Netanyahu sues Haaretz over a warnings report as his rival builds a documentary defence

Haaretz reported on 29 September that Netanyahu had filed a libel suit against the paper over its September investigation saying he disregarded an explicit warning before the Hamas attack, and that he is suing other outlets and journalists as well. ABC News in Australia, writing on 30 September, described the wider pattern: with only weeks to the election, “an unrelenting stream of well-sourced, detailed stories has suddenly appeared documenting multiple failures by Netanyahu,” including reporting that by early October 2023 two Egyptian warnings about signs of an impending attack from Gaza had gone unheeded. The underlying source for the Egyptian-warnings claim is not identified in ABC’s account and should be read as ABC’s characterisation, not as a primary document.

The traffic runs both ways. The Times of Israel reported on 2 September that Yair Golan was preparing to present a timeline of his own movements on 7 October 2023, with supporting documents, in his libel lawsuit — filed as the charge of “betrayal” on that day became central to Likud’s official campaign. Two of the three figures with a plausible claim on the premiership are now asking civil courts to establish, under rules of evidence and before a vote, what each of them knew and did on a morning the state’s own inquiries have not conclusively settled.

Assessment: Libel actions are a slow instrument aimed at a fast target: nothing filed in late September will be adjudicated before 27 October. The function is in the filing. For Netanyahu a writ converts an investigative report into a contested allegation that broadcasters must hedge; for Golan a document-backed timeline turns a campaign slogan into something an opponent must substantiate or withdraw. The side-effect is that discovery may put warning-chain material into the public record that no commission of inquiry has yet extracted — which is why the filings themselves, not the coverage of them, are the thing to read. Note also the timing question ABC raises without answering: who is releasing this material, and when it was available.