"Arik, are you aware of this? I received no update": The behind-the-scenes drama of the Park Hotel attack

Yoni Ben Menachem recounts his phone call with Ariel Sharon on the night of the 2002 Passover Seder, in which, he says, Sharon first heard about the Park Hotel attack. According to Ben Menachem, Sharon said he had received no update from the Military Secretariat, told him he was convening the General Staff and launching a major operation in Judea and Samaria — the night the decision on Operation Defensive Shield was made.

Yoni Ben Menachem recounts a phone call with Ariel Sharon on the night of the 2002 Passover Seder, which he describes as the moment the prime minister learned of the attack at the Park Hotel in Netanya. According to him, Sharon had previously asked him to update him if "something big" happened, and that evening Ben Menachem called Havat Shikmim and told him about the suicide bombing and the massacre of the guests. According to Ben Menachem, Sharon's response was: "What are you talking about? I received no update from the Military Secretariat." Later in the conversation, he says, Sharon told him he was ordering a helicopter, convening the General Staff and launching a very large operation in Judea and Samaria, and asked him not to broadcast the remarks. Ben Menachem notes that in those months Israel was in the midst of a severe wave of terror, and pressure on the government to launch a broad military move grew. According to him, this was the night the decision was made to launch Operation Defensive Shield. He stresses that he called Sharon "as a friend," and adds that Sharon was close to him and had told him in the past: "I don't want to remain in the fog. If there's something big, update me." Ben Menachem describes the conversation as one of those rare conversations in which a journalist touches the margins of a historical event.