack, this is the first time Netanyahu admitted his failure as well.

“There were failures, obviously,” Netanyahu said. “First of all, government. The government’s first responsibility is to protect the people. That’s the ultimate enveloping responsibility. And the people weren’t protected. We have to admit that," he added.

However, he insisted that there needs to be a thorough examination of what exactly went wrong. “I think we’re going to have to give a thorough explanation. We’re going to have to have a thorough examination once the war ends of exactly what happened, how it happened and who made it happen. That’s something that you have to do,” Netanyahu averred.

“But I think right now, our goal is one to achieve victory,” he furthered.

Netanyahu takes responsibility

When pushed further about his personal responsibility over the matter, Netanyahu finally admitted his failure to oversee the attacks. “I hold myself and everyone on this. I think we have to examine how it happened. What was the intelligence failure?” Netanyahu responds.

“We can delve into it. But I think the important thing right now is to make sure that we don’t have another failure because the greatest failure would be… if we don’t complete [the counter-attack] if we allow these murderers to be there and to get control of Gaza again… I’m focused right now on achieving this victory,” he added.

This is the furthest Netanyahu went when it comes to taking responsibility for the attack. In November, the Israeli prime minister attempted to distance himself from the criticism. “Did people ask Franklin Roosevelt, after Pearl Harbor, that question? Did people ask George Bush after the surprise attack of [September] 11?” he told CNN.

In the past, Israel’s military intelligence chief and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has also accepted responsibility for failing to foresee the October 7 attacks.

Netanyahu on ties with Biden 

When asked about the latest rift between Israel and Washington over IDF’s looming ground assault in Rafah, the Israeli premier maintained that he and US President Joe Biden have a strong friendship.

“I’ve known Joe Biden for many years — 40 years and more. We often had our agreements, but we’ve had our disagreements. We’ve been able to overcome them. I hope we can overcome them now,” Netanyahu said.

“We will do what we have to do to protect our country, and that means to protect our future. And that means we will defeat Hamas, including in Rafah. We have no other choice,” he added.

Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden warned Israel that would halt military supply to the Jewish nation if it conducted the ground operation in Rafah. While Israel’s premier was in all praises for the POTUS he also took some time to take potshots at him.

He told Dr Phill that while world leaders tell him in private that Hamas “need to be destroyed”, “when they are faced with all this propaganda, all this madness in the campuses… they begin to fray, some of them. But I don’t fray. We’ll do what we have to do to protect ourselves,” he added.