When did the Prime Minister truly lose trust in the head of Shin Bet? At the Supreme Court hearing, the judges asked this repeatedly. The timing is critical: after October 7? If so, why wait a year and a half? Because of the classified documents affair? If that’s the case, then it’s essentially a settling of scores.
I briefly went back to the security guard incident, a month before the war, when Miri Regev, in extraordinary foolishness, released to the media a video in which she pushes and scolds her driver to speed up even though people are blocking the way. Strategic advisor Gal Beisberg then recommended dealing with the media embarrassment like this: “Here is a threat that is an enormous opportunity!” The protest spilled over into Shin Bet. The minister felt threatened. Meaning, Regev’s violent and arrogant behavior would be portrayed as political behavior by Shin Bet.
Another communications advisor, Avi Blumental, who was actually hired through a tender to advise the Ministry of Transport, recommended going on the offensive against the Personal Security Unit: For a long time, public officials have felt that Shin Bet, instead of protecting them, has become a threat. Senior ministers seek security outside of Shin Bet. Regev’s “beehive” worked on defaming Shin Bet in the media through journalists they trusted: Amit Segal, Sharon Gal, Ayala Hasson.
Regev’s chief of staff, Yonatan Yehosef, described in an interview the conference call between Regev, Bar, and the Prime Minister, which he listened to. Yehosef was convinced Netanyahu would back Bar. That was not the case. From then on, the question was no longer when Netanyahu lost trust in the head of Shin Bet, but whether he ever had trust in any head of Shin Bet at all? At the beginning of 2000, I met Netanyahu, then a “concerned citizen” outside of politics, to talk about the Prime Minister’s relationship with the head of Shin Bet. Even then, Netanyahu did not trust the head of Shin Bet, Ami Ayalon, and later claimed that Ayalon lied about opening the Western Wall tunnel.
In this round, Netanyahu won. Bar fought valiantly. The pundits will never understand this, but Bar would have preferred to resign months earlier, with the Chief of Staff and perhaps even before him. He truly stayed only to preserve Shin Bet’s independence and democratic life here. Eventually, he gave in and announced a retirement date. There is a limit to how long one can survive when people like former legal advisor Yehuda Weinstein say he should have committed suicide after October 7.
Bar’s set retirement date is more than two months later than the original government decision, but Netanyahu engraved another lesson into the investigation’s body: those who cross him pay a price. The State Comptroller’s Office, the police, and the Civil Service Commission have already internalized this. Now Shin Bet is internalizing it too. More importantly, Netanyahu left himself a large maneuvering space regarding who to choose as a successor. The attempt to force him to select a Shin Bet head from within the organization, through a Supreme Court ruling, is no longer relevant. Netanyahu does not care about the general public, only about his base. There, he will inflame the media, undermine Shin Bet, and initiate a mass resignation of senior officers, which may be met with great enthusiasm among his base.
Ben Gvir, Smotrich, Karai, and Amsalem will certainly be happy about weakening Shin Bet. The ability of the legal advisor or the Grunis committee to stop such an appointment is quite limited. The danger to Shin Bet’s proper functioning has never been more tangible. All that remains is to rely on Netanyahu’s choice abilities, who explained in his court testimony that he appointed people like Mandelblit and Alsheich, and then they became independent (what ingratitude!). Searching for a Yossi Shalev-type profile could destroy Shin Bet. An Alsheich-type profile “might” be independent. Who would even agree now to be appointed head of Shin Bet subordinate to Netanyahu? It’s hard to think of a more dramatic issue than this appointment.