former Shin Bet Chief Publicly Calls for Inquiry into October 7 Failures, Directly Challenging Netanyahu
TEL AVIV – In a pointed rebuke of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition, former Shin Bet chief Nadav Bar publicly called for a state commission of inquiry into the intelligence and security failures that allowed Hamas to breach Israeli defenses on October 7, 2023. Speaking at Tel Aviv University’s Cyber Week 2025 conference, Bar emphasized the importance of accepting duty and learning from mistakes, a message implicitly directed at the current Israeli leadership.
Bar’s address marked his first public statement since leaving his post in June, and it promptly ignited a public debate over accountability for the devastating security lapse. He framed his call for an inquiry not as a blame game, but as a moral imperative to honor the victims and safeguard the future.
He began by poignantly remembering two individuals caught in the violence: Staff Sgt. Ofir Shoshani, an intelligence officer murdered in her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and Hersh Goldberg-Polin, abducted from the Nova music festival and later confirmed to have died in Hamas captivity. “Only when you see them do you understand the meaning of responsibility and the price of making mistakes and failing,” Bar stated, underscoring the human cost of the intelligence failures.
The former Shin Bet chief articulated a clear beliefs of leadership, asserting that “responsibility is infinite – you cannot distribute it, only take it.” He admitted his own share of responsibility for the Shin Bet’s failure to prevent the october 7 onslaught in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, but argued that a more extensive investigation is now needed. “True leadership does not end with taking responsibility for the failure,” he said. “It ends with taking responsibility for fixing it.”
Bar highlighted the internal investigation already conducted within the Shin bet, stating that the agency has “learned how to be better.” However, he insisted that this internal review is insufficient. “But the only way to conduct a comprehensive investigation into this failure, to know what really happened, to dispel the conspiracies that endanger our continued existence, to learn what to fix and to ensure that it does not happen again is thru a state commission of inquiry,” he declared. He stressed the need for a commission comprised of professionals capable of delivering a complete and unbiased account.
Returning to the personal stories that motivated his call for accountability, Bar stated that both Ofir and Hersh, along with their families, would want a state commission of inquiry. “This is what our children expect from us,” he added, framing the issue as a matter of intergenerational trust. He warned that failing to investigate the systemic failures would effectively “sentence them to the next October 7.”
Netanyahu swiftly responded to Bar’s remarks during his own speech at the conference Tuesday evening. The Prime Minister, who has consistently resisted calls for a state commission, defended his backing of a government-led investigation, claiming it would be sufficient to address the issues. “There was a failure here, a huge failure,” Netanyahu acknowledged, but argued that a broad national examination commission, “not tailored to one side or the other,” is the appropriate path forward. He drew a parallel to the 9/11 Commission in the United States, emphasizing the need for a bipartisan and thorough investigation.
Though, critics point out that the proposed government probe will be overseen by sitting cabinet ministers, raising concerns about its independence. Polls consistently demonstrate that a majority of Israelis favor a state commission of inquiry, and the High Court of Justice recently gave the government 30 days to provide an update on the matter, suggesting a growing legal pressure to act.
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has also weighed in, vowing to establish a state commission if elected, stating bluntly, “There will not be a whitewashing committee.”
The debate over accountability comes as Israel continues to grapple with the aftermath of the October 7 attacks, in which Hamas-led terrorists killed approximately 1,200 people and abducted 251 others – the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust and a watershed moment in Israeli history. The demand for a full and obvious accounting of the failures that allowed the attacks to occur is growing, fueled by the families of victims and a public seeking answers and assurances that such a tragedy will never happen again.
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