Freddie Ponton
21st Century Wire
The Israeli prime minister reportedly flew to Abu Dhabi to suppress questions about what he knew before October 7. When journalists exposed the journey, Israel’s security establishment turned its attention to them.
About ten days before Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, Mohamed bin Zayed spent 45 minutes on the telephone with Benjamin Netanyahu and warned him that Yahya Sinwar was preparing a major operation, according to a Haaretz investigation. Fearing bloodshed, regional upheaval and damage to the Abraham Accords, the Emirati president reportedly pressed Netanyahu to treat the warning seriously. Netanyahu denies that bin Zayed warned him of an impending attack.
The New York Times later cited two people with knowledge of the exchange, including one who had spoken directly with bin Zayed. Both said the Emirati leader warned Netanyahu that Hamas was contemplating a major attack.
Five former Israeli officials told the Times that the warning never reached Israel’s security chiefs. Minutes from an October 1 meeting on Gaza, reviewed by the newspaper, contained no trace of it. Netanyahu instead urged officials to preserve calm in the Strip, even as some of those present argued for action against senior Hamas figures.
For three years, Netanyahu has placed responsibility for the catastrophe of October 7 on the military and intelligence services. In February, he released a 55-page response to Israel’s state comptroller that again directed blame towards security officials while distancing himself from the failures that occurred under his government. Haaretz’s account, independently corroborated by the Times, says the warning did reach him but went no further.
On Sunday, Netanyahu travelled secretly to Abu Dhabi and spent several hours there, including an hour with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed. Channel 12 disclosed the journey that night, before either government had acknowledged it.
Haaretz and Al-Monitor, working from separate sources, reported that Netanyahu asked the Emirati president to deny the account of their September 2023 conversation and reject any suggestion that he had warned Netanyahu before the October 7 incident. His office called the reports “fake news” and said the meeting dealt only with bilateral relations and regional challenges.
Abu Dhabi confirmed the encounter on Monday and almost nothing more. Its brief official statement said the two leaders had discussed relations between their countries and ways to strengthen them. It did not deny the telephone call described by Haaretz or that bin Zayed had warned Netanyahu before October 7.
Netanyahu’s office says Channel 12 reported the visit at 9:38 p.m., while the prime minister, his wife and senior security officials were still outside Israel, and that their aircraft landed at 10:27 p.m. The Shin Bet said the disclosure endangered the delegation and exposed operational methods, while a Mossad assessment described it as a serious security threat.
Channel 12 disputes that chronology, saying it withheld the story until Netanyahu had returned to Israel. The broadcaster maintains that the visit was a political story and therefore fell outside the military censor’s remit.
The precise timing may determine whether Channel 12 violated security restrictions, but it cannot answer why Netanyahu travelled secretly to Abu Dhabi. Nor should a dispute over when the story appeared replace the far more serious question of whether the prime minister sought a foreign leader’s help to discredit evidence about what he knew before October 7.
Netanyahu returned without the Emirati denial. The Shin Bet complaint nevertheless handed his office a new line of attack, replacing questions about the warning with accusations against the broadcaster that exposed his secret mission.
The scandal is not that the flight became known. It is that the truth about what Netanyahu knew about October 7 remains hidden.
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