Gali Baharav-Miara, Israel’s Attorney General, is pushing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to establish an official and independent commission of inquiry into the ongoing war in Gaza and the failures that led to the October 7 Hamas massacre. This as Minister without portfolio in Israel’s special war cabinet Benny Gantz, a former Minister of Defense and former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), is expected to resign from the government Saturday night when Netanyahu fails to meet a deadline for accepting Gantz’s demands on Gaza policy.
Over the last few months, after the initial shock over the October 7 massacre lessened, more Israelis have been pushing for such an official inquiry into how their country’s security establishment could have failed them so badly in failing to predict the attack, or to at least have been better prepared for it.
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“Our professional position is that a state commission of inquiry is the appropriate legal mechanism for examining issues of the scope and degree of national importance of the events of the Iron Swords War,” Gali Baharav-Miara wrote in a letter to Benjamin Netanyahu. “A state commission of inquiry is the best means of dealing with the current risks at the international legal level, which, if they materialize, could lead to significant harm to the interests of the state – and of course to the prime minister and the security forces personally.”
Baharv-Mia added that such a commission must be “completely” separated from government authority in order to be empowered to do what is necessary and be free of political concerns.
“A situation where the executive authority is the one that appoints the mechanism that is supposed to check its operation and the conduct of its leaders will miss the mark,” she said.
“There is an importance in activating a mechanism that exists in the law, as opposed to creating a new dedicated mechanism, which may be perceived as one designed to ensure optimal conditions for the parties under investigation,” she added.
Meanwhile, Benny Gantz will soon return to the opposition benches in the Knesset if he makes good on his threat. Gantz was an opposition leader before the October 7 massacre; however, he joined the special war cabinet formed in its aftermath.
One of Gantz’s main demands is that Benjamin Netanyahu establish a formal plan for what will come in a post-Hamas Gaza after the war is over.
