PM’s office rails at Shin Bet head, says agency’s probe ‘doesn’t answer any question’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday issued a scathing attack on Shin Bet security agency head Ronen Bar, charging that the findings of the internal probe he ordered into the agency’s failure to prevent Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught “don’t answer any question.”

The Shin Bet findings, while detailing failures and saying it could have foiled the attack had it acted differently, largely point the blame outwards, including hinting that successive governments took insufficiently offensive policies regarding Hamas, including avoiding targeting the terror group’s leaders as the agency allegedly advocated.

On the morning of October 7, some 5,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.

“The conclusions of the Shin Bet probe don’t match the gravity of the immense failure of the agency and its head,” said a statement attributed to Netanyahu’s “circle.”

The statement claimed Bar “completely failed” to counter the Hamas threat in general and on October 7, “misread the intelligence picture” and had a misconception regarding the level of threat it posed, arguing that the Shin Bet had contended right up to the invasion that the terror group wanted to keep the quiet.

It further contended that on October 1, Bar recommended civilian concessions to Hamas in exchange for quiet, and cautioned against targeting Hamas’s leaders. It added that in an October 3 document, Bar wrote that Hamas sought to avoid a round of fighting against Israel and saw a potential for stability if Gaza was given a positive economic horizon.

It said the Shin Bet didn’t mention or deal with Hamas’s “Jericho Walls” plan, “even though the Shin Bet knew about the plan since 2018,” and accused Bar of not waking Netanyahu up on the night of October 6-7, “the most basic and natural decision imaginable.”

The so-called “Jericho’s Walls” plan was a document compiled by the Israel Defense Forces Intelligence Directorate in 2022 that imagined a Hamas attack very similar to the assault that unfolded on October 7, 2023. Officials concluded that the plan appeared to be unrealistic.

Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid posted to X that Netanyahu is still “trying to put the blame on others.”

Referring to the PMO’s snipe at Bar for not waking up Netanyahu ahead of the attack, Lapid wrote “the time has come for you to wake up, ask forgiveness, take responsibility. It happened on your watch.”

MK Benny Gantz, leader of the opposition National Unity party, wrote on X that while the IDF and Shin Bet were probing themselves, “taking responsibility” and apologizing to the residents of the south, the prime minister “is hiding behind [anonymous] briefings [with the media] and is busy looking for those who are guilty.”

“Instead of taking responsibility, apologizing, and establishing a state commission of inquiry, the prime minister is throwing mud at the Shin Bet,” said Gantz, who joined the government after October 7 for the purpose of helping manage the war, but then left last year amid divisions with Netanyahu.

In its internal probe, the Shin Beit found that there were failures within the organization, but mostly pointed to external elements such as an unclear division of responsibilities with the IDF, an overly defensive government policy regarding Gaza over the years, and the Shin Bet being unsuited to counter an army-like foe such as Hamas.

The security service also said a broader investigation was needed — a likely hint at the perceived need for a state commission of inquiry, which Netanyahu has refused to establish.

The investigations came on the heels of the IDF’s probes into its own failures surrounding the attack.

The attack on Bar came amid reports that Netanyahu plans to oust him as head of the agency. The premier recently removed Bar and Mossad chief David Barnea from heading the team negotiating the Gaza truce-hostage deal, over which Netanyahu’s right-wing flank has threatened to topple the government.

Last month, “a senior source” released a statement to the media that the changes in the negotiation team brought the return of ten hostages — four of them no longer alive.

The statement drew swift condemnation, from both unnamed sources in the security establishment and elected politicians, some of whom directly attributed the statement to Netanyahu — who is known to make comments to the media on condition they are attributed this way.

Bar has said he does not plan on stepping down from his post until all the hostages are returned and a state commission is established to probe failures surrounding the Hamas onslaught, Channel 12 reported Tuesday.

The premier — Israel’s political leader since 2009, except for an 18-month stretch in 2021-2022 — has rejected calls for a state commission of inquiry into the political leadership’s failures leading to October 7, 2023.

State commissions of inquiry — Israel’s highest investigative authority — are headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, and their members are selected by the incumbent chief justice. Such an inquiry, which would have the broadest powers and widest scope of investigation, would look at all aspects of the lead up to October 7, as well as handling of the ensuing war.

Speaking at the Knesset on Monday, Netanyahu claimed a state commission headed by the judiciary could not be trusted, in a speech that drew angry protests from families of October 7 victims, some of whom were violently prevented from attending by the Knesset guard.

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