Coalition fractures and October 7 accountability gaps
Avi Gil's withheld warnings and Shas's distancing from haredi protesters expose deepening internal tensions.
Coalition fractures and October 7 accountability gaps — At 3:55 AM on October 7, 2023, Avi Gil received a message in the military secretariat's operational chat about unusual signs in the Gaza Strip. He did not pass the information to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and did not wake him from sleep. At 06:15, about 14 minutes before the Hamas attack, the Shin Bet sent a specific warning to Gil, yet he still did not update Netanyahu. Only at 06:29, with the attack underway, did Gil wake the Prime Minister, limiting his report to the fact of the attack itself; the full information reached Netanyahu at 06:44, about a quarter of an hour later. [^1] This timeline, exposed by Channel 14, adds granular detail to a pattern of institutional failure now being scrutinized in real time. State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman, appointed by Netanyahu, declared in advance that he would not impose personal responsibility or publish names — a posture Dr. Nachman Shai, writing in Maariv, describes as having "buried" the institution. [^2] The comptroller's approach contrasts sharply with the detailed operational chronology now entering public discourse, raising questions about whether any formal accountability mechanism will follow. Meanwhile, coalition tensions surfaced on the street. On Thursday, Brig. Gen. (res.) Ofer Winter, chairman of the People of Israel party, was confronted by anti-draft haredi protesters from the Jerusalem Faction (Peleg Yerushalmi) in Bnei Brak. Protesters hurled insults including "Nazi, dog. Get out of here!" [^3] Shas quickly distanced itself, issuing a statement under the signature "Shas activists" that read: "Crazy people, we're fed up with you!" [^4] The party has been promoting a statesmanlike image, protecting Torah scholars without standing against IDF soldiers — a balancing act that the Jerusalem Faction's militancy threatens to undermine. The question now is not whether these fractures will widen, but what new evidence of October 7 failures will emerge to accelerate them. [^5] Election stalemate: Bloc parity and internal mandate wars — Shaul Meridor, a senior member of Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar! party, refused to be impressed by the latest poll