Ronen Bar recently mentioned conditions for his resignation, including the release of the rest of the hostages and the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into October 7.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
Ronen Bar, chief of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency, recently rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for him to resign, Channel 12 reported Sunday evening.
On Thursday, “In a tense meeting between the two, Netanyahu made several harsh statements,” the report said.
Referring to the internal Security Service probe regarding its failures on and before the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel, reporter Yaron Avraham said that Netanyahu “basically said, ‘We waited for the investigations, now it’s time to put the keys on the table’ and leave.”
Bar, however, “made it clear to Netanyahu that if he wanted to fire him, the prime minister would have to do it himself.”
Although the Shabak admitted several failures in the report it publicized last week, including serious “gaps in the recruitment and activation of human resources (HUMINT) in a way that could indicate or warn of an unusual move in the Gaza Strip,” it focused much of the blame on the political echelon.
The government allowed Qatar to send millions of dollars in cash that was easily diverted to Hamas’ military arm, it said, and the policy of “keeping the quiet” in Gaza and “avoiding offensive initiatives” gave Hamas the opportunity to “massively strengthen itself.”
The report also pointed an accusing finger at “the cumulative weight of the violations on the Temple Mount, the treatment of prisoners, and the perception that Israeli society has been weakened due to the damage to social cohesion,” saying that “all of these were catalysts” for Hamas’ decision to go on its offensive, in which the terrorists massacred 1,200 people and took 251 as hostages.
Following the report’s publication, Channel 12’s Amit Segal cited sources close to the prime minister as saying that “The conclusions of the Shin Bet investigation do not match the magnitude of the enormous failure and negligence of the organization and its leader.”
Bar “failed completely in everything related to the organization’s fight against Hamas in general, and the October 7 incident in particular,” being “chained to the concept” that Hamas was not interested in a military conflict with Israel, they said, a point of view he repeatedly made clear, the last time being four days before the invasion.
Bar also angered Netanyahu last week when he told his top staff that he would only resign after the remaining hostages were released and a state commission of inquiry was established, something that Netanyahu is resisting in its current format because he says it would simply be a political witch hunt.
Channel 12 additionally quoted Bar as saying that he would “use all his power” to prevent an outsider from being appointed his successor, who, he claimed, would subordinate the organization to the political echelon instead of maintaining its independence.
“I will want to pass the baton to one of my two excellent deputies,” he said.
In response, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement, “The government appoints the head of the Shabak, not the current head. This is how it has always been done, as is customary in a democratic country.”
The agency then pushed back, stating that “The Shin Bet chief has never said that he will be the one to appoint his replacement. For decades, it has been accepted that someone who served as deputy head of the service runs for the position of head of the service, in accordance with the Prime Minister’s decision.”
As a revealing sign of the distrust between the prime minister and Shabak head, Bar, who for most of the war played a major role in the hostage negotiations, has recently been sidelined, with a lower-ranking colleague, M., being sent in his place the last several times talks took place in either Qatar or Egypt.
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