Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar on Tuesday presented the findings of the October 7 investigations at the organization’s headquarters, addressing the issue of responsibility for the failure, News12 reported.
“I accepted responsibility, and I intend to fulfill it. But timing is significant,” Bar stated.
Bar has set a date for his resignation saying: “I am not satisfied with the return of 197 abductees. I am focused on the 59 who remain.”
The Shin Bet chief’s capacity for hubris is astonishing, especially since it appears that his hubris was a major cause of the worst pogrom since the Holocaust.
The night before the October 7, 2023, attack, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar received intelligence suggesting Hamas intended to launch an operation. The information pointed to a likely day of battle, including the abduction of civilians or soldiers in a specific location. Around that time, dozens or even hundreds of Hamas terrorists swapped their mobile phone SIM cards for ones from Israeli providers. Halevi and Bar held consultations.
According to one report, the assessment was that only a limited incident would occur, so the Gaza Division was not informed––to avoid exposing intelligence sources. Another explanation was that previous similar warnings had not materialized into actual attacks. That night, Ronen Bar arrived at the Shin Bet headquarters, where he remained until the attack began.
The Prime Minister’s Office stated that Prime Minister Netanyahu was first informed at 6:29 AM when the fighting broke out. He immediately traveled to the IDF Kirya headquarters in Tel Aviv, arriving at the scene at 07:30 AM, where he conducted a situation assessment, and convened the cabinet.
No matter what any given Israeli thinks about Netanyahu, the entire country is convinced that Bar and Halevi are the chief culprits in the failure to assess the Hamas threat on October 7 and protect the lives of more than 1,200 civilians and soldiers.
And yet, speaking to his underlings at the Shin Bet, Bar reassured them that he would decide when would be the proper time for him to go home, and insisted that he would be the one to appoint his successor – one of his two “excellent deputies.” He also insisted that he won’t permit elected officials to force a different head of the Shin Bet from outside the organization.
Would you believe that in Israeli leftist lingo, folks like Ronen Bar are known as Democracy’s Gatekeepers?
Of course, in more self-aware countries like Turkey, Greece, Argentina, and Chile, they are known as a military junta.
DEEP STATE FOLLIES
Bar’s dangerous, if not treasonous comments come against the backdrop of the government’s intention to oust him, and a sharp attack on his record by a senior official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. Last week, Israeli media reported that Netanyahu was preparing the ground for the sacking of the Shin Bet chief and that Bar did not intend to resign until the October 7 investigations and the investigation into the Prime Minister’s staff’s ties to Qatar were completed.
The latter, popularly known as Qatar gate, is a common trick among Israel’s permanent rulers, Democracy’s gatekeepers: when they sense a sacking coming, they start an investigation of the elected official who is planning to sack them, thus placing him or her in the judicial vice of a “conflict of interest.” AG Gali Baharav Meara was working on such an investigation of former National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who was pounding the table in cabinet meetings, insisting that she be let go. To her chagrin, Ben Gvir resigned before she was able to blast him with an investigation that would have paralyzed him because of his “conflict of interest.”
Ronen Bar previously stated that he takes responsibility for the disaster that unfolded under his leadership as head of the Shin Bet. As early as October 16, 2023—about a week after the war began—he sent a letter to his personnel, writing: “We failed to warn—the responsibility is mine. There will be investigations.”
Took him close to a year and a half to conclude his investigation of himself. Looks like the verdict was lenient. No conflict of interest there, of course.
