The head of the “Israel Beytenu” party, Avigdor Lieberman, reignited the controversy over the secret visit made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Abu Dhabi, assessing that Netanyahu asked the President of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, to deny the reports that spoke of an Emirati warning that preceded the attack on October 7, 2023, and that the latter refused to respond to that.
This came during an interview by Lieberman on radio “103FM” with journalists Gideon Okko and Amichai Itali, during which he touched on the details of the visit, which the Associated Press indicated that Netanyahu exploited to urge the Emirati president to deny the story that he had received advance warning of a major Hamas move, which the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office has repeatedly denied.
Lieberman based his assessment, which he described as personal, on the timing of the visit coinciding with Netanyahu’s issuance of a statement accusing Arab countries of interfering in the elections to try to bring him down, considering that this reflects an attempt to remedy the matter after the refusal of the Emirati side, as Bin Zayed was quoted as saying: “I am not ready to lie for you.” He added that Netanyahu’s subsequent attack on former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar proves the existence of undisclosed secrets.
In the same security context, Lieberman revealed that he handed Netanyahu in early December 2016 – when he was defense minister – an 11-page document that included a detailed scenario of Hamas members storming Israeli territory, taking control of Gaza border towns and capturing civilians, stressing that Netanyahu was fully aware of these risks. He also pointed out that former Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman warned Netanyahu in 2019 about the leakage of Qatari funds to the military wing of Hamas, which the Prime Minister’s Office also denied.
Lieberman strongly criticized what he described as the “containment” policy pursued by Netanyahu, considering that the latter was fully aware of the occurrence of the massacre and wondering about the reasons for the absence of a logical explanation for his behavior. He held Netanyahu politically and administratively responsible for what happened on October 7, noting that more than 2,000 Israelis had been killed and about 26,200 soldiers and security personnel injured since the outbreak of the war, 65% of whom were suffering from psychological crises, according to Defense Ministry data issued in July 2026. Lieberman compared this evasion of responsibility to the case of the president of the “Bnei Zion” Academy being sentenced to 10 years in prison due to administrative responsibility in the Wadi disaster. Tzavet.
On the internal political level, Lieberman announced that his party aims to assume the “Internal Security” portfolio in the next government in favor of Knesset member Hamad Ammar, the representative of the Druze community on the list. He reviewed his party’s previous record in the ministry led by Yitzhak Aharonovitch, calling for the adoption of a comprehensive plan to combat organized crime through the establishment of a “national body” that includes the Shin Bet, the police, the Public Prosecution, and the tax and money laundering authorities, warning against the transformation of criminal gangs in the Negev into something resembling “elite” units.
With these positions, Lieberman reconnects the discussion between the secret scenes of the Abu Dhabi visit and the record of previous intelligence warnings, placing responsibility for the events of October 7 at the forefront of the political battle over the lack of accountability and the decisions resulting from those warnings.
