Lapid warns ‘crazy incitement’ against Ronen Bar could lead to ‘political murder’
‘Silence your ministers,’ opposition leader pleads with Netanyahu, whose office reportedly pressured the ousted Shin Bet chief not to file a statement to the High Court
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Warning that a red line has been crossed, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid on Sunday evening called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt incitement against Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar before it leads to “political murder.”
At a press conference in Tel Aviv, the Yesh Atid party chairman referred to multiple social media posts by Israelis calling for Bar’s execution — as well as posts by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and the prime minister’s son, Yair Netanyahu, accusing the senior security official of attempting to mount a “coup.”
“I now want to issue a warning based on unequivocal intelligence information: We are on the way to another disaster. This time it will come from within. The levels of incitement and madness are unprecedented. There will be political murder here. Jews will kill Jews,” Lapid said, arguing that “the terrorists… could not have received a greater gift” than a rupture between the Shin Bet and the government.
“I call out to the prime minister: Stop this. It’s on you. You can stop this. Silence your ministers, your son in Miami, the mouthpieces you employ in the media. Instead of backing incitement, back the Shin Bet, the security forces, the systems that keep this country alive.”
Unless the incitement is stopped, “you won’t be able to say later, ‘I didn’t know,’” Lapid stated, cautioning that “the next disaster will be brought about by this crazy incitement” while also personally condemning incitement against the prime minister.
Netanyahu’s March 21 decision to fire Bar, which came in the middle of a Shin Bet investigation into the dealings of the prime minister’s close aides in the Qatargate scandal, prompted opposition parties and government watchdog groups to file petitions to the High Court of Justice seeking to halt the termination.
They accused Netanyahu of trying to stymie the probe and of firing Bar for political reasons, and requested that the court reverse the decision since, they argue, it was made with a conflict of interest and out of ulterior motives.
Netanyahu and the government, in response, have argued that the question of who heads the Shin Bet is a security matter that the court cannot get involved in; that the government no longer has faith in Bar to do his job; that forcing the government to work with Bar would harm national security; and that there is no conflict of interest since Netanyahu is not a suspect in the Qatargate affair.
In a chaotic session on April 8 — which was repeatedly interrupted by protesters, including Likud MK Tally Gotliv — the High Court heard petitions against Bar’s ouster and issued a temporary injunction against the move, urging the sides to find a compromise.
Bar is set to file a statement to the court on Monday in which, according to Hebrew media reports, he will announce that he will step down in May. He was initially scheduled to file his statement Sunday but the court granted his request to extend the deadline by one day.
In his statement, he is expected to further detail what he claims are the real reasons behind Netanyahu’s decision to fire him. Bar claimed in an initial letter to the court that Netanyahu had repeatedly demanded he tell the judges in the premier’s criminal trial that the prime minister could not regularly testify in court due to security concerns.
The Kan public broadcaster reported Sunday that the Prime Minister’s Office had put pressure on Bar not to file a statement to the court detailing his claims against the government and Netanyahu as to why he was fired.
According to the unsourced report, messages were passed to Bar from Netanyahu’s bureau saying if he refrained from filing a formal statement to the court he could resign on a mutually agreed upon date and could even be involved in choosing his successor.
During his press conference Sunday, Lapid said that “Ronen Bar should have resigned from his position after the swearing-in ceremony in October. The government is allowed to fire him as long as that is done through proper procedure, with the court’s approval, and without it harming the Qatargate investigation.”
Instead, Netanyahu has engaged in incitement against Bar, Lapid charged, noting that the ruling Likud party issued a statement last week accusing Bar and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of turning the security service into a “private militia of the deep state that undermines the rule of law and the foundations of democracy.”
“Such a statement has consequences. They know exactly what it does to some of their supporters,” he said, contending that such rhetoric emanating from “ministers and senior figures in the coalition” was leading Israel to “a dark and dangerous place.”
Following Lapid’s statement, Yair Golan, chairman of The Democrats opposition party, accused Netanyahu and his family of operating a “poison machine” that would “lead to another political murder, all in the name of the madness of clinging to your seat.”
‘Incitement against the prime minister’
Responding to Lapid’s allegations of incitement on Sunday evening, Education Minister Yoav Kisch shot back that the incitement against Netanyahu “crosses all boundaries.”
“As the chairman of the opposition, you are responsible for this and you cannot ignore it. We have already seen attempts to harm the prime minister. Lapid, it’s in your hands, stop it. You can’t say: ‘I didn’t know,'” he tweeted.
Netanyahu and his political allies have long complained about incitement against him and his family, pointing fingers at the justice system, law enforcement, and the attorney general for what they say is unchecked violent speech by members of the public.
In a statement, Netanyahu’s Likud party alleged that “for years, Lapid has not raised his voice against the wild and dangerous incitement directed at the prime minister, and even takes an active part in it.”
“He fuels the presentation of the prime minister with prisoner uniforms, guillotines and hanging ropes. When the prime minister is called a traitor and countless threats of murder are made — [Lapid] fills his mouth with water,” Likud accused. “The greater the drop in the polls, the greater the incitement by Lapid.”
Hitting back with its own statement, Lapid’s Yesh Atid party declared that Lapid had “condemned the incitement against Netanyahu many times, including tonight in his statement.”
“This response is everything that is dangerous and poisonous in this government. You were warned, you know how explosive and dangerous the situation is, and what is your response? Incite even more, increase the violence, continue to poison Israeli society,” Yesh Atid charged.
The Times of Israel Community.