Netanyahu: ‘No war between brothers’ over Shin Bet chief’s dismissal

(JNS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintained on Friday that his government has the authority to dismiss the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief, while insisting that the heated debate over the issue would not deteriorate into a civil war.

“There will be no war between brothers! The State of Israel is a state of law, and according to the law, the government of Israel decides who will be the head of the Shin Bet,” Netanyahu wrote on X.

His comment came on the backdrop of the temporary injunction issued by Israel’s Supreme Court, which prevents the director of the Shin Bet Ronen Bar from being removed, as well as remarks by former president of the Supreme Court Aharon Barak warning of a looming civil war.

Following the court’s freeze order, Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said that until the issue is resolved, the government cannot appoint a new Shin Bet head or conduct interviews for alternative candidates, Israel’s public broadcaster Kan reported.

Meanwhile, the Business Forum, which represents some 200 of Israel’s largest companies, including banks, insurance and technology firms, threatened to go on strike if the government did not accept the court’s order.

“If the Israeli government does not respect the order and leads Israel into a constitutional crisis, we call on all citizens of Israel to stop respecting the government’s decisions with all that entails, and we will bring the Israeli economy to a halt,” the Business Forum said in a statement.

The Israel Bar Association followed suit and announced that it had begun coordinating a plan to shut down the court system with the help of the Histadrut labor union, law firms and public sector jurists.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich seemed to suggest that the government should not respect the court’s order. “Supreme Court judges will not run the war [in Gaza] or decide its commanders. Period,” Smotrich wrote on X.

Netanyahu on Thursday slammed Bar’s “soft approach,” adding that he was thus “not the right person to rehabilitate” the Shin Bet after the colossal intelligence failures leading up to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi of the Likud Party slammed the court’s freezing order, vowing that “Ronen Bar will finish his term on April 10 or earlier, with the appointment of a permanent Shin Bet head. You have no legal authority to intervene in this. It is the government’s sole authority. Your order is invalid. The story is over. The people are the sovereign.”

Interior Minister Moshe Arbel of the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, on the other hand, pledged: “The Government of Israel, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, will not violate the rulings of the court.”

On Thursday, the Israeli Cabinet unanimously approved Netanyahu’s proposal to fire Bar. “Bar will conclude his duties on April 10, 2025, or when a permanent director is appointed—whichever comes first,” according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.

The proposal cited Netanyahu’s “persistent personal and professional distrust” of Bar, deemed detrimental to both the government and the security service.

However, the Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, hours later issued the prevention order, which will reportedly remain in place until April 8, by which time the court can hear the petitions that have been filed against the government’s move.