Defense committee chair Edelstein warns against firing Shin Bet chief, calls for state commission into Oct. 7

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) comes out against the potential termination of Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security agency.

Speaking at a conference organized by the Institute for National Security Studies, Edelstein says that the Shin Bet “as an organization does its job faithfully” and that he has not heard of any plans to fire Bar, who should “finish his term when he decides to end it.”

Last week, national broadcaster Kan reported that once the security agency completes its internal probes into the failures of October 7, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will demand Bar’s departure, either through his resignation or by a cabinet decision to remove him from office.

Edelstein also calls for a state commission of inquiry into October 7, stating that only such a probe would be given access to the minutes of his committee — and says that current efforts to advance the government’s judicial overhaul have come about “because there was no dialogue and no discourse regarding the changes that are truly necessary in the judicial system.”

“I talked about this years ago. Everyone needs to look at themselves in the mirror and ask how we got to this point,” he says.

As Edelstein speaks, protesters hold up a banner reading “Edelstein, don’t give a hand to an evasion law,” a reference to the ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill currently being debated in his committee.

מחאה שקטה בזמן ראיון עם יו"ר ועדת חוץ ובטחון יולי אדלשטיין בכנס INSS:
"אדלשטיין אל תתן יד לחוק ההשתמטות".
(ועל אף השקט, המוחים פונו)

צילם- אודי סלמנוביץ' pic.twitter.com/Swbr1iZoS5

— Noa Shpigel (@NoaShpigel) February 25, 2025