The mask has slipped. Less than a month before Israelis head to the polls on October 27, two bombshells have detonated in the political arena—and they are both pointing directly at Benjamin Netanyahu.

First came the Haaretz investigation, which alleged that Netanyahu received a direct, explicit warning from UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed ten days before the October 7 massacre. According to the report, the Emirati leader described Hamas’s impending operation as an

“earthquake”

that would destabilize the entire region.

Netanyahu’s response? He reportedly dismissed the threat, told the UAE president Israel was “prepared for any scenario,” and—crucially—failed to brief the heads of Shin Bet, Mossad, or the IDF.

Then Hillary Clinton walked into the fire. On Morning Joe, the former Secretary of State said what many have whispered for over two years: that Netanyahu either

“didn’t believe it”

“wanted to see what they [Hamas] could plan so that he could come down hard and enhance his position”.

Translation: she’s floating the theory that October 7 was, at minimum, a catastrophic act of political negligence—or at worst, a deliberate sacrifice of Israeli lives to save his own skin.

Netanyahu’s office has called the Haaretz report a

“wicked fabrication”

with and is preparing a defamation lawsuit. Haaretz, in turn, says the lawsuit’s

“sole purpose is to silence journalistic criticism”.

So why is Hillary Clinton suddenly saying this? Because she is no longer in power. She is not bound by the diplomatic niceties that constrained her as Secretary of State. And she knows that Netanyahu’s downfall would be a seismic shift in the region—one that could restore a two-state horizon and diminish the influence of the far-right coalition that has enabled the genocide in Gaza. Her words also signal that the Democratic establishment, which has been hemorrhaging support from Muslim and Arab-American voters over its complicity in Gaza, is beginning to distance itself from Netanyahu as a liability.

As for the elections, the impact is already showing. Netanyahu’s polls have hit “historic lows”. Opposition leaders—Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Liberman, and Yair Golan—have announced that establishing a state inquiry into October 7 will be their first act in office. They are framing this election as a referendum on whether Israel will finally hold its leader accountable for the deadliest intelligence failure in its history.

For Palestine and humanity, the message is clear: both Washington and Tel Aviv have treated Palestinian lives as collateral damage in a game of geopolitical chess. The revelations of October 7 are not just about one man’s corruption—they are about a system that has enabled apartheid, occupation, and genocide to continue with impunity. The coming weeks will test whether the Israeli public is willing to break that system—or whether they will allow it to bury them all.