Benjamin Netanyahu sent Haaretz a warning letter, the newspaper reported on Wednesday — the step that comes before a libel suit — naming the newspaper and the two reporters who wrote that the president of the United Arab Emirates telephoned him weeks before October 7 with an explicit warning. Haaretz says it stands by the reporting.
Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval published the account on Tuesday, drawn from an investigation they conducted for a new book. In September 2023, they report, Mohammed bin Zayed called the Israeli prime minister and delivered a harsh warning about a major Hamas operation. Netanyahu briefed none of Israel's security chiefs. Everything past that opening sits behind Haaretz's paywall, so it stands as Haaretz's reporting and nothing more.
Netanyahu answered inside the piece itself. "This is an absolute lie," he said. Then he sent the letter.
Israelis have argued for two years about who knew what before October 7, mostly through leaks and inference. Eldar and Yuval put a named head of state on a phone line, on a date, with a warning the prime minister could have handed to his own generals.
The lawyers are the tell. He is fighting a newspaper seven weeks out from an election he is losing — and the Emiratis, given the chance to knock the story down, chose their words instead.
