Netanyahu tried to cajole Shin Bet head to quit during ‘tense’ meeting – report
No denial from Prime Minister’s Office, which lashed out at agency’s October 7 probe that noted Netanyahu government policies
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressured Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar to resign during a meeting the two held last week, according to a Sunday evening report.
Netanyahu has reportedly been preparing to fire Bar, who told senior staff last week that he won’t step down until the hostages are returned and a state commission to investigate the October 7, 2023, attack is established.
According to the Channel 12 report, which did not cite any sources for the information, Bar refused to tender his resignation during Thursday’s meeting — described in the report as “extremely tense.”
Rather, Bar was said to tell Netanyahu that if he wanted to see him leave as head of the security agency, he’d have to fire him.
According to the report, Netanyahu told Bar words to the effect of “We waited for the investigations, now it’s time to hand over the keys,” in reference to an internal Shin Bet probe released last week.
The probe found various failings surrounding the agency in relation to the October 7 Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel, but largely pinned the blame on other agencies and long-standing government policies, such as the transfer of Qatari funds to Hamas-run Gaza.
The Prime Minister’s Office panned the Shin Bet probe last week, saying its findings “[didn’t] answer any question.” Another statement, attributed to Netanyahu’s “circle,” said that Bar “completely failed” to counter the Hamas threat leading up to the attack and “misread the intelligence picture” on the day itself.
The PMO on Sunday did not deny the Channel 12 report that Netanyahu had tried to push out Bar, saying instead that “the one who appoints the head of the Shin Bet is the government, and not the sitting Shin Bet chief.”
“This is how it’s always been done, as is customary in democratic countries,” the PMO said.
A statement from the Shin Bet, in turn, read: “The head of the Shin Bet has never said he is the one who will appoint his replacement. For decades, it has been accepted that the one who serves as the deputy head of the service will be a candidate for head of the service, in accordance with a decision by the prime minister.”
The Shin Bet appointed a new deputy head in October, saying he will enter the role in a few months’ time.
Deteriorated relationship
Ties between Netanyahu and the head of his domestic intelligence agency have deteriorated sharply in recent months, with the premier removing Bar and Mossad chief David Barnea from heading the team negotiating the Gaza truce-hostage deal.
An Israeli delegation that is set to depart for Qatar on Monday will be headed by the government’s hostage point man Gal Hirsch, and senior Shin Bet official “M.,” an Israeli official told The Times of Israel, with “M” taking the place that was occupied by Bar until last month.
At the end of February, amid reports that Netanyahu was seeking to fire Bar, Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon wrote in a missive that efforts to dismiss the Shin Bet chief would require legal review by the attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin has since also moved to dismiss Baharav-Miara, with whom the government has long clashed on a variety of matters, including its efforts to overhaul the judiciary.
Last Wednesday, a day before the meeting at which Netanyahu tried to fire Bar, it was reported in Haaretz that the Shin Bet chief had told the prime minister, five months before the Hamas attack, that a war in Gaza was inevitable.
The premier’s office confirmed that the meeting had taken place, but said that Bar recommended “doing nothing,” or, at most, reducing the number of Palestinian workers entering Israel.
