Shin Bet chief warns that current societal divisions ‘could lead to a disaster’

Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar warns at a memorial ceremony for late president Chaim Herzog that the current divisions and disagreements in Israeli society could prove disastrous for the nation.

“I am sure that if we could consult with him [Chaim Herzog] today and hear his opinion, he would be very disturbed by the language, the exclusion, the division, the unimaginable ease of online defamation — which could lead to a disaster from which we will not be able to recover,” says Bar in a speech at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem.

In rare public comments, Bar says he believes Herzog — the father of current President Isaac Herzog — would be comforted to know that the Shin Bet “has always operated under a set of clear values… its needle always points in one direction. And that needle, even now, will not move one degree, not right and not left.”