Likud MK Amit Halevi, a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said Sunday in an interview with Kan Reshet Bet that “the army must change its attitude toward democracy,” saying that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was kept in the dark during the war regarding issues connected to the fighting in Gaza.

Halevi said: “We are after a war in which the prime minister was excluded, and conversations were held behind his back—these things should not happen in a democracy. The army is not a private militia, not of Herzi Halevi and not of Eyal Zamir.”

When asked what conversations had taken place behind Netanyahu’s back, Halevi replied that, according to him, these were “discussions with international actors. The exclusion of the prime minister occurred not only on the night of October 7, but throughout the war, on various issues related to operations in the Gaza Strip.”

Referring to the night of October 7, Halevi said: “On the night of October 7, I think we all saw the affidavits submitted by Ronen Bar, including the Southern Command chief who was with him at 3 a.m., as he described to the High Court. All these things — as he put it in the affidavit — they feared there would be some ‘spillover’ into a multi-front event, but somehow one person in Jerusalem, Binyamin Netanyahu, was deliberately not updated about the possibility of a multi-front escalation.”

Asked about establishing a state commission of inquiry, Halevi responded: “First of all, what matters is fixing things, and the main mission facing the Chief of Staff today is not only finding who is responsible for the past, but mainly correcting things for the future.”

He added that two or three months after October 7, he approached opposition lawmakers with a proposal — which he said has since evolved into legislation promoted by MKs Moshe Saada and Ariel Kellner — to establish a parity-based commission of inquiry.

“Yes, this was originally my proposal,” he said.

“Unfortunately, my colleagues in the opposition opposed it; they didn’t want it.  And even today, I say this with both sorrow and astonishment, because ultimately, as you said, we want a commission of inquiry in which everyone can ask all the questions.”

He continued: “A state commission of inquiry, once it is appointed by the High Court — effectively by whoever calls himself the president of the High Court — will lead exactly where everyone knows it will lead. And I think it’s important to hear all sides; after all, that is the purpose of an inquiry — to investigate the truth, to demand and examine all sides.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)