Scapegoating Netanyahu: Why Israel Avoids a True Reckoning with October 7

As Israel prepares to mark three years since the October 7 attacks and approaches upcoming parliamentary elections, the political agenda is dominated by a single pressing question: "Did he know?" Recent media reports suggesting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was warned by the United Arab Emirates prior to the attacks have placed his alleged responsibility squarely back in the spotlight.

However, rather than fostering a genuine national reckoning, the current electoral discourse functions primarily to scapegoat Benjamin Netanyahu for facilitating the attack by Hamas. This narrow focus absolves Israeli society and the Zionist movement of collective responsibility for both the preceding violence and the subsequent military campaign. Critical questions—such as whether the "Hannibal Directive" was deployed, how many Israeli citizens were killed by friendly fire, and the safety of Israeli hostages—remain largely unexamined in mainstream political debate.

Furthermore, little attention is paid to the International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, nor to the assassination of key Palestinian negotiators like Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and other Hamas delegation members in Doha. The refusal to engage with these realities stems from a deeper psychological state within Israeli society. For many, October 7 represents a profound rupture, and the complete dehumanisation of Palestinians allows the broader public to avoid confronting their own complicity in the extensive violence that followed.

With tens of thousands of Palestinian casualties, widespread detentions, the destruction of infrastructure, and extensive military operations in Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, critics argue that these actions are symptoms of a systemic framework driven by domination and fear. Ultimately, the fixation on Benjamin Netanyahu allows the wider political establishment and Israeli society to evade a true confrontation with the underlying machinery of conflict and occupation.