Ishai Vaknin, Director General of the State Comptroller's Office, spoke with 103FM Radio about the the difficulties the office has faced in investigating the failures which led to the October 7 massacre.
While working to investigate these failures on the part of the IDF and National Security Council (NSC), the Office found that former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, who stepped down earlier this month, was a factor which made the work of investigation much more difficult.
During the interview, Vaknin said that Halevi was an obstacle to State Comptroller Matan Englman during the attempts to investigate the failures: "The answer is absolutely yes. At the end of the day, from the start of the road when the State Comptroller decided to get into criticism, we did not come from a place of haughtiness and condescension. We did it with mercy and kindness, we decided on a gradual method. And there was foot-dragging, and there was a desire to do everything so that we would not get into an investigation of the heart of the failure, unfortunately. They gave us topics in a casing."
He added that after Herzi Halevi stepped down and a new Chief of Staff took his place, things quickly changed: "The fact is, already in the first week, the Deputy Chief of Staff came in and immediately called me up and said, 'Let's finish it all.' When you want to, you can do anything."
Regarding his recent letter to the NSC, Vaknin said, "We are not against the NSC at all - we enlighten them... We are in the midst of a lengthy process with it, because it is a very significant body for examining the failure of October 7. Unfortunately the pace does not allow us to do things at the timetables we planned. We sent the letter to say, 'Come friends, you are not harming the State criticism. There is a law which dictates which materials and when they are passed, and you are not setting conditions for us.'"
Asked if he believes that the State Comptroller's examination of the matter is intended to prevent the formation of a government investigative committee, Vaknin said no.
"The creation of a government investigation committee is a political decision by the government. We, with the authority of the State Comptroller, are the only body today which conducts objective criticism which is independent and systematic. The issue with the IDF and ISA investigations is that there is no one looking at it from above. No one is showing the full picture of the situation. We are, as of today, the only body."