Liberman slams Likud MKs for outburst against Shin Bet over Temple Mount security

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman slammed two members of the ruling Likud party for criticizing the Shin Bet internal security service this week over its stance in favor of the removal of security measures placed at the Temple Mount in the wake of a terror attack at the holy site two weeks ago. Liberman asserted that the two MKs were more concerned about their public image than about the safety of Israel’s citizens.

In an interview with Channel 2 Saturday, Liberman said recent comments by Culture Minister Miri Regev and coalition chairman David Bitan were “miserable,” and commended the Shin Bet for its efforts to keep the Israeli public secure.

“The Shin Bet stops and prevents terrorism all the time. It is a shame that such things were said,” Liberman said.

“Those who deal with security must understand that it is impossible to deal simultaneously with [party] primaries, public opinion and security; one must reach the correct decisions,” he added.

Bitan had called the organization’s agents “cowards” for pushing for the removal of metal detectors which were installed at the entrances to the Temple Mount compound following the July 14 attack in which three Arab Israeli gunmen shot dead two Israeli police officers with weapons they had smuggled onto the site.

Israel briefly shut the compound and reopened it two days later with the new security installations in place, including metal detectors and cameras. This was met with near-daily protests by Palestinians in and around East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and a boycott by Muslim worshipers who refused to pray at the site, which houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock sanctuary, until the measures were removed.

Facing heavy pressure from Jordan, which administers the site, and Palestinians, Israel removed the installations on Thursday and worshipers later prayed at the site.

The decision to place metal detectors and other security measures at the gates of the Temple Mount after the attack was opposed by the Shin Bet which warned the move could spark widespread unrest.

Last week, speaking after the terror attack in the West Bank settlement of Halamish — in which a Palestinian terrorist stabbed to death three members of a family sitting down at Shabbat dinner, writing in a Facebook post beforehand that he was doing it for “Al-Aqsa” — Regev said the Shin Bet’s suggestion to remove the metal detectors was “delusional.”

On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the Shin Bet against the comments.

“The Israel Security Agency [Shin Bet] is one of the best preventive security agencies in the world, that successfully leads the fight against terror. The lives of many Israelis have been saved because of the many operations it has carried out in recent years,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

“The views of the Shin Bet that were presented [relating to the Temple Mount] to the political leadership were based on intelligence, situational assessments and strategic analysis,” he said. “The prime minister supports Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman and his agents and rejects the attacks on them.”

Although he did not mention Bitan by name, Netanyahu’s statement backing the Shin Bet came after the top Likud MK called members of the security agency “cowards.”

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog blasted Bitan’s remarks on Thursday and urged Netanyahu to apologize to the Shin Bet over the coalition chairman’s comments. “Have you no shame?” Herzog tweeted.

Without mentioning Bitan by name, Likud MK Yehudah Glick also spoke out against attacks on the Shin Bet. “I call on my friends to defend the honor of all the security services since without their efforts, dedication, determination, and wisdom we would be living here in day-in-day-out hell,” he tweeted.

On Monday, Argaman was dispatched to Amman to help defuse a growing crisis with Jordan, which was fueled by both the tensions surrounding the Temple Mount and an incident at the Israeli embassy compound Sunday, when an Israeli security guard shot dead two Jordanians after he was attacked by one of them with a screwdriver.

Later that evening, the security guard and the rest of the embassy staff were allowed to return to Israel, after Jordan had previously sought to interrogate the guard over the incident.

The next day, the metal detectors were also removed from the entrances to the Temple Mount; the Prime Minister’s Office denied reports Monday evening that Amman had demanded the metal detectors be removed as a condition for securing the passage of the Israeli diplomatic staff.