Netanyahu Accused of Manipulating Documents Submitted to State Comptroller

A report alleges that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office engaged in a concerted effort to manage narratives and control information following the October 7th Hamas attack, in addition to the ongoing military operations. According to a senior reserve military official, two parallel internal "wars" were waged: one to shift blame for the failures onto the security establishment and intelligence community, and another to orchestrate actions, often described as secretive and unethical, to support the first war's objective. This included efforts to control the documentation of security discussions and war cabinet meetings, ensuring only one copy existed and was secured. The report highlights a specific instance where Netanyahu allegedly manipulated a Shin Bet intelligence report from February 2023 concerning Hamas's growing military capabilities. Netanyahu presented a document to the State Comptroller as his "full response," which the report claims was heavily edited, omitted crucial warnings about Hamas's offensive capabilities, and presented a misleading picture of the threat. For example, a sentence about Hamas's investment in precision weaponry was presented in a way that suggested the Israeli border barrier had neutralized the threat, while the original document contained further warnings about Hamas seeking technological breakthroughs, potentially with Iranian assistance, to overcome such obstacles. The report further details how Netanyahu selectively quoted from other intelligence assessments, omitting parts that indicated a more complex and dangerous situation than his narrative suggested, thereby contradicting his own mantra that "Hamas is deterred."