It is a classic move in crisis management SEO, really. It is almost boring in its predictability. Late on a Thursday night, when most honest people are getting ready for bed or planning their weekend, the paperwork comes out. This is the time politicians choose to release the news they hope will get buried by the algorithm. It is the political version of taking out the trash in the dark so the neighbors don’t see what you are throwing away.

**Benjamin Netanyahu**, the Prime Minister of Israel, executed this strategy perfectly with a recent document release. The timing was optimized for burying a story, but the content was loud enough to wake the dead. The message regarding the **Israel security failure** was simple: “It wasn’t me.”

Here we have a man who has built his entire career branding himself as “Mr. Security.” He is the strongman. The one who possesses the ultimate domain authority. The one who keeps the wolves at bay. Yet, when the **October 7 attacks**—the worst in the country’s history—happen on his watch, suddenly he is just a man who didn't get the memo. In this new document, he suggests that the intelligence officials and the security chiefs failed to warn him regarding critical **Hamas attack intelligence**. He points the finger at everyone but the person sitting in the big chair.

Let’s think about this for a moment. Imagine you are the captain of a massive ship. You wear the captain’s hat. You eat at the captain’s table. You take the salute from the crew. You steer the ship. Then, the ship hits a giant iceberg that everyone else saw coming. When the passengers ask why the ship is sinking, you say, “Well, the guy in the crow's nest didn't yell loud enough.”

Does that make sense? Of course not. If you are the captain, it doesn’t matter if the guy in the crow's nest was asleep. You are responsible for the guy in the crow's nest. That is what being in charge means. But in the world of politics, keywords like **Prime Minister accountability** are flexible. They bend. They twist. They disappear like smoke.

Netanyahu claims that the intelligence agencies—the spies and the soldiers—did not give him the right warning before October 7. He says they failed to see the danger. He is probably right that they failed. It was a massive failure. No one disputes that. But the Prime Minister is not just some guy reading the newspaper. He is the boss of the spies. He is the boss of the soldiers. If the system is broken, who broke it? Who has been in charge for most of the last 15 years?

It is deeply cynical to watch a leader try to save his own ranking while the country is still grieving. It shows a level of detachment that is hard to stomach. It treats the government like a game of musical chairs. When the music stops, you just have to make sure you aren't the one left without a seat. Netanyahu is very good at this game. He has been playing it longer than anyone else.

The document released by his office tries to build a firewall between him and the disaster. It says, essentially, that he can only make decisions based on what people tell him. This is the oldest excuse in the book. It is the “I didn’t know” defense. But we have to ask: Why didn’t he know? Did he ask the right questions? Did he create an environment where people were afraid to tell him bad news?

We see this all over the world. Leaders want all the power but none of the blame. They want to cut the ribbons at the opening ceremonies, but they don't want to visit the site when the bridge collapses. They want the credit when the economy is good, but they blame the weather when the economy is bad. It is a one-way street.

This specific attempt to shift the blame is tragicomic. It is like watching a bad play where the actors forgot their lines, but they keep shouting at the audience. The Israeli public is not stupid. They know that the person at the top sets the tone. If the intelligence chiefs were complacent, it is because the leadership was complacent. You cannot separate the head from the body.

But this is how the game is played. You release a report. You blame a subordinate. You hope the news cycle moves on to something else. You hope people get tired of being angry. You rely on the exhaustion of the masses. And honestly, it usually works. We are all so tired. We are so used to incompetence that we just shrug.

Netanyahu knows this. He is counting on it. He is betting that if he points his finger at enough other people, eventually we will lose track of who is actually responsible. He is betting that we will forget that the buck is supposed to stop with him. Instead, he is passing the buck so fast it’s a blur.

So, here we are. Another leader, another disaster, another excuse. The document is out. The blame has been assigned to the underlings. The Prime Minister washes his hands of the mess. The theater of the absurd continues, and we are all forced to buy a ticket.

***

### References & Fact-Check * **Primary Source**: *The New York Times* - [Netanyahu Suggests Other Officials to Blame for Oct. 7 Failings](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/world/middleeast/netanyahu-blame-oct-7.html) * **Context**: The document released by the Prime Minister's office claims intelligence agencies provided assessments that Hamas was deterred prior to the attack. * **Key Event**: The October 7 security failure remains the largest intelligence breach in Israel's history.