NYT: UAE warned Netanyahu of Hamas attack before October 7

The New York Times, identified with the American left, has joined Haaretz in claiming that United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed spoke secretly with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September 2023 and warned him of a major attack being planned by Hamas.

According to the report, two sources confirmed to the paper that the Emirati leader passed the information in a personal phone call, though the warning did not include precise technical details about the nature of the invasion.

Netanyahu firmly rejected the report, but sources close to the matter said that Sheikh Mohammed repeated the content of that conversation months later to then-CIA Director William Burns. The critical information never reached Israel's security chiefs.

A few days after the call, on October 1, 2023, Netanyahu convened security chiefs for a discussion on the situation in Gaza. At that meeting, according to the reports, the prime minister never mentioned to those present the secret warning he had received from the UAE president.

At the meeting, the prime minister demanded that quiet be maintained in Gaza, and according to the same report opposed the demand of senior officials to carry out targeted military operations against Hamas leaders in the Strip who were overseeing attacks in Judea and Samaria. Netanyahu explained to those present that military action could damage the chances of achieving a historic diplomatic agreement and establishing formal relations with Saudi Arabia.

The early warning proved in hindsight to be entirely accurate. On the morning of October 7, 2023, thousands of terrorists breached the border and murdered some 1,200 people, alongside the kidnapping of some 250 civilians and soldiers.

The security establishment chose to downplay the significance of numerous warning signs that had been spread across the field in the years leading up to the events. The IDF had even held since 2022 a Hamas battle plan called "Jericho Wall," but it was dismissed by senior ranks as an unrealistic scenario.

Netanyahu himself believed that Hamas was completely deterred, and instructed the security establishment to adopt a policy of postponing confrontations and preserving the terror organization as a restrained governing body that would engage in civilian management of the Strip.

The close ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, which strengthened significantly following the Abraham Accords in 2020, took a severe blow and have deteriorated since the outbreak of the war and the disputes surrounding management of the Strip.

The Likud responded this evening to the New York Times report:

"As we approach the elections, we are seeing a flood of false publications by enlisted leftist journalists, with the aim of bringing down the right and crowning a left-Muslim Brotherhood government that will surrender on all fronts.

Despite the denials from the United Arab Emirates, and despite the fact that it was proven by the Prime Minister's Office that no such conversation ever took place, they continue to spread the lie.

This time they are relying on the anti-Zionist New York Times, which published blood libels that Israel trains dogs against Palestinians and a cover photo of a 'starving child in Gaza' who later turned out to be suffering from a genetic disease, and which spreads daily Hamas claims that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

The public is smart and has long since stopped buying these lies."