Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to dismiss the head of Shin Bet accelerates the internal rift and brings Israel one step closer to civil war.
The dismissal of Ronen Bar – perceived by Netanyahu's supporters as a necessary step and by his opponents as another move to undermine democracy – severs almost the last cord connecting the two parts of the nation. If before the war, the government was warned that Israel was weakening and losing its strength, now this warning flashes with unprecedented intensity.
A year and a half into the war, and more than two years since his current government was formed, Netanyahu is accelerating the process of purging centers of power at the top of the state. After successfully getting rid of IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, yesterday it was the turn of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, with proceedings already underway to dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.
Such collective purging is usually reserved for totalitarian regimes. Using President Donald Trump as a source of inspiration is merely an excuse: The government and its leader are trying to remove from their path everything and everyone who stands between them and eternal rule. Add to this the refusal to comply with Supreme Court rulings (and the constant war on it), the biased appointments, the funds transferred only to our loyalists, and the discrimination between blood and blood in military service – and you get a direct path.
Netanyahu claimed that the grounds for dismissal was a lack of trust between Bar and himself. Such lack of trust existed between Netanyahu and all the IDF chiefs of staff, Mossad directors, and Shin Bet chiefs who served under him during his long years as prime minister, yet he never even considered dismissing any of them. The reason is that there was never a question about where their loyalty lay: to the State of Israel, in whose name and for which they acted. The difference now is that Netanyahu demands personal loyalty from the heads of the security establishment as a condition for their continued tenure. When they are required to choose between the good of the state and his own good, he expects them to choose him.
The Qatargate affair, currently under investigation, is proof of this. As written here on Sunday, in a properly functioning state, Netanyahu should lead the investigation, demanding it be exhausted to its conclusion while ensuring anyone involved in the affair is removed from his circle. The fact that Netanyahu is doing the opposite shows not only that he fears what might be discovered: It shows that he truly believes that he and his circle are above any suspicion and investigation. It can be assumed that following Bar's dismissal, he will seek to appoint a Shin Bet chief who will bury the affair, in cooperation with a police commissioner and police force that already fully serve the government (as evidenced by their snap decision to summon former Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman for questioning).
The dismissal of Ronen Bar – the first time in the country's history that a Shin Bet chief or head of another security organization has been dismissed – will certainly be approved by the government. However, it is expected to face significant legal hurdles, and Bar has already hinted that this is an improper move. It is also unclear what will happen on the Israeli street: the protest against the government has indeed eroded during the long months of war, but it is now receiving an injection of energy that it has not received since the first dismissal of Yoav Gallant from the Ministry of Defense in March 2023. This too is a recipe for accelerating the process of separation between the two parts of Israel: It turns out that all that was achieved through the blood of the October 7 victims and the soldiers who fought in the difficult battles in various sectors will now be in vain.
Bar needs to go home because of the failure that happened on his watch and under his responsibility, and he made it clear that he would do so. But it's impossible to ignore the fact that the government that is firing him is the same government under whose watch and parallel responsibility the disaster occurred, which it refuses to accept or even investigate: Just yesterday Netanyahu rejected the compromise proposal to establish a state commission of inquiry, effectively clarifying that as far as he is concerned, the disaster has nothing to do with him. The fact that the majority of the people want differently from him – regarding the inquiry commission, regarding the hostages, regarding the draft evasion law – shows how far the government has distanced itself from the public that elected it, and its sole concern is with preserving and fortifying its power and rule.
