DOMINANT ANGLE
Bucharest sees the secret visit of Netanyahu to the Emirates as less of a diplomatic gesture than an implicit admission of what Israeli intelligence knew before October 7, 2023.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
The Israeli Prime Minister spoke for about an hour on Sunday with President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi, confirms Netanyahu's office (Digi24).
- 02
According to Haaretz, the Emirati leader allegedly warned Netanyahu ten days before October 7, 2023, that a Hamas operation was being prepared, a warning not passed on to Israeli security services (Mediafax).
- 03
The issue resurfaces a month before the Israeli legislative elections on October 27, as the opposition accuses Netanyahu of failing to prevent the attack (Mediafax).
ANALYSIS
Bucharest, September 29, 2026. What the Romanian press retains from Benyamin Netanyahu's secret visit to the United Arab Emirates is not so much the diplomacy as the implicit admission of a failure of the Israeli intelligence before October 7, 2023. Digi24 confirms that the Prime Minister traveled to Abu Dhabi on Sunday and spoke for about an hour with President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan; Netanyahu's office indicated that the meeting "focused on strengthening relations between the two countries and regional challenges". An initial dispatch, citing Channel 12 and Reuters, had mentioned a trip on Monday, before the official version, confirmed by the Emirates on Monday evening, set the meeting on Sunday. Netanyahu's office also filed a complaint against Channel 12 for revealing the trip.
The visit comes after revelations from the Israeli daily Haaretz, according to which the Emirati leader would have warned Netanyahu, ten days before the Hamas attack, that a large-scale operation was being prepared - a warning that the Prime Minister allegedly did not transmit to his security services. Mediafax cites an Associated Press source stating that Netanyahu asked Mohammed bin Zayed to publicly deny having issued this warning. Netanyahu denies having made this request and has threatened Haaretz with lawsuits. The Emirates, for their part, simply say they do not comment on "press information or speculation about conversations between leaders", while ensuring they maintain with Israel "open and direct lines of communication" and share "all relevant information".
For the Romanian press, the stakes go beyond the diplomatic rift: Mediafax emphasizes that the affair relaunches the question of what the Israeli authorities knew about Hamas' intentions, and whether the signals received before October 7 - approximately 1,200 deaths, 250 hostages - were correctly assessed. The issue resurfaces a month before the legislative elections of October 27, where the opposition already accuses Netanyahu of having failed to prevent the attack and draw consequences from it.
