New national security affair being probed; details barred from publication
Reports say affair will increase already bubbling tensions between political echelon and law enforcement agencies; separately, Shin Bet chief Bar said set to resign in coming weeks
The Shin Bet and the Justice Ministry’s Department of Internal Police Investigations are looking into a new affair related to national security, according to multiple reports in Hebrew media Monday.
A sweeping gag order has been placed on details of the case, which is reportedly related to an event that took place during the war.
According to the reports, the affair is likely to increase tensions between the country’s law enforcement agencies and the political echelon, already at the boiling point with the government’s move to begin a process of firing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, as well as investigations into the so-called Qatargate affair.
The latter affair involves suspicions that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s close aides Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein committed multiple corruption offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm while working for the prime minister, including contact with a foreign agent. Police also want to question a third aide, Yisrael Einhorn, who currently resides in Serbia.
Netanyahu has slammed the investigations against his staffers as a “witch hunt,” and the aides have denied wrongdoing. The premier has claimed that a “deep state” of unelected bureaucrats is obstructing the work of his right-wing government.
Shin Bet chief said intending to resign
Bar intends to resign in the next few weeks, Channel 12 reported Monday, citing several conversations the Shin Bet chief has had with associates in recent days.
The report came after Netanyahu moved to fire Bar last month, but the High Court of Justice last week issued an interim injunction freezing the dismissal until further notice and giving the government and the attorney general until April 20 to reach a compromise over the bitter legal dispute regarding the government’s authority to make the move.
The network claimed that Bar intends to resign, believing that the ongoing struggles are causing great damage to the Shin Bet.
Bar is set to submit a brief to the court next week, and it is expected that he will detail his intentions and the date of his resignation in the letter, the report said.
Netanyahu moved to fire Bar in March, saying that he had lost faith in him.
The move marked the first time in Israeli history that the government has fired the head of the domestic security agency.
However, opponents of the move charge that Netanyahu had a clear conflict of interest in removing Bar from office, given the Shin Bet’s ongoing investigation into Qatargate.
Critics more broadly accuse Netanyahu of seeking to pin all the blame for the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught on Bar and the security establishment while shirking responsibility himself.
The Times of Israel Community.