Shin Bet officials said threatening to quit over Zini appointment; recordings show he favors victory over returning hostages

Some Shin Bet officials have threatened to resign if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nominee for Shin Bet chief, IDF Maj. Gen. David Zini, is appointed, according to a report by the Kan public broadcaster.

In closed conversations over the weekend, Shin Bet field coordinators responsible for the Jerusalem and West Bank sectors reportedly described Zini’s nomination as politically motivated, expressing concern that his “messianic” views conflict with the agency’s core values and would damage its nonpartisan character.

As of now, no resignation letters have been formally submitted. The Shin Bet declined to comment, but emphasized that it is a national institution operating solely to protect the security of Israeli citizens, according to Kan.

Separately, Channel 12 airs recordings of Zini in a recent conversation with residents of Gaza border communities, revealing contrasts with the approach of outgoing Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, according to the network.

In the recordings, Zini addressed the war’s stated goals, saying: “We haven’t yet completed or fulfilled the primary goal of the war: to ensure that no threat is posed to the residents of Israel from the Gaza Strip. It’s a big question how to accomplish that.”

“The biggest issue is to destroy Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and every other terrorist entity. That’s the most important part — and that’s what we’re working on,” he said, before referencing the biblical story of Ishmael and Isaac, saying that the theme of “evil Muslims against good Jews” has existed “since Ishmael — and until further notice.”

Zini reportedly spoke about “the tremendous tension” between the objectives of destroying Hamas and recovering the hostages since the start of the war, saying: “If I look ahead, I need to do everything as fast as possible so that they [the enemies] end up on the other side… On the other hand, I have the goal of bringing back all the hostages as quickly as possible.”

“And right now, the two — doing everything quickly and bringing everyone back — don’t necessarily go hand in hand. We’re doing both. But some elements compete for resources, for operational methods, and we’ve been living in that tension for a year and a half,” he said.

“It’s clear… to anyone in Israel who understands the reality, that the major efforts we’re making to bring back all the hostages as quickly as possible are delaying the achievement of the second objective,” Zini continued.

Addressing the future security expectations for residents of the Gaza border towns, Zini said: “If someone promises you, ‘From now on, there won’t be any threats,’ I suggest you make them take a polygraph test. We’ve already had our failure, all right? Now we’re busy fixing it.”

“This isn’t a threat that developed in a single day; it was built up over years,” Zini explained, saying that reaching a situation where there is “no threat at all to the residents of the [border towns] and to the citizens of Israel from the Gaza Strip” is “a task for several more years.”

Zini also addressed Israel’s limited military resources, saying: “There isn’t enough force deployment across all areas of combat. There just isn’t. The IDF doesn’t have it. Israel doesn’t have the capabilities, no matter how you try to spin it.”

“Even if you draft all the reservists at once and deploy them in a line along the entire border, it’s not enough. Even with the Haredim. I’m doing a lot to recruit Haredim and I spend many hours on it, but that’s not where the state’s resources are,” he continued.

“The reason you’re living in relative quiet, along with millions of other citizens, is because… we [employ] risk management, all the time. That’s our profession,” Zini said.

“In this case, we failed badly, okay? But if, for every bit of intelligence or fragment of information, we placed a squad of soldiers in every town, that would mean the entire country would be in uniform from now until further notice,” he said, while emphasizing that “there will always be soldiers between the enemy and the civilians.”

Zini’s remarks mark a departure from the outlook of his predecessor, indicating a shift in how Netanyahu envisions the Shin Bet’s role in the ongoing war and his broader defense strategy, notes Channel 12.