25/5/2025
Israel is witnessing a severe intelligence and constitutional crisis following the decision of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet, Ronin Bar, in an explicit defiance of the Supreme Court’s decision that refused to dismiss and described it as “conflict of interest.”
The Public Security Agency, known as the Hebrew as the “Shin Bet”, is an essential part of the Israeli intelligence system responsible for protecting the entity from internal threats.
Its vital tasks include securing persons and secrets of the state, preventing “internal terrorism” and investigating its issues, in addition to the inclusion of the Palestinian territories within its powers.
The agency also holds sensitive strategic responsibilities that include supervising the security of the strategic assets of the state and its civil and government facilities, including secrecy, in addition to providing the security classification of positions and jobs, especially with a secret nature.
The roots of the current crisis date back to the night of October 7, 2023, when indications of an imminent attack from Gaza arrived in the agency.
But these data were not convincing to the Shin Bet President, Ronin Bar, who saw that she was not worth raising the level of alert, and he was considered a failed intelligence failure that cost Israel a heavy price.
Peak
In the wake of the “Flood of Al -Aqsa”, which rocked the pillars of Israel, a special operations room was formed in the Shin Bet, to which the task of killing every Palestinian participated in the attack was entrusted with a development that reflects the extent of the shock that it brought about within the security establishment.
Since that day, Netanyahu has blamed the Shin Bet, that he had failed to expect and prevented the attack, after which sharp differences and exchange of accusations between the two men broke out.
These tensions reached their climax when Ronin Bar refused to make a security recommendation that allows Netanyahu not to appear before the judiciary in his criminal cases.
These differences intensified more after the Shin Bet opened two investigations with those close to Netanyahu, one of them related to the issue of sensitive Qatari funds, which exacerbated the tension between the two parties and turned the relationship from a professional dispute to a personal and institutional conflict.
Ra’a dismissal
In a bold move, Netanyahu decided to dismiss a bar from his post unanimously from his government coalition, in an attempt to resolve the conflict in his favor, but Bar did not give up, and despite his announcement of resignation from next June, he sought the Supreme Court to appeal the decision to dismiss.
The surprise came when the Supreme Court rejected the dismissal decision and saw a conflict of interests, which constituted a strong blow to Netanyahu and his executive authority.
This is the same thing that the government’s legal advisor found in appointing Netanyahu to succeed Paar, David Zaini.
But Netanyahu – in a flagrant challenge to the judiciary and legal advice – struck these opinions by presenting the wall and continued his decision, which raises serious questions about respecting the rule of law and separating the authorities in Israel.
This crisis comes in a broader context of the increasing tensions between Netanyahu and judicial and security institutions, which threatens to destabilize internal stability in Israel, which faces great security challenges on multiple fronts.
It is noteworthy that this crisis is one of the most dangerous crises in the Israeli intelligence institution, in which security considerations overlap with political and legal conflicts.
