PM’s pick to head Shin Bet reportedly called judiciary ‘a dictatorship that rules Israel’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nominee to be the next head of the Shin Bet recently claimed “the judicial system is a dictatorship that rules the State of Israel,” according to the Haaretz daily.

The report says that Maj. Gen. David Zini, who was dismissed from the army after going behind IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir’s back to discuss the Shin Bet appointment with Netanyahu, also lashed out over the past few weeks at the security agency he has been tapped to lead, saying its leaders “were confused.”

“They say they are first of all bound by the law, but that isn’t true. They need to act in accordance with the law, but they are first and foremost bound to the prime minister,” Zini is quoted as saying during private discussions with former senior security officials.

He also reportedly said “the situation in which the prime minister gives orders to the Shin Bet and it doesn’t fulfill them cannot continue to exist,” with the newspaper noting that it is not clear what he was referring to, and that Netanyahu promised to fight for his appointment “until the end.”