Netanyahu says in Time magazine that he will remain in office

The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told Time magazine that he regrets the events that occurred due to the October 7 attack, while ensuring that he will remain in office as long as he can.

The American magazine interviewed the president on August 4 in his Jerusalem office, and asked him if he would apologize for not having prevented the attack, while he was at the head of the Israeli Government.

"Excuse me?" he replies. "Of course of course. I am deeply sorry that something like this happened. And you always look back and wonder: Could we have done something to avoid it?

Netanyahu has not formally taken responsibility for the security failures that allowed the attack to occur, which left some 1.200 dead, 251 kidnapped and sparked a war that has now lasted more than 10 months.

He even blamed the Defense and Security elite for the fiasco, although he later recanted.

In the interview he told Time that his main mistake was giving in to his Security Cabinet's reluctance to wage open war.

"If anything, I didn't sufficiently question the assumption that was common to all security agencies" that Hamas was not going to attack, he said.

"October 7 proved that those who said that Hamas was deterred were wrong," he stressed.

On the other hand, Netanyahu - who has been in power for 17 years in different terms - told Time that he will try to stay in his position as long as he can.

"I will stay in office as long as I believe I can help lead Israel to a future of security, lasting security and prosperity," he said.

"I'd rather have bad press than a good obituary," he mentioned in the interview.

Asked whether an opposition leader should remain in power if he were responsible for Israel's worst security failure, he replied: "It depends."

«Are they capable of leading the country in a war? Can they lead him to victory? Can you ensure that the post-war situation will be one of peace and security? If the answer is yes, they should remain in power," he argued, before concluding that "the decision is the people's."

In Israel there have only been three significant resignations due to the Hamas attack: that of the head of Israeli military intelligence, General Aharon Haliva, that of Brigadier General Avi Rosenfeld, commander of the Gaza division, and that of the head of the southern district of Israel's internal intelligence service (Shin Bet), whose identity, like that of all the workers of this agency, was not revealed.

In October, the head of the Shin Bet, Ron Bar, apologized for what happened on October 7 and assumed responsibility, but for now he remains in office.

Agencies contributed to this Aurora article.