Ronen Bar reportedly tells ministers public ‘desperately needs this,’ as does agency to put an end to ‘lies and conspiracies’ claiming it had foreknowledge of Hamas attack.
During Thursday night’s meeting of the security cabinet, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar urged ministers to immediately establish a state commission of inquiry to examine Hamas’s October 7 attack and the failures in Israel that enabled it to occur, according to Hebrew media reports.
“I ask you to announce a state commission of inquiry — now,” Bar was quoted as saying by Channel 12 news. “The public desperately needs this and the Shin Bet does as well.
“This will put an end to all the lies and conspiracies,” he said, referring to fringe claims that Hamas’s ability to surprise Israel to the degree it did during the attacks, and to bypass all its defenses, was treasonous assistance from inside the country.
Such claims have been promoted by eccentric Likud MK Tally Gotliv, who recently promoted a conspiracy seeking to link protesters against the judicial overhaul to the atrocities carried out by the Gaza-ruling terror group.
Gotliv’s posted a screenshot of an article from a fringe site known for pushing false conspiracies. The headline in the screenshot claimed Israel’s Mossad spy agency had “received a message from the Americans that they intercepted conversations between [protest leader] Shikma Bressler’s husband who is from the Shin Bet to Yahya Sinwar” four days before the Hamas-led massacres. Sinwar is the terror group’s top leader in Gaza.
Both Shin Bet and Mossad have forcibly denied Gotliv’s allegations as baseless.
There is broad expectation in the public for a major investigation into arguably the worst security disaster in Israeli history, when thousands of terrorists streamed over the border, murdered some 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 250 more.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads Likud, has so far resisted setting up a state commission — the most powerful and consequential investigative panel — to look into the failings that enabled the October 7 onslaught. He has said investigations are necessary but will need to wait until after the war.
Netanyahu and his conduct vis-à-vis Hamas over his long years in power are expected to be a key matter of interest for any investigative panel.
Right-wing ministers reacted in anger earlier this month when IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said he was setting up an outside team to investigate only the army’s failure, presumable concerned that such a probe could also reflect badly upon them. On Thursday Ynet reported that Halevi had frozen that probe amid the criticism.
Bar was asked during the cabinet meeting by Transportation Minister Miri Regev of Likud whether there was any truth to the claims advanced by MK Gotliv.
“It’s just a lie. What she did crosses a red line,” Bar reportedly responded.
He added that “publicizing the identity of a Shin Bet employee is a slippery slope… I ask you to help us, condemn it, take care of it. These are the fighters you send into battle.”
Channel 12 said Bar received backing from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said: “We are public representatives, we can be attacked. The heads of the [defense] system cannot be attacked during wartime.”
Channel 12 said Bar earlier this week sent an urgent letter to the Knesset speaker, attorney general and other top officials in which he lambasted Gotliv for spreading conspiracy theories and “bizarre claims about supposed actions by a Shin Bet employee.” He said the false accusations endangered the life and safety of the employee and his family.
Shikma Bressler, a leader of the protest movement against the government’s judicial overhaul, arrives with bodyguards at the weekly protest in Tel Aviv on September 30, 2023. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)
Bressler on Friday demanded that Gotliv retract the “delusional conspiracy theory” against opponents of the government’s judicial overhaul, in a letter from her legal counsel publicized in Hebrew media, and called on the lawmaker to give up parliamentary immunity
“For months you (Gotliv) have been publishing complete fabrications about our client,” Bressler’s attorneys charged in the letter.
The claim was forcibly denied by the Mossad both at the time and again on Wednesday when Gotliv repeated the claim.
In the letter published Friday, Bressler, a leader of last year’s protests against the Netanyahu coalition’s planned judicial overhaul, called the allegations “a collection of blatant and malicious lies,” and said it was “intolerable and unforgivable” that they be promoted by a public official.
She also called on Gotliv to give up her parliamentary immunity so that she could be sued for her libel. Gotliv refused.
Since entering the Knesset after elections in November 2022, Gotliv has established a reputation for making incendiary claims, such as accusing the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet of “working for terrorists.”
