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🇮🇱 Israel /Elections & Politics

Israel’s Election Campaign Hits a New Low With Toxic October 7 Treason Theories

From Jerusalem Post · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Opinion Named sources Context piece
  • Sara Netanyahu suggested that Yair Golan, a former deputy IDF chief of staff, had advance knowledge of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack.
  • The editorial says the allegation lacks a factual basis and reflects an increasingly bitter campaign ahead of Israel’s October 27 election.
  • It links the claims to a broader Likud effort to distance Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from criticism over the attack and the continuing war.

Israel’s election campaign has already reached what this editorial calls a dismal low, with Sara Netanyahu suggesting that Yair Golan knew in advance about Hamas’s October 7 attack.

In an interview with the right-wing Channel 14, the prime minister’s wife pointed to Golan’s early arrival at the scene while wearing his military uniform. Golan, a former deputy IDF chief of staff, drove to the Supernova music festival in southern Israel as the attack unfolded to help.

as a hobby

· Yair GolanGolan’s 2025 criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, quoted in the editorial.

Benjamin Netanyahu did not repeat the allegation as directly, but said in an Instagram post that IDF officers had deliberately failed to wake him for more than an hour because they knew he would have prevented the massacre. The editorial cites Yaakov Katz, co-author of “While Israel Slept” and a former Jerusalem Post editor, who argued that Netanyahu probably would not have acted differently after receiving flawed military and intelligence assessments that Hamas was not preparing a major attack.

blood libel

· Israel KatzThe defense minister’s description of Golan’s remarks about the war.

The editorial also recalls Golan’s own controversial criticism of the war. In May 2025, he said Israel was killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby,” prompting Defense Minister Israel Katz to call the remark a “blood libel” and bar Golan permanently from reserve duty.

But the editorial draws a line between political disagreement and what it describes as thinly veiled treason allegations. It cites N12 journalist Dafna Liel’s assessment that the Netanyahus’ comments formed part of a deliberate Likud campaign to spread conspiracy theories and distance the prime minister from responsibility for the October 7 massacre. Similar claims surfaced weeks after the attack, when Likud lawmaker Tali Gotliev cited a September 2023 post by Golan saying, “October is approaching; the hour of decision is coming.” Golan had been referring to the Knesset’s winter session and the judicial reform dispute, not an impending Hamas attack.

October is approaching; the hour of decision is coming.

· Yair GolanA September 2023 social media post later cited by a Likud lawmaker in support of conspiracy claims.
About this summary

Originally published by Jerusalem Post in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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