Looking Over Benjamin Netanyahu’s Shoulder

Excerpt Yonah Jeremy Bob and Elliot Kaufman. In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel’s Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis (Brentwood, Post Hill Press). 352pp., $32.50. In the immediate aftermath of the October 7, 2023 massacre, Israeli leaders seriously considered directing their main counter-attack not at Hamas, which perpetrated the atrocities, but at Hezbollah, Tehran’s Lebanese proxy force that celebrated the killing but did not participate. Three men would determine Israel’s course of action: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and former IDF commander and opposition leader Benny Gantz, who brought his party into a unity government formed only days after the massacre. Despite Hamas’ slaughter of 1,200 victims in southern Israel and the abduction of 251 others, Gallant believed that Hezbollah posed a far greater threat, with its arsenal of rockets and missiles capable of devastating northern Israel. On October 11, Gallant tried to present his plan to Netanyahu but found the prime minister’s aides keeping him at arm’s length. When Gallant pressed the issue with Ron Dermer, a top Netanyahu adviser, Dermer called US national security adviser Jake Sullivan. That led to a call between Netanyahu and President Joe Biden, in which the American president warned the Israeli leader not to strike Hezbollah. Netanyahu responded, “I hear you. You’ve been very clear. But I also want to be clear that we’re going to make our own decision.” Taken at face value, it would seem that Netanyahu, like Gallant, preferred to strike at Hezbollah. But the defense minister sensed that the disagreement with Biden had been carefully orchestrated. Dermer likely reached out to Sullivan precisely so Netanyahu could pose as the advocate of an aggressive course of action while deliberately eliciting a warning from the White House not to proceed. Netanyahu would resist that advice at first, but it would later provide him with the political cover to reject the Hezbollah-first option without seeming timid. Dr. David Adesnik is the vice president of research at FDD, where he is responsible for the oversight of FDD publications and the supervision of FDD’s researchers.