Candidates for Shin Bet chief say question of loyalty to PM arose in interview – report

Candidates for the job of Shin Bet chief whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu interviewed in recent weeks have said that the question of their loyalty to the prime minister arose during the interview, Channel 13 reports.

The claims come following the dramatic affidavit filed by current Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar to the High Court of Justice on Monday, in which he alleged that he had been fired for being insufficiently loyal to Netanyahu and for taking a series of decisions which the prime minister saw as hostile, including opening criminal investigations into Netanyahu’s close aides.

Bar also said that it had been made clear to him that in the event of a constitutional crisis, he was expected to obey Netanyahu and not legal orders by the High Court.

According to the Channel 13 report, in some of the recent interviews for candidates for head of the Shin Bet, Netanyahu discussed the ongoing struggle between the government and the judiciary.

“The expression ‘constitutional crisis’ did not arise explicitly, but issues connected to the relationship between the government and the Shin Bet did come up,” the report quotes one interviewee as saying.

The Prime Minister’s Office describes the report as “total fake news, and cheap gossip.”