Shin Bet head rejects PM’s blackmail accusations, distances himself from predecessor
Bar says security body and its head ‘do not use the organization’s power unnecessarily’ as he apparently rejects Argaman’s denouncement and threats against Netanyahu
Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar distanced himself on Friday from his predecessor’s statements against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while also rejecting the premier’s assertions that he and the security agency are working against the prime minister.
“A state body and its head do not use the organization’s power unnecessarily. This has not been and will not be our way,” Bar wrote in a missive to retired Shin Bet employees.
“Not in words, and certainly not in actions. I disapprove of discourse that is not statesmanlike,” Bar wrote.
Referring to “[Thursday night’s] events and the various reports,” Bar said the Shin Bet “is a state agency that carries out its missions according to the law.
“The organization’s strength and resilience lie in its values. I intend to keep the Shin Bet statesmanlike and focused on its missions for the sake of the country’s security,” he wrote.
In a wide-ranging interview with Channel 12 broadcast Thursday night, former Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman detailed some of the disagreements he had with Netanyahu during his tenure from 2016 to 2021, particularly surrounding the matter of Qatari aid being allowed into the Gaza Strip.
Argaman claimed to be sitting on a trove of information that would compromise the prime minister and threatened to make it public if Netanyahu breaks the law.
“It’s quite clear that I have a great deal of knowledge, which I can put to use… but I’m currently keeping everything that happened between myself and the prime minister” out of the public sphere, Argaman said.
However, “If the State of Israel or if I conclude that the prime minister has decided that he is going to act in contradiction to the law, then I will not have a choice and I will say everything I know and have refrained from saying until today,” Argaman warned.
Netanyahu quickly hit back at Argaman, accusing him of blackmail in a statement posted to X.
“Tonight, another dangerous red line was crossed for Israeli democracy,” the premier said Thursday evening. “Never, in the entire history of Israel, and the history of democracy, has the former head of a security service blackmailed a sitting prime minister on live television.”
Netanyahu then lodged the same “blackmail” accusation against Bar. He offered limited detail to explain but claimed the Shin Bet chief held a series of off-the-record briefings with certain reporters in recent days to tarnish the premier.
Bar’s agency, in turn, issued a statement responding to Netanyahu, saying the accusation against Bar was a “serious allegation against the head of state organization.”
It added that the Shin Bet chief “devotes all of his time to security matters, efforts to recover the hostages and the defense of democracy. Any statement to the contrary is devoid of any truth.”
Netanyahu complained to police Friday about Argaman, accusing him of “threatening and blackmailing a sitting prime minister” during the televised interview. Police Commissioner Daniel Levi instructed investigators “to review the comments” made by Argaman, the police said in a statement.
Netanyahu is widely reported to have been working for months to try and oust Bar, as he seeks to place the blame for the failures that allowed for Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught to unfold solely on the security echelon, as opposed to the political leadership.
Bar is said to be pushing back against the effort to oust him, fearing that acquiescence would allow Netanyahu to appoint a loyalist in his stead. Bar has refused to step down despite his agency’s probe into October 7 finding failures by his agency, with him and Netanyahu trading increasingly public barbs.
Bar has reportedly said he does not plan on stepping down from his post until all the hostages are returned and a state commission of inquiry is established to probe failures surrounding October 7.
The premier — Israel’s political leader since 2009, except for an 18-month stretch in 2021-2022 — has rejected calls for a state commission of inquiry into the political echelon’s failures leading to October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
The effort to fire Bar has been complicated in recent weeks, amid the launch of a joint Shin Bet-police investigation into alleged ties between several of Netanyahu’s aides and the Qatari government.
For the prime minister to fire Bar while the investigation is ongoing would likely be perceived as a conflict of interest.
The Times of Israel Community.