Netanyahu should be held accountable for failing to stop Oct. 7

In the aftermath of 9/11, Americans started asking hard questions to our politicians. How could they not see this coming? Did they have an inkling that something was about to happen? What did our intelligence communities miss? It became obvious that the FBI was tracking several of the hijackers in this country, and it was well known that Osama bin Laden had been on the CIA’s radar for some time. But a lack of communication combined with the refusal to take these threats seriously led to an environment where these attacks did happen.

It was a lesson that Americans and people around the world learned, as they all have had to deal with terrorism, both domestic and international within their own borders. It could be said that it wasn’t the U.S. that led the way, but Israel who had a long track record of foiling terror plots against Israelis both at home and abroad. It made the attacks on Oct. 7 all the more shocking.

We are coming up on the third anniversary of Oct. 7, and we just had Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu come to our country and talk down to us . And by us, I mean all of his critics from the mayor of New York City to ordinary Americans frustrated with the perceived influence of Israel on American foreign policy. It seems that Netanyahu is just trying to distract from his own failures to protect his own people.

In the aftermath of the attacks, I was sent a video of Charlie Kirk. Now, I am nowhere near Kirk politically speaking, but this particular video was intriguing to me. Like Kirk, I had visited the Holy Land on a pilgrimage with my parents. Being a Marine vet, in addition to taking in the holy sites and tourist spots, I noticed the incredible military and police presence in the area. On a trip to Bethlehem to visit the birthplace of Jesus Christ, we had to switch from an Israeli tour guide to a Palestinian. We struck up a conversation and I asked what it was like living with the Israelis. We talked about his lack of rights, the checkpoints, how hard it was to work, and the constant surveillance of the Israelis after the Second Intifada. But he told me, this was nothing compared to how Gaza was. He said something I would later hear from Kirk’s own mouth: Gaza was the most surveilled place in the world .

CNN took Hamas propaganda videos of their training for the attacks and showed us (in October 2023) how the terrorist group trained not in a foreign country like Iran or Afghanistan, but in Gaza . And they weren’t hiding in tunnels. They were training out in the open for all to see, using real guns and explosives. They conducted military exercises less than a half mile from the border checkpoint they would later overrun, in broad daylight. There was no way that the Israelis did not know an attack was coming.

There are reports that Netanyahu was warned about the attacks and did nothing . The BBC among others reported a mere five days after the attack that the Egyptians had sent a warning to Netanyahu in advance. We now know that warning came over a week before the attack happened . If that wasn’t bad enough, Haaretz, an Israeli-based news organization broke that the United Arab Emirates also warned Netanyahu of the attack in September of 2023.

Now, I can’t and won’t speak into what Netanyahu was thinking or what he thought was going to happen. But I do know that he was facing a lot of trouble with charges of corruption and massive demonstrations against his efforts to remake Israel’s Supreme Court. He also took power making promises to hard-line factions that have a very sinister view toward all Palestinians.

It is baffling that Netanyahu was never held accountable for his failures to protect his own people. I get that there was a need to get the hostages back and a change in leadership might have been bad. But there still should have been some accountability, especially from the American end. Sending money and arms to Israel has grown more unpopular on both sides of the aisle. Many people think the current war in Iran was at the behest of Netanyahu and his PowerPoint presentation to President Trump in the White House Situation Room.

The time for accountability is now, and better late than never. His knowledge and lack of action on the warnings (both internal and external) put the Israelis in such a bad position militarily that the attacks were worse than they should have been. It is not certain that the Oct. 7 attacks could have been prevented, but surely their magnitude could have been mitigated with preventive actions.

Netanyahu will soon face a general election . Now is as good a time as any to finally hold him accountable for his failure to protect his own people.

Joslin Joseph is a recipient of the Military Reporters and Editors award for Best Commentary-Opinion. A graduate of Harvard and Ohio State, he is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq. He currently lives in Anaheim, Calif.