Ex-Shin Bet chief Bar says he will sue Netanyahu over claim he chose to withhold warnings ahead of Oct. 7

Former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar says he will file a defamation lawsuit against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who today said that the spy chief knew of the threat of an attack overnight on October 7, but chose not to inform the prime minister.

In a dramatic statement, Bar also calls for the release of documents and testimony concerning what information was given to Netanyahu in the lead-up to the October 7, 2023 Hamas invasion.

Bar wants Netanyahu’s schedule of meetings with foreign officials and members of security agencies released, and says his lawyers will demand that top Netanyahu staffers be summoned to testify.

Netanyahu’s campaign against him, says Bar, “has no basis in reality.”

“After refusing for three years to acknowledge his responsibility and preventing, by every possible means, the establishment of a state commission of inquiry to which the public and bereaved families are entitled, he has begun selectively publishing documents in a manipulative manner and out of their proper context,” says Bar.

“Now, as testimony concerning warnings he received before the massacre is beginning to emerge,” he continues, “he is attempting to divert the blame away from himself by leveling accusations at those who warned him in real time.”

Bar says he warned Netanyahu of “impending disaster in an unprecedented manner, and that the prime minister ignored these warnings, as well as the recommendations to restore deterrence and strengthen the border.”

Bar says he was waiting for the establishment of a commission of inquiry to reveal those warnings, but can no longer keep quiet.

“You achieve victory through a preemptive attack on the enemy outside, not on the security forces at home,” concludes Bar.