JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party accused the head of the domestic intelligence organization on Tuesday of turning parts of the service into “a private militia of the Deep State” and called for him to go, amid a deepening political crisis around the agency.
The accusation against Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, who is resisting an order for his dismissal, followed the arrest of a Shin Bet official on suspicion of leaking confidential information to journalists and a government minister.
Shin Bet, which handles counter terrorism investigations, has been at the center of a growing political battle pitting Netanyahu’s right-wing government against an array of critics ranging from members of the security establishment to families of hostages in Gaza.
A government bid to sack Bar, during an investigation by the agency into aides close to Netanyahu, has been temporarily frozen by the Supreme Court, which held a hearing into petitions against the dismissal last week.
Likud said Bar had lost the trust of the government and “must stop entrenching himself in his position and vacate his position immediately.”
The case, which has fueled demonstrations by thousands of protesters who accuse Netanyahu of undermining Israeli democracy, has exposed deep rifts between the government and one of the country’s key security organizations.
Part of the dispute centers around blame over the failures that allowed Hamas gunmen to rampage through communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage in Israel’s worst-ever security disaster.
Netanyahu said last month he had lost confidence in Bar over Shin Bet’s failure to forestall the October 7 attack. But critics have accused the prime minister of using the case as a pretext to stop a police and Shin Bet investigation into alleged financial ties between Qatar and a number of Netanyahu aides.
Bar has acknowledged his agency’s failures ahead of October 7 and said he would resign before the end of his term. But he has accused Netanyahu, who has not acknowledged any responsibility and rejected calls for a national inquiry into October 7, of a major conflict of interest.
A Justice Ministry statement lifted a censorship order banning reporting on the case, but said the identity of the official who had been detained could not be revealed.
Israeli PM Netanyahu’s party steps up pressure for Shin Bet head to go
https://arab.news/pzsqm
Israeli PM Netanyahu’s party steps up pressure for Shin Bet head to go
- Shin Bet has been at the center of a growing political battle pitting Netanyahu’s right-wing government against an array of critics
- Likud said Bar had lost the trust of the government
Iran’s foreign ministry: ‘Time has come to defend the homeland’ after US-Israeli strikes
DUBAI: Iran’s Foreign Ministry responded to a joint US-Israel attack on Saturday by saying that the country “will not hesitate” in its response to the strikes.
In a statement posted on X, the ministry said: “The time has come to defend the homeland and confront the enemy’s military assault.”
Iran said it will “respond decisively” after Israel and the United States launched strikes on the country despite talks underway on Tehran’s nuclear program.
“The Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will respond decisively to the aggressors,” a foreign ministry said in a statement, insisting Iran had done “everything necessary to prevent war.”
“Just as we were ready for negotiations, we are now more prepared than ever to defend the Iranian nation,” it said.
The US and Israel launched a major attack on targets across Iran on Saturday, and US President Donald Trump called on the Iranian people to “take over your government” — an extraordinary appeal that suggested the allies could be seeking to end of the country’s theocracy after decades of tensions.
The first strikes of the attack appeared to target the compound home to Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in downtown Tehran. It wasn’t immediately clear if he was there at the time. Smoke could be seen rising from the Iranian capital.
“For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted Death to America and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder, targeting the United States, our troops and the innocent people in many, many countries,” Trump said in a video posted on social media that sought to justify the attacks.
He urged Iranians to take cover during the strikes, but then: “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take.”
