Ex-Shin Bet officer: ‘The Qataris launched a brilliant intel operation in Israel’s Holy of Holies’
Dvir Kariv, a former field officer in the Shin Bet‘s (Israel Security Intelligence) Jewish Division, spoke on 103FM Radio with Udi Segal and Anat Davidov on Sunday regarding the suspicions in the Qatargate affair: “There was a Qatari intelligence operation in the Prime Minister’s Office – in the Holy of Holies of the State of Israel.”
In a conversation that was published on the “Sheva” program on Kan 11 with Ayala Hasson, the head of the Jewish division in the Shin Bet was heard talking to the commander of the Israel Police’s Jewish Division, Lt. Col. Avishai Mualem, when he asked to arrest suspects in the West Bank using administrative detention even without evidence.
Kariv criticized the head of the Jewish division’s remarks but explained that the tool of administrative detention is intended to prevent terrorism from taking place a moment before it occurs. In addition, he referred to the recent events in the Qatargate affair and explained his theory on the subject.
First, Kariv warned of a constitutional crisis in the country if the prime minister did not comply with the High Court ruling on the issue of dismissing the Shin Bet.
“We are not a reformed country, we are a spoiled country in a process of accelerated deterioration. We understand that the justice minister has learned nothing from October 7. The State of Israel did not understand what it meant for the Shin Bet to be weakened. If the Shin Bet is weakened, it is a weak country, and a weak country is attacked. In essence, the justice minister is saying [there will be] a constitutional crisis; if he does not accept the High Court ruling, people will have to ask themselves who they are listening to, the court or the minister,” he explained.
“A full-blown constitutional crisis, these are the things that need to be talked about. They are trying to divert us to all sorts of other matters; they are spinning all sorts of [narratives] in order to divert the real and important things in the State of Israel.”
He continued: “There are 59 of our people in the tunnels – that’s important – while Netanyahu is traveling on the Danube, the demonstrations, Qatargate, what’s happening in the Prime Minister’s Office, there are so many more important things that they are constantly trying to divert us to talk about other things.”
“Are people being arrested without evidence? Of course, that’s the uproar”
Secondly, Kariv referred to the conversation in question that was published on Kan 11 and the words said by the head of the Shin Bet’s Jewish division.
“First of all, I’ll say that you shouldn’t talk like that. I heard the conversation – the head of the non-Arab terrorism division shouldn’t talk like that. You’re a representative of an establishment. You’re a representative of the Shin Bet. You shouldn’t talk like that. It sounds more like a conversation between two colleagues. I think the head of the division thought that the Shi’a district were his colleagues.
“Regarding whether people are being arrested without evidence? Of course. That’s the uproar. When you see so many ministers at once saying, ‘The non-Arab terrorism division should be closed,’ there’s uproar over nothing. Of course, they’re being arrested without evidence,” Kariv claimed.
“What does the Shin Bet do? The Shin Bet is a counterintelligence agency. Counterintelligence is counterterrorism. To counterterrorism, you do it based on intelligence information, not evidence. Is it conceivable that you would hear about Ahmed from Nablus that he is on his way to commit a terrorist attack, wouldn’t you stop him? You would certainly stop him. That’s what happens in the non-Arab division as well.
“If you have intelligence information about people who are going to commit terrorism, you stop them, of course. Without evidence? Of course. Therefore, if there is no evidence and they remain silent during the investigation, which is what happens all the time, you are forced to detain them in administrative detention if you know that they are on their way to commit a terrorist attack,” he later added.
“Thwarting frustration” – Information was passed on, but no one was arrested
Kariv continued: “What you heard here in this conversation is a non-Arab brigade chief asking the Israel Police to buy time. Why buy time? So that the defense minister can sign an administrative arrest because he knows that there are hill-top youth on their way to carry out an attack, and they need to be thwarted. This is how the Shin Bet works. It hasn’t happened like this since today; it’s been happening like this since the Shin Bet was established. Every intelligence organization makes arrests based on intelligence and not on evidence.
“It’s now, in my opinion, because they have this bullet in the magazine to distract us from talking about the main thing. There are so many more important things to talk about than this phone conversation. Again, I’ll start by saying he shouldn’t have spoken like that. A senior Shin Bet director speaks like that. Even if he’s frustrated, and we hear within the Shin Bet what’s called ‘thwarting frustration.’ They passed information to the police and the army about rioters who entered a village – but they weren’t able to thwart or arrest anyone, so he’s frustrated.”
Kariv further emphasized: “Finally, he conveyed accurate information about terrorist activity that is taking place and they were unable to thwart it, so he is frustrated. ‘Let it go now so that we don’t talk about what Udi Levy’ said the head of the ‘Tzlatsel’ unit. He said very serious and very correct things, in my opinion. Don’t talk about Qatargate, don’t talk about the fact that the prime minister is in Israel and not abroad on Independence Day when 59 people are without freedom in tunnels.
“This is so that we don’t talk about these things. Then they leak something and make a big fuss over nothing. What do you mean the Shin Bet doesn’t arrest based on evidence? Of course, the Shin Bet doesn’t arrest based on evidence; it’s the Shin Bet. It arrests based on intelligence information to thwart attacks like any other intelligence organization in the world. There’s nothing different about it, neither in the non-Arab sector nor in the genuine Arab sector,” he later claimed.
‘The Qataris identified weak points in the Prime Minister’s Office – money and gifts’
Kariv also addressed the serious suspicions directed at the prime minister’s advisors in the Qatargate affair.
“What is amazing about this affair is that a brilliant intelligence exercise was carried out here by the Qataris. Every intelligence person sees the entire process. There is identification of candidates for acquisition attempts in the Prime Minister’s Office, identification of motives, identification of links, identification of weak points.
“I don’t know if you remember about Angela Merkel – there’s a video of Putin bringing a dog into the office because he knows she’s afraid of dogs. Every senior official has an intelligence file in the various intelligence agencies. Qatar has an intelligence file on Benjamin Netanyahu and the Prime Minister’s Office, just like they have on everyone else. The Qataris identified weak points, the weak points are money and gifts, they identified weak points from the time of Ayelet Shaked and Bennett, who received money from outside in the Prime Minister’s Office, they identified that there was a channel here that could be exploited.”
Karib warned: “There is a brilliant Qatari operator here who identified motives, connections, weak points, two employees who do not work directly in the Prime Minister’s Office but work as independent contractors. This is a weak point in two aspects: first, from the money pipeline and second, from ego. Why are they young, and why are they foreign workers? They are young because the role is a bit too big for them. Suddenly Feldstein, who was Haredi [ultra-Orthodox] and came to the new, secular world, is in the Prime Minister’s Office, his ego inflated.”
“We see chaos here and the beginning of clandestine activity. You have three phones. Who walks around with three phones? Above all, we identify a special operations officer in the Prime Minister’s Office who brings into the Prime Minister’s Office the Holy of Holies, a person without security clearance who is operated by the Qataris. It’s simply unbelievable. There’s a brilliant intelligence operation here in the Holy of Holies of the State of Israel. The fact that the Shin Bet is weakened is part of the reason Qatar is able to take advantage of this. It wouldn’t have happened,” he added.
Kariv also shared his concerns regarding non-compliance with the High Court ruling and summed up the issue as follows: “I pray that Ronen Bar’s letter will influence the judges of the court. Ronen Bar says, and I believe him a million percent because Nadav Argaman also said it and Yoram Cohen said it – the prime minister asked to use Shin Bet tools on Israeli citizens, and they refused. What does this mean? If the appointment of the next Shin Bet head is a puppet appointment or he is an acting one, there may be a situation where the Shin Bet head will not be able to say ‘no’ to the Prime Minister when he asks to use intelligence tools.
“Restraining power in the Shin Bet is one of the most important values in the Shin Bet. When we restrain power, it is precisely at these points where the Shin Bet head says ‘no’ to the prime minister. We are no longer a liberal democracy; we have been an electoral democracy for two years. We are one second away from losing Israeli democracy because we have a justice minister who will not respect the High Court ruling, and we have a prime minister who is trying to appoint a puppet as head of the Shin Bet. I hope the High Court judges will stop this a moment before it happens,” he concluded.
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