Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar on Thursday sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that recent Jewish terror actions, such as the massive attack on the northern West Bank Palestinian village of Jit, have put the country on the brink of disaster, said a Channel 12 report.
He accused National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and other coalition members of sometimes indirectly and sometimes almost explicitly encouraging the phenomenon, including with Ben Gvir’s recent visit to the Temple Mount, which led to large numbers of Jews praying openly in violation of the government’s status quo policy.
Next, he said that it was inadequate to call the current Jewish violence “nationalistic crimes” but that it must be called Jewish terror, especially because the goal is to enforce broad oppression over another minority group, and the attackers are not a minority taking small shots at the majority.
Moreover, he said he was writing Netanyahu and other top officials out of deep concern as a Jew, an Israeli, and a security official.
Bar said that if in the past Jewish extremists would commit violence against Palestinians clandestinely and using makeshift weapons, now they attack openly in dozens or larger numbers, including using lethal weapons.
The Shin Bet director added that in some instances, those perpetrating the violence received their weapons from the government as part of programs to expand the availability of guns to West Bank Jews after October 7.
No more deterrence
Also, he said that Jewish extremists are no longer afraid of administrative detention because they expect that coalition allies will get them released and then pay them money (much the way Palestinians sometimes pay violent convicts)
According to Bar, this process is harming the fabric of Israeli society domestically and endangering support for the Jewish state globally, even among its allies.
Further, he said that the IDF is not trained or equipped to handle the size and scope of the expanding Jewish terror phenomenon.
Following this letter, Ben-Gvir demanded Bar’s dismissal while attending a cabinet meeting on Thursday night.
After making the deman, Ben-Gvir abruptly left the meeting.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other government ministers reportedly defended Bar, while Ben-Gvir claimed that Bar was responsible for security failures on Oct. 7 and attacked Bar’s letter.
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