Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the Shin Bet head is conducting a “campaign of blackmail against him,” in response to Bar’s predecessor Nadav Argaman‘s sharp criticism of him in an N12 interview on Thursday evening.
Earlier in the evening, Argaman told N12, “If I come to the conclusion that the prime minister has decided to act against the law, there will be no choice—I will say everything I know and have withheld until now.”
Argaman’s comments come amid efforts to revive the judicial overhaul. He said he has yet to reveal certain incriminating information because he wishes “to preserve the significance of the relationship between the head of the Shin Bet and the prime minister.”
“There is great importance to the intimacy between the head of the Shin Bet and the prime minister, and I don’t think it is right to undermine that intimacy. That is why, for now, I am keeping everything that happened behind closed doors between me and the prime minister in this place. It is absolutely clear that I have a great deal of knowledge, I could use it, but I choose not to—for the reasons I mentioned.”
עכשיו במהדורה: ראש השב״כ לשעבר נדב ארגמן בריאיון ל-@LeviYonit עם מסר ישיר לנתניהו pic.twitter.com/O1QMJUCkwS
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Netanyahu: Mafia-style criminal threats will not deter me
Netanyahu responded with a tweet saying, “tonight, another dangerous red line for Israeli democracy was crossed.”
“Never, in the entire history of Israel and in the entire history of democracies, has the former head of the secret organization carried out live blackmail threats against a sitting prime minister. This crime joins a whole campaign of blackmail with threats through media briefings in recent days, conducted by the current head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar.”
He alleged that the goal of the threats was to prevent him from making the decisions necessary to “rebuild the Shin Bet after its devastating failure on October 7.”
“Let it be clear,” he warned. “Mafia-style criminal threats will not deter me. I will do what is necessary to ensure the security of the citizens of Israel.”
Argaman, however, said he had not made a threat, and that heads of Shin Bet “know a lot” but are not “walking around with the intention to threaten.”
Nevertheless, he said, “if we think that there are things that we know about, and they endanger the national security of the State of Israel, we will use them according to the law.”
“I am very troubled by the fact that the prime minister is deliberately harming Israeli society, and causing friction between populations within it in order to rule. I think the first thing that needs to happen here is for this government to fall – and for a new government to be established in Israel, as broad as possible,” he continued.
He also expressed his concerns about the government appointing the next Shin Bet chief after Ronen Bar steps down.
“I believe that this government, which failed on October 7 and in its overall strategy, should not be the one to appoint the next Shin Bet chief. I am deeply concerned that an appointment made by this government and this prime minister could be a political, agenda-driven appointment.”
Argaman concluded with, “we need to do everything so that Israeli democracy is preserved.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid corroborated Aragaman’s statements.
“Netanyahu appointed Nadav Argaman as head of the Shin Bet, but I worked with him as a cabinet member and foreign minister,” he wrote. “He was professional, tough, completely non-political, always striving to make contact with the enemy.”
“I suggest listening carefully to what he said tonight.”
Shin Bet responded to Netanyahu’s claims that he was being blackmailed by them by saying “this is a serious accusation against the head of a state organization in the State of Israel.”
“Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar devotes all of his time to security matters, efforts to return the hostages and protect democracy. Any other statement on the matter is devoid of any basis.”
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