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The grand plan: To force out Ronen Bar along with already ousted IDF chief Halevi.
By YONAH JEREMY BOB FEBRUARY 11, 2025 19:01 Updated: FEBRUARY 11, 2025 19:21
Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Ronen Bar. May 5, 2024.
(photo credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Almost the entire country’s attention in the fight over the blame for the October 7 disaster has revolved around the came of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF camp.
Netanyahu has tried to blame the majority of the disaster on failed IDF intelligence, imagination, and slow mobilization to repel the Hamas invasion.
The IDF, explicitly or implicitly, has placed significant blame on Netanyahu for advocating a national security doctrine that Hamas could be contained, for promoting paying off Hamas with Qatari funds, and for harming the IDF’s actual and perceived readiness (Hamas perceived the IDF as weaker) with his judicial overhaul.
But all of this has missed a major additional player in the October 7 disaster: the Shin Bet.
To date, there has been almost zero scrutiny of the organization compared to the harrowing beating the IDF has received.
Only one Shin Bet official involved in the October 7 failure publicly resigned (his identity was kept classified per the law, but his role in southern security was disclosed.)
In contrast, the IDF intelligence chief, intelligence analysis chief, southern intelligence chief, Unit 8200 chief, and others have all resigned long ago over their roles in the October 7 disaster.
Whereas IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen, Herzi Halevi announced on January 21 that he will step down on March 6, Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar has implied that he is not resigning anytime soon.
Bar did take responsibility for his role in the October 7 failure in a general way back in fall 2023, but given that his term is not up until October 2026, he could still stay on for another year or more and resign somewhat before the end of his term to show he took responsibility.
If there has been any vague timeframe given to when Bar would resign, the earliest seems to be if and when Israel and Hamas reach a deal that would return all of the remaining hostages – not just those who are part of the current Phase I of the deal.
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When will Bar resign if Phases II and III of the deal never happen or get indefinitely delayed? Good question.
And if there had been heavy public pressure on Halevi to resign for months before he made his announcement, with Defense Minister Israel Katz even taking concrete moves to try to push Halevi out the door, there have been no similar moves against Bar.
Until now.
Now, Netanyahu is reportedly demanding that Bar provide the Shin Bet’s full October 7 report to him no later than this coming Saturday.
The Shin Bet did not deny the report to the Jerusalem Post.
The truth is that behind the scenes, Netanyahu and some of his supporters have tried to put some pressure on Bar to resign, but he is a harder target than Halevi since the Shin Bet, by law, operates in the shadows.
If Katz could use freezing appointments of specific named IDF officers to embarrass and pressure Halevi, no one ever hears about any Shin Bet personnel moves other than the chief himself, which is only once every five years.
So this latest Netanyahu attack on Bar restarted when the government held a hearing about whether to establish a state inquiry into the October 7 disaster.
Netanyahu is trying to keep such an inquiry at bay as long as possible and only held the hearing to check a box that the issue is being considered – this in light of a petition to the High Court of Justice demanding that the issue be considered.
Bar wanted to present arguments to the cabinet in favor of such an inquiry and when Netanyahu blocked him from attending the hearing, he sent a letter to Netanyahu advocating for the inquiry, with a copy of the letter leaking to the media.
Seemingly as a response to the letter, Netanyahu demanded the Shin Bet produce its October 7 report, as if to both remind Bar that he can be held accountable for the disaster as well, and to pre-empt any possible later attempts to blame the prime minister, by first blaming the Shin Bet.
'M' slated as next Shin Bet chief?
Also, it seems Netanyahu’s team leaked to Walla’s Barak Ravid that “M,” who recently joined the hostage negotiation team on behalf of the Shin Bet, may be slated to be the next head of the agency.
This is a far cry from actually forcing out Bar, but each of these moves is part of a not-so-thinly veiled threat to Bar that he will need to resign at some point, and the more he presses on Netanyahu, the sooner that resignation might be.
Certainly, once the Shin Bet October 7 disaster report is out, including covering Bar’s failure to take the intelligence signs of Hamas’s invasion seriously enough, it will be much harder for Bar to stay in charge.
With Halevi out on March 6, once Netanyahu has Bar out, he will be the last man standing from the key officials involved in both the October 7 failure as well as the post-October 7 successes.
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