DOMINANT ANGLE
Moscow sees Netanyahu's systematic use of lawsuits as a means to stifle revelations about the warnings received before October 7, rather than addressing them substantively.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
Netanyahu met with President Mohammed bin Zayed for about an hour in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, September 27, according to sources cited by the AP and reported by RT.
- 02
Netanyahu instructed to sue Haaretz for defamation, as well as the authors of the report, cited by the Wall Street Journal, on the Egyptian warnings transmitted by Abbas Kamel, according to TASS.
- 03
A joint audit of phone records conducted by the office, the national security council, and the military secretariat found, according to Netanyahu's office cited by TASS, no trace of the alleged call from bin Zayed.
ANALYSIS
Moscow, September 29, 2026. The Russian press is treating Benjamin Netanyahu's secret visit to the United Arab Emirates as the latest episode in a judicial offensive by the Israeli Prime Minister to stifle revelations about the warnings received before the October 7, 2023 attack. According to RT, citing the AP agency, Netanyahu secretly flew to Abu Dhabi on Sunday, September 27, and met with President Mohammed bin Zayed for about an hour, with the stated goal of asking him to deny having been warned, ten days before the attack, that Yahya Sinwar was preparing "a large-scale operation". This version, revealed by the daily Haaretz, earned the newspaper a defamation lawsuit ordered by Netanyahu, reports RT. The Prime Minister's office qualifies the accusation as "an absolute lie" and claims that a joint audit of phone records, conducted by the cabinet, the national security council, and the military secretariat, found no trace of such a call.
TASS expands on the picture: Netanyahu also instructed to pursue defamation lawsuits against the authors of a report, cited by the Wall Street Journal, according to which Egypt had transmitted at least three warnings before October 7, including one from former intelligence chief Abbas Kamel. The statement from the Prime Minister's office, reported by TASS, claims that Netanyahu "neither met nor spoke" with Kamel in the months preceding the attack. RIA Novosti, citing the Emirati agency WAM, reports the official version of the trip: a meeting dedicated to strengthening bilateral relations and addressing regional challenges, with the Prime Minister's office also qualifying the AP's articles as "fake news".
RT notes a similar approach elsewhere: Netanyahu is also preparing a case against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the International Criminal Court, whom he has qualified as "an anti-Semitic dictator", in a dispute where Ankara has requested a red notice from Interpol against him. For the Russian press, this double procedure - lawsuits against newspapers, a case against Erdogan - outlines the same strategy: responding to accusations of intelligence failures before October 7 through judicial means rather than a commission of inquiry, just a month before the October 27 legislative elections.
SOURCES (4)
- SputnikMEDIUM
- RIA NovostiMEDIUM
