From: Netanyahu's Time Magazine August 8, 2024 interview:
non-apology 'Deeply sorry' for October 7, but not going anywhere
Netanyahu was asked if he would apologize for how he functioned in October, “Apologize?” Netanyahu asked back. “Of course, of course. I am sorry, deeply."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to apologize for Israeli security failures that allowed for the Hamas-led invasion of Israel on October 7, in an interview published Thursday in Time Magazine
He clarified that he planned to continue to safeguard the country and did not intend to step down from office. “Apologize?” Netanyahu asked when pressed on the issue by Time.
“Of course, of course. I am sorry, deeply, that something like this happened,” he said as he expressed regret for the event and spoke globally about how the country could have responded better without seeming to take responsibility for the failures that led to it.
October 7, 2023 When it came to mistakes, Netanyahu said he had failed to question the emphasis security officials placed on the success of their policy of deterrence, in which they theorized that Hamas feared Israel’s destructive military abilities and therefore would not launch a full-scale attack.
“October 7 showed that those who said that Hamas was deterred were wrong,” Netanyahu said. “If anything, I didn’t challenge enough the assumption [of deterrence] that was common to all the security agencies.”
Netanyahu also appeared to cast part of the blame for October 7 on those who in the first part of 2023 had threatened not to serve in the army as a protest statement against his judicial reform plan. “The refusal to serve because of an internal political debate—I think that, if anything, that had an effect.”
“You always look back, and you say, Could we have done things that would have prevented it?”
funding terrorists Hamas I had no idea they were funding terrorists Hamas and had the opportunity to totally destroy them during the 2014 war
In selecting the question of whether Israel should have sought to totally destroy Hamas during the 2014 war, Netanyahu stated: “There was no domestic support for such an action” He added, “There was certainly no international support for such an action—and you need both.”
Netanyahu appeared to dismiss claims that his policy of sending cash to Hamas with the help of Qatar had helped set the stage for October 7, explaining that Israel’s motivation had been humanitarian.
He was referring to the argument that the cash would be used for humanitarian services that would help Hamas then quell social unrest in Gaza and thus, in gratitude to Israel, would be more amenable to reframing from rocket attacks.
“We wanted to make sure that Gaza has a functioning civilian administration to avoid humanitarian collapse,” he told Time, as he rejected claims that those funds played a significant role in helping Hamas entrench itself military in Gaza or prepare for October 7
