Netanyahu
moves to fire intel chief who is investigating his aides
Barak Ravid
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/16/netanyahu-fire-shin-bet-ronen-bar
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to remove Ronen Bar as head of
the Shin Bet domestic security agency and will seek cabinet approval for the
move this week, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.
Why it
matters: No government has ever fired the head of the Shin Bet, Israel's most
powerful security agency. Netanyahu's decision comes as the agency is
investigating two of his advisers for allegedly receiving payments from Qatar
during the Israel-Hamas war.
Netanyahu's
long-expected move has raised concerns among his political foes that he will
replace Bar with a loyalist, politicize the organization, and potentially
weaponize it against his political opponents and critics, or to crack down on
the protest movement against him.
Bar
responded to the news by denouncing Netanyahu's "expectation for personal
loyalty to him" which he said violated both the public interest and the
laws and values under which his agency operates.
The big
picture: While the prime minister appoints the Shin Bet chief, and the cabinet
approves the pick, the agency has long been seen as apolitical. Its mandate
includes safeguarding Israel's democratic institutions.
Netanyahu is
on trial in three cases of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
He has also
started taking steps to fire the attorney general tasked with prosecuting those
cases.
Netanyahu's
aides have said he was inspired by President Trump's purging of "the deep
state" and his decision to appoint loyalists to all key posts.
Behind the
scenes: Netanyahu has been pressing Bar for several weeks to resign. Bar
refused and told Netanyahu he can fire him if he wants to, an Israeli official
tells Axios.
Netanyahu's
loyalists in the Israeli press and on social media have been publicly attacking
Bar, who spent two decades in the Shin Bet before being appointed director in
2021.
Netanyahu's
allies have claimed the intel chief is working to undermine the PM for
political reasons.
In his
statement, Bar said he'd told Netanyahu he had "several sensitive
investigations" to complete, as well as getting Israel's remaining
hostages out, before offering the prime minister his resignation and offering
two internal candidates to succeed him. He said he still intends to complete
those tasks before stepping down.
Driving the
news: Several weeks ago, with the approval of the attorney general, the Shin
Bet opened an investigation into three of Netanyahu's advisers for their
alleged contacts with Qatar.
The
investigation, dubbed "Qatar-Gate" in the Israeli press, focused on
alleged payments Netanyahu's advisers facilitated and received from Qatar in
return for working on improving the image of the country in Israel.
Qatar is one
of the key mediators in the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal. But Netanyahu's
decision in 2018 to ask Qatar to transfer money to Hamas in Gaza for
humanitarian purposes became one of the main points of criticism against him
after the Oct. 7 attack.
The Shin Bet
determined a portion of that money went to Hamas' military build-up.
Between the
lines: Bar and Netanyahu both came under criticism for the intelligence
failures that allowed the Oct. 7 attack to take place.
Bar has
taken responsibility in public and private for the failures and called for a
national commission of inquiry.
Netanyahu
has blocked the formation of such a commission, arguing it would be
"politically slanted," and has refused to take any responsibility.
Bar had
indicated that he would resign once all of Israel's hostages were returned from
Gaza, and had played a key role in hostage negotiations until last month, when
Netanyahu froze him out of the talks.
What they're
saying: In a statement on Sunday, Netanyahu claimed he is moving to dismiss the
Shin Bet director because of "ongoing and growing lack of trust."
"I
believe this step is critical for rehabilitating the organization, achieving
the objectives of the war and preventing the next catastrophe," Netanyahu
said.
The latest:
Israel's attorney general advised Netanyahu in a letter on Sunday that he can't
fire Bar because "there is a concern this decision is illegal and suffers
from a conflict of interests."
Netanyahu
and his cabinet are likely to disregard that objection, though the decision
could ultimately come before the Supreme Court.
Flashback:
While Bar would be the first Shin Bet chief to be fired, two previous leaders
resigned, including the agency's chief at the time of Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin's assassination in 1995.
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