While the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) took a significant amount of responsibility for the disasters on October 7 in its report published unexpectedly on Tuesday, it also implicated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by implying that his policies regarding the Temple Mount, the treatment of Palestinian prisoners, and the judicial reform led to Hamas’s decision to initiate its long-planned invasion.
The report never mentions Netanyahu by name, and technically, some of these policies were those of then-national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Netanyahu, though, as prime minister, allowed many of the policies to continue despite having the power to stop them.
Ben-Gvir vastly expanded the volume of Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount compared to prior years, violated some of the rules of what activities could be performed on the Temple Mount, publicly called for completely changing the “status quo” there, and enforced policies that worsened the treatment of Palestinian prisoners.
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