Day 536 - Govt, high court and AG face off on Shin Bet chief

The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

The Times of Israel

News

4.4 • 864 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Legal reporter Jeremy Sharon and archaeological and religions reporter Rossella Tercatin join host Jessica Steinberg for today's Daily Briefing.

Following the cabinet decision to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, various opposition political parties and legal organizations filed petitions against the decision in Israel's High Court. Sharon discusses the government's response to the petitions and its stance that the court should not interfere in the decision to fire Bar.

Sharon also reviews Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara's reaction to the government decision and her view that the firing will have implications for the functioning of law enforcement and the Shin Bet in the future.

The Shin Bet is also conducting a covert probe into the possible infiltration of extreme-right elements into the Israel Police and Sharon discusses the existence of Kahanist elements in National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir's party that led to the probe.

Tercatin looks at a recent archaeological discovery that grapevines and olive trees may have once grown on the land under the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, with evidence being uncovered of agricultural tools, pottery, and new technologies that can research pollen remains and seeds that relate to the time of Jesus.

She also discusses a poll of high school teens from religous Zionist high schools regarding sexual activity, leading to the researcher's determination that there's a need for more openly discussing sex with religious teens.

Please see today's ongoing liveblog for more updates.

For further reading:

Government tells the High Court it can’t be forced to work with Shin Bet chief it doesn’t trust

Report: Shin Bet covertly probed Kahanist infiltration into police under Ben Gvir

Echoing Gospel account, traces of ancient garden found under Church of Holy Sepulchre

Poll showing religious teens are sexually active sparks rethink of when to have the talk

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: Protestors march toward the Knesset on March 25, 2025, holding a banner that reads, 'Guarding democracy' (Credit Yair Palti/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, welcome to the Times of Israel's Daily Briefing.
0:08.1	It is Tuesday, March 25th, and I'm Jessica Steinberg.
0:11.6	I'm speaking today with legal reporter Jeremy Sharon and archaeology and religions reporter
0:16.4	Rosela Turkatine on her first appearance on the Daily Briefing.
0:20.3	Hi to you both?
0:21.4	Hi, Jessica. It's great to be here. Good morning, Jessica. Good morning to you both. Good to have you both here.
0:28.2	It is day 536 of the war. In the last 24 hours, Israel intercepted three rockets fired from North
0:35.8	Gaza by Islamic Jihad. The IDF downed a Houthi ballistic
0:40.4	missile with debris landing in Bateshamesh, and of course sending many thousands of people into
0:47.2	safe rooms and shelters. And the IDF said that it struck remaining military capabilities at a pair of Syrian bases.
0:56.6	In other news on that front, Hamas published a propaganda clip featuring hostage Elkanah Bukbott and Yosef Chaim O'Hanna,
1:05.5	both looking extremely gaunt, but speaking about what they've been undergoing over the last months, and those are the very
1:14.4	latest signs of life from those two hostages. There is also reportedly a new Egyptian
1:20.4	proposal aimed at restoring the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal with supposedly tentative support
1:26.5	from the Hamas terror group, although Israel has
1:29.0	said that it has not yet received the terms of that particular offer. Meanwhile, in Jerusalem,
1:34.6	today and every day this week and most of last week, protests have continued throughout the day,
1:40.8	around the Knesset, around the Prime Minister's private residence on Azar Road,
1:45.5	a little farther up near the hostage tent on Balfour and Aza. And that's all as demonstrators
1:51.9	are protesting, both for the release of the hostages and for the cabinet's decision to fire
1:58.0	Shinbet Chief Ronanbar. We'll look at the specifics of the decision to fire shinbet chief Ronan Barr. We'll look at the specifics of the decision
2:03.7	to fire the shinbet chief, discussing the latest legal implications of the firing as it is
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Times of Israel, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Times of Israel and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.