How Sara Netanyahu’s October 7 remark successfully hijacked the Israeli election agenda - analysis

In Israel’s election campaign, a remark by Sara Netanyahu has pushed conspiracy theories about October 7 to the top of the political agenda, eclipsing issues ranging from tensions between Iran and the United States to rising gas prices and broken-down desalination plants.

Political strategist Moshe Klughaft made the point on Kan Bet’s morning program, where he was the first interviewee to discuss dueling lawsuits filed by Sara Netanyahu and Yair Golan. Golan, head of The Democrats party, sued Netanyahu for defamation after she suggested he may have received advance warning of the Hamas attack. Her lawyer responded that she had referred only to undisputed facts, not conspiracy theories.

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A situation in which you are throwing your weight around against a woman in a hair salon.

The remark came during an interview on Channel 14 after Sara Netanyahu watched video clips of demonstrations outside the Tel Aviv hair salon where she was sitting during the 2023 judicial reform protests. One clip showed Golan cheering protesters. Another showed him rejecting as insincere her later claim that she had felt threatened.

Visibly upset, Netanyahu said Golan should be ashamed of “a situation in which you are throwing your weight around against a woman in a hair salon.” She then contrasted his conduct there with his actions on October 7, when he put on a uniform and went south to help rescue people soon after the attack began.

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When you are a military officer of such high rank and claim that you fought on October 7, you were already there early in the morning, already dressed and prepared; at a very early hour, when others did not know, such as the prime minister.

“When you are a military officer of such high rank and claim that you fought on October 7, you were already there early in the morning, already dressed and prepared; at a very early hour, when others did not know, such as the prime minister,” she said. She followed with a sarcastic question: “In general, who is the prime minister who needs to know that a war is breaking out? Why inform him?”

She did not finish the thought, but the implication became politically potent. Benjamin Netanyahu has recently said that if he had been awakened at 3 a.m., when senior security officials were discussing indications of a possible attack, the outcome would have been different. The dispute has since bundled together several separate claims about what Golan knew, what the prime minister knew and when they knew it.

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In general, who is the prime minister who needs to know that a war is breaking out? Why inform him?