Sara Netanyahu’s remarks suggesting that Yair Golan knew about the October 7 attack are not merely a brazen lie aimed at a political rival ahead of crucial elections. They are also an irresponsible legitimization of conspiracy theories targeting Israel and Jews at a time of an explosion in radical anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
Speaking on Israeli television, Sara implied that Golan, leader of the opposition party The Democrats, who behaved with exceptional bravery that day, had known about the October 7 attack in advance.
This defense was primarily intended to exonerate her husband while accusing the country’s security services of failing to inform him in time, either to put him in difficulty or because they did not trust him.
It is also symptomatic that this attack came at exactly the same time as the prime minister himself was declaring that the security services – headed by IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Ronen Bar, and former head of the IDF Intelligence Directorate Aharon Haliva – had not deemed it necessary to wake him even as warning signs multiplied, because they anticipated a strong and determined response from him, which they wanted to avoid for fear of escalation.
This genuine revisionism would be pathetic and ridiculous if it did not once again highlight Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s absolute inability to accept even the slightest share of responsibility, instead shifting the blame onto others – the security services, members of the “elites” and the “deep state” against whom he has fought throughout his political career in the name of the Israeli people, according to his own mythical and mendacious narrative.
Golan, a former deputy chief of staff, is the archetype of this despised and supposedly untrustworthy army. By insinuating that Golan “knew,” Sara Netanyahu merely reinforced her husband’s narrative of deflection with the conspiratorial overtones that have proliferated in Israel and elsewhere since October 7.
That is precisely what makes her statement not only disgraceful, but irresponsible.
Antisemitism and radical anti-Zionism have exploded since October 7, with a particularly painful summer of 2026. They feed on clichés, simplifications, false and reductive accusations, and also conspiracy theories, which have always accompanied waves of antisemitism throughout history.
As New York prepares to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attack on the Twin Towers, the theory that Jews did not go to work at the World Trade Center and that the Mossad was behind the operation continues to thrive.
In the hours following the October 7 attack, theories began circulating that the Israeli army had known about it, that the people killed had been killed by the IDF, and that the army had allowed the incursion to unfold so that it could better justify the attack on Gaza and subsequently the “genocide” of Palestinians.
These theories gained even more traction because the image of an invincible, technologically advanced army was incompatible with the picture of a major defeat at the hands of Hamas, which was able to massacre 1,200 people within hours and take more than 250 hostages back to Gaza.
Adding fuel to the fire
In Israel, some of these theories circulated very early on in another form, particularly among Netanyahu supporters seeking to exonerate him, as his wife has done this week, by blaming the army, which supposedly concealed crucial information from him to make him bear responsibility for the failure surrounding this catastrophe, force him to resign, and thereby take revenge for the judicial reform he had initiated, which had brought hundreds of thousands of Israelis into the streets to oppose it.
Sara Netanyahu has therefore just added fuel to this infernal machine of lies with her latest remarks. Politically, they were undoubtedly foolish, because they resulted in television screens being flooded with images of Golan in uniform heading to the Nova festival to save young people.
But above all, they are a gift from heaven to all the antisemitic conspiracy theorists who can now bolster their lies with the words of the Israeli prime minister’s own wife.
The accusations of “genocide” can now be reinforced by claims of “premeditation by a murderous Zionist regime” that knew what was coming but allowed it to happen in order to indulge its “genocidal passion,” thanks to an irresponsible first lady who will undoubtedly be portrayed as a courageous whistleblower by antisemites such as Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes, or Tucker Carlson.
Congratulations, Mrs. Netanyahu.
Born and raised in France, the writer is the correspondent of French Jewish radio, Radio J, and of the French paper librejournal.fr in the US, where he has been living for 16 years. He is also a contributor to the European review K. He also holds US and Israeli citizenships. His opinions are his only.
