WASHINGTON D.C Sept 10, 2026 – Hillary Clinton, speaking Thursday on MS NOW’s Morning Joe, cited a new Haaretz report that UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed personally warned Benjamin Netanyahu days before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack—and floated a politically explosive interpretation of why the Israeli prime minister may not have acted.
“Netanyahu had been literally called by Sheikh Mohammed, MBZ, from UAE, and warned that Hamas was planning something,” Clinton said. “And either he didn’t believe it or he—it’s horrible to say—he wanted to see what they could plan so that then he could come down hard, and it would enhance his position.”
She immediately qualified the second possibility as “horrible to say,” adding that she did not know Netanyahu’s thinking. She described the result as “a failure of imagination,” “a failure of leadership,” and “a failure of protecting the people of Israel.”
A short clip of those remarks circulated rapidly Thursday evening after BRICS News posted it with the headline that Clinton had suggested the attack “was an inside job.” That framing overstates her words. Clinton did not claim Israeli officials planned or executed the massacre. She treated the Haaretz account as a leadership and intelligence-failure story and speculated about possible political motives.
The comments refer to reporting published this week drawn from an upcoming book, Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment, by journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval. According to Haaretz, bin Zayed called Netanyahu about 10 days before October 7 for a 45-minute conversation and warned that Hamas Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar was preparing a major operation—described in related messages as an “earthquake” or “terrifying operation.” The report said Netanyahu appeared calm, told the Emirati leader Israel was prepared for any scenario, and did not brief Israel’s security chiefs on the call.
Netanyahu’s office has called the account false. It said no such warning was given to the prime minister by the UAE before October 7, that any relevant information would have gone through intelligence channels, and that call logs show no conversation with bin Zayed in the relevant window. Netanyahu has instructed lawyers to sue Haaretz and the authors for defamation, describing the story as a “fabricated” and “sinister” attack. Haaretz has stood by the reporting. Some Israeli opposition figures, including former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, said the core claim was true. An Emirati source separately confirmed the call to The Times of Israel. The UAE government has not publicly confirmed or denied the substance of the conversation.
Clinton paired the October 7 remarks with a familiar distinction she has drawn before: “I hate Netanyahu’s government and his policies.” She made the same contrast with the United States and President Trump. She argued that who leads Israel “really does make a difference,” pointed to settler violence in the West Bank as something that must not have impunity, and said Washington should take “a very tough position” if Israeli voters return Netanyahu’s coalition. A new government, she said, would be easier to work with.
The remarks come as Israel heads toward elections and as the October 7 intelligence and political failures remain a live issue nearly three years later. Clinton’s clip is already being used by critics of Netanyahu as confirmation of long-standing accusations of negligence or political calculation, and by his supporters as another example of outsiders amplifying contested Israeli press reports. The Haaretz allegations themselves remain disputed and are now headed toward litigation.
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