Peloni: Bar’s replacement was necessary following October 7, and in the year and half since then, this need has risen to a crescendo, most recently with claims of blackmail charged by Netanyahu against Bar in recent days.
Netanyahu’s decision to fire Ronen Bar comes amid a ‘continued lack of trust’ in the Shin Bet chief, the prime minister said.
By YONAH JEREMY BOB, JERUSALEM POST STAFF | JPOST | Mar 16, 2025
By Amos Ben Gershom / Government Press Office of Israel, CC BY-SA 3.0
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday night said he would propose to the cabinet to fire Shin Bet head Ronen Bar around 18 months before his term expires.
Netanyahu’s moves as Bar is probing several top aides of Netanyahu who are involved in “Qatargate,” a saga in which they allegedly were paid by Qatar at the same time as handling sensitive hostage negotiations policy for the prime minister also connected to Qatar.
Normally, the police investigate alleged crimes, but given the national security dimensions, the Shin Bet has taken the lead.
It was unclear if Netanyahu will be able to fire Bar given that either Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara or the High Court of Justice could rule that he has a conflict of interest in seeking to fire a law enforcement officer who is probing his senior aides.
Although Netanyahu framed his decision as part of a “continued lack of trust” in the Shin Bet chief, he did not address Qatargate in his statement.
Last week, Netanyahu urged Bar to resign from his position, but he refused.
Bar’s position has been that he will only resign earlier than his five year term’s expiration date if and when: 1) all of the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hams are returned; and 2) a state inquiry into Netanyahu’s decisions relating to October 7 is started.
According to Bar, Netanyahu has multiple times endangered the lives of Israeli hostages in order to continue the war to maintain his coalition given Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich’s threat to quit the government if the war ends.
Further, Bar has said that the Shin Bet took responsibility for its numerous and vast October 7 failures to block Hamas’s invasion, but that Netanyahu has prevented any attempt to probe his decisions and responsibility for the colossal failure.
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