Bibi on the brink: Can Netanyahu survive a growing chorus of disapproval?

The Israeli prime minister was forced into a rare apology for blaming his security chiefs for the Hamas attack, writes Bel Trew. It’s the latest crisis to hit the embattled leader as his personal ratings plummet

Benjamin Netanyahu apologised for blaming his intelligence chiefs. But experts say the damage is done (AFP via Getty)

It started, as so many stories do, with a late-night, ill-advised tweet. In the early hours of Sunday morning, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, took a stunning swipe at his intelligence chiefs in a missive posted to Twitter/X. He wrote emphatically that they had never warned him that Hamas was planning a major attack on 7 October.

It echoed similar claims made to me by members of the Likud party, led by Netanyahu, who have spent years working alongside his team in the government and are stalwart supporters. Several hours before the tweet, one individual eagerly insisted that Netanyahu was only informed by the domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet at 6.30am local time while Hamas’s unprecedented attack was underway. “So what could he possibly do?” the individual asked repeatedly.

And so, just before dawn on Sunday, Netanyahu posted that “at no stage” was he warned of Hamas’s intentions to start a war – everyone from military intelligence to the Shin Bet told him everything was “normal”.