NETANYAHU KNEW

LIFE AND NEWS NOTES FROM AN OVEREDUCATED, CHILDLESS OLD CAT LADY, BEAVERING AWAY IN ONE OF THE SUB-BASEMENTS OF THE MINISTRY OF SNARK

Tuesday 8 September 2026

The most important new story of the day, according to my opinion, is that Benjamin Netanyahu was given explicit advanced warning of an attack on October 7. Not only did he refrain from doing anything about it. He failed to notify his military and others high up in his cabinet that an attack was coming (Eldar, 9/8/26).

The Middle East is not usually my locus of interest when it comes to international affairs. Having traveled extensively in Latin America, done a doctoral thesis on law in ancient Mexico, and written books about law and Mexico and Panama, Israel was not one of my areas of real interest.

But, near the end of the summer of 2023, it was hard to avoid interest when hundreds of thousands of Israelis had taken to the streets against their own government regarding a change in the laws regarding the justice system. This was especially the case when it came out that men and women had said that they would refuse to comply with military deployment if the government went ahead with the determination to denature the Israeli Supreme Court.

So, I was paying attention to events in Israel. “Terrorists attacks inflamed the West Bank, masses of Gazans regularly protested at the border fence, and the country was reeling from internal conflict over the judicial coup laws.”

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed – known as MBZ – was also paying attention. And he was talking with Israeli President Isaac Herzog with whom he maintained friendly relations. The situation needed to be defused MBZ repeatedly conveyed to Herzog. “He even sent a special enjoy to Israel who met with the prime minister. The emir seemed to sense that the area was on the verge of explosion.”

MBZ also spoke directly with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. MBz’s calls usually followed a standard procedure, but this time, MBZ initiated the call himself a week and a half before October 7. He warned Netanyahu that Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, was “planning a major operation against Israel.” He was concerned that the action would not only lead to bloodshed but would destabilize the entire region.

Haaretz, citing three foreign senior sources which are familiar with the content of the conversation, reveal its existence for the first time.

“It’s disclosure is the result of extensive research based o dozens of sources in Israel and worldwide, including very senior officials, as well as records, internal documents and correspondence. [1]

One of the key figures in this discussion was a close adviser to bin Zayed, a Palestinian wo had emigrated years ago from Gaza to Abu Dhabi and maintained “strong ties in the Strip.” He stressed that the Emirati ruler impressed on Netanyahu that there needed to be a strong preparation for the threat.

According to the article, the emir stressed that Sinwar was preparing a major event. “cocurently,, he recommended trying to find an exonomic solution for the Strip and calming the West Bank to prevent escalation.”

While Bin Zayed urged Natanuahy to take the situation seriously, to his surprise, Netanuahy reacted with relative calm. He told Bin Zayed that Hamas intended to operate in the West Bank area and that Israel was prepared for any scenario.

MBZ would later recount the conversation and the warnings he relayed to Netanyahu to CIA Director William J. Burns. He (MBZ) shared with Burns his sense that as he tried to convey to Netanuahy that something was about to explode in Gaza, Netanyahu believed the volatile area was in the West Bank.

The emir hoped that nevertheless, Netanyahu would take action. “none of them imagined that the prime minister would hear the message but wouldn’t brief the heads of the defense establishment. The head of the Shin Bet, the head of the Mossad, the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff – none of them knew about bin Zayed’s warning (Eldar, 9/8/26).

For months Netanyahu had been conducting talks with Hamas about a temporary truce aimed at a long-term arrangement. Negotiations were being conducted over a lifting of the blockade on Gaza, increasing shipments of food and raw materials, establishing a trade zone along the Strip’s border which would provide thousands of jobs. The Egyptians were willing to allow Palestinians to have safe passage to the airport in Sharm el-Sheikh, and there was a proposal to supply them natural gas.

In the summer of 2023 it seemed the economic matters had been solved and negotiations over prisoners were going well. The participants were optimistic. Then, things slowed down. There was speculation that Netanyahu was afraid of reaching an agreement with Hamas, or that he feared his extremist partners in his new government, or that the agreement would leak to the media. And, so negotiations stalled for weeks and weeks.

Hamas head Sinwar was displeased. Those involved in the talks tried to reassure him that Netanyahu was distracted by the protests over the judicial overhaul. Amid this turmoil, the perception grew among Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah that Israel was weakened and that the three together could defeat it. Senior Hamas officials tried to convince Iran to finance the attack.

Then, in early September 2023, Sinwar vanished from the negotiations. Thus the channel of contact between Shin Bet and Hamas, managed under Netanyahu’s approval, was cut off. Then, Sinwar met with one of the participants. “Tell the Israelis that if they don’t make progress, I’m preparing a huge surprise for them,” he told the man using language that implied war. The participant was afraid to tell Shin Bet, but also afraid not to tell them for fear they would think he was part of the Hamas effort. In yet another meeting with Sinwar, he made it plain that he wanted the Israelis informed of his threat word for word. Still, nothing happened.

The Emirati ruler decided to hold a conversation with Netanyahu himself. In a 45-minute conversation he conveyed an explicit warning about Sinwar’s intentions. A similar call came from the Egyptians about “a terrifying operation.” But Netanyahu told the Egyptians that they were in control in Gaza. It was the West Bank that was the problem and where they were diverting forces.” Neither call was passed along to a coordinating meeting about the situation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Eldar, Shlomi (9/8/26) “Revealed: Netanyahu received an explicit warning days before October 7. He didn’t brief Israel’s security chiefs.” Haaretz.

CHAPTER: ISRAEL

[1] The research was conducted for the new book “Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment, Kinneret Zmora publishing, In Hebrew by the authors of this article).