The Netanyahus turn October 7 into a family affair

Sara Netanyahu has turned Yair Golan’s actions on the morning of October 7, 2023, into the basis for a grave political insinuation. In a television interview broadcast Monday, the prime minister’s wife suggested that the opposition politician had known about the Hamas attack before it happened. She offered no evidence.

Her supposed indication was the very act that had previously counted in Golan’s favor. Golan, a former deputy army chief and leader of the left-wing Democrats, drove to the Nova music festival on the morning of the attack. He helped save several people there.

Sara Netanyahu presented his early arrival as suspicious. Why, she implied, would a military officer of such senior rank have reached the site so early, at a time when others had not yet learned what was happening? Even Benjamin Netanyahu, her husband, had not known then, according to the argument.

Golan did not let the accusation pass. He called it defamation and sent Sara Netanyahu a lawyer’s letter demanding that she withdraw the statement, apologize and make a donation to survivors of the festival. If she refuses, he plans to sue for the equivalent of about 670,000 Swiss francs.

Sara Netanyahu has rejected any apology. She accused Golan of spreading wild lies and distorting her words, demanded that he withdraw his own allegations within 48 hours and called on him to donate to a military school. Otherwise, she said, she would sue him for the equivalent of about 270,000 Swiss francs.

In Israel, the remarks have largely been interpreted as part of a political plot. Golan received support extending deep into the right-wing camp. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the Netanyahu family and its circle were spreading a "sick, false and dangerous conspiracy against the army, the intelligence services and Golan."

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Sick, false and dangerous conspiracy against the army, the intelligence services and Golan.