Prime Minister Netanyahu released a video Saturday night detailing the sequence of events and his relationship with the head of the Shin Bet. He explained the real reason behind Ronen Bar’s dismissal, stating: “The firing was not meant to prevent the investigation—the investigation was meant to prevent the firing.”
Netanyahu outlined the timeline from October 7, 2023, until AG Gali Baharav-Miara decided to launch an investigation into the Qatar affair, or “Qatar-gate.” He declared: “Ronen Bar will not remain head of the Shin Bet, there will be no civil war, and Israel will remain a democratic state. We are a nation of laws, and the law in Israel is clear—the government has the authority to dismiss the head of the secret service before the end of his term, and that is precisely what it did.”
Netanyahu responded to claims that Bar’s dismissal was linked to the Qatar-gate investigation, explaining why he lost confidence in his chief of clandestine police: “My distrust in the head of the Shin Bet began on October 7, when he failed to warn me or anyone else. It grew to the point where I had to remove Ronen from the hostage negotiation team.”
Netanyahu emphasized that these events occurred well before the decision to open the Qatar investigation, stating: “I believed it would have been the right time to end the Shin Bet chief’s tenure after he presented me with the agency’s investigations into the failures of October 7. The same applied to the IDF Chief of Staff.”
“I instructed the head of the Shin Bet to submit the investigations’ report to me by February 15,” Netanyahu stated. “On February 15, the very day he was supposed to submit them, Ronen Bar sent me a letter.” Holding the letter up to the camera, the PM read aloud: “I would like to inform you that I am unable to submit the General Security Service investigation on the date you requested. In light of the above, I request that the main points of the investigation be submitted no later than February 25-27.”
Netanyahu noted that Bar failed to submit the investigations’ report on time and requested yet another extension, which Netanyahu granted. “On that very day, February 27, at 9 PM—by a rare coincidence that cannot be made up—the Attorney General announced the opening of an investigation into the Qatar matter. The facts unequivocally prove that the dismissals were not meant to prevent the investigation; rather, the investigation was meant to prevent the dismissals. So, you tell me, who here is acting with ulterior motives?”
Bar’s letter, presented by Netanyahu, reveals that the prime minister requested an early submission of the investigations’ report on February 10—and on the same day, News12, which has been at the forefront of the mainstream media’s efforts to unseat the PM through undemocratic means, reported that the Prime Minister’s spokesperson Eli Feldstein had provided PR services to a foreign company working for the Qatari government on the hostage issue while still serving Netanyahu’s office as an adjunct advisor. Connections between Netanyahu’s associates and Gulf states had been reported earlier: last November, Haaretz revealed that Netanyahu’s media advisor, Yonatan Urich, and Israel Einhorn, a former advisor to Likud campaigns, were involved in a global effort to whitewash Qatar’s image ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
According to News14, Ronen Bar was a guest of the Emir of Qatar in the semi-final game of the World Cup in 2022. The estimated ticket cost was $20,000.
