‘We Had No Warning’: Biden’s Former Middle East Adviser Backs Netanyahu Over October 7

A former Middle East adviser to Presidents Obama and Biden, Brett McGurk, seems to defend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against political opponents’ accusation of October 7, 2023 failures, as well as insufficient efforts afterwards to release hostages. As Israel’s October 27 national election near, Mr. Netanyahu stands steadfast against the appointment of a commission of inquiry to investigate what went wrong three years ago, when Israel suffered one of the Jewish people’s darkest days. In lieu of a comprehensive independent probe, anti-Bibi politicians’ accusations against the premier are intensifying. Mr. McGurk, a Democrat who also served as Mideast adviser to President Trump, now says he supports an Israeli investigation. At the same time, though, he is pushing back against Israeli and American press reports claiming that Emirati, Egyptian, and other Arab intelligence officials warned Mr. Netanayhu in 2023 that Hamas was preparing a major attack on Israeli soil.“We had no warning, and the Israelis had no warning, from what they told us,” Mr. McGurk told Israel’s I-24 this week. “And I think they very much need to have a commission of inquiry of some kind, to figure out what was missed and to make the reforms necessary so that nothing ever gets missed again.”A new book by Mr. McGurk, a veteran Mideast diplomat who led Mr. Biden’s negotiations over the release of Israelis held in Gaza, is titled “Brink: Inside the Race to Free the October 7 Hostages.” Those efforts finally bore fruit on October 13, 2025, when the last 20 living hostages were released by Hamas after 738 days in captivity. On January 26, 2026, the remains of all dead bodies were also returned to Israel from Gaza. Critics claim Mr. Netanyahu dragged his feet, saying that hostages could have been freed on several occasions during the war, albeit at a high price. One of those critics was a former army chief of staff, Gadi Eisenkot, who currently leads Mr. Netanyahu in polls on suitability to become prime minister. “It would be a great mistake to delay the return of the hostages until we reach an arrangement with Gaza and Egypt on the Philadelphi Corridor,” Mr. Eisenkot said in August, 2024. Two months earlier the former general resigned from a Netanyau-led unity government over strategy differences. Those include Mr. Eisenkot’s insistence that releasing hostages was more urgent than further military assaults on Hamas. Mr. Eisenkot resigned soon after the Israel Defense Forces launched an operation to capture the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza. “There was no deal Hamas was prepared to accept” before that operation, Mr. McGurk told podcaster Dan Senor this week.Mr. McGurk added that even earlier Israel had agreed to painful concessions suggested by the Biden administration, including the release of top terrorists in its prisons. Hamas, though, rejected a deal. The idea that all the hostages could have been released if the war ended in its early days were “absolute b—t,” Mr. McGurk told Mr. Senor. The Biden administration assessed that Hamas was going to keep some hostages at any point, he added. One deal fell apart when Hamas rejected a plan to release all women captives. The October 7 architect, Hamas’s military leader Yahya Sinwar, led a hardline in negotiations, Mr. McGurk says. No deal for releasing all hostages, Mr. McGurk adds, was possible prior to Sinwar’s killing by the IDF in October 2024. Ultimately, he says, Israel’s military pressure “was what made the deals possible.” The debate in Israel over October 7 is far from over. Questions about culpability and wondering if killed hostages could have been saved are only heating up. The massacre and Gaza war conduct could be a decisive factor in this month’s election. Mr. Netanyahu’s supporters are praising Mr. McGurk’s candid statements, while his opponents argue that Bibi’s pushback against a thorough investigation proves he has things to hide.

‘We Had No Warning’: Biden’s Former Middle East Adviser Backs Netanyahu Over October 7

‘We Had No Warning’: Biden’s Former Middle East Adviser Backs Netanyahu Over October 7

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