Special update - Netanyahu fires head of Shin Bet Ronen Bar

Unholy: Two Jews on the News

Unholy Media

News, Society & Culture

4.7 • 680 Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

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Summary

Yonit and Jonathan unpack the latest drama in Israel which many are calling a moment of truth for the country’s democracy: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to remove Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet. What’s behind the move, what does it mean for Israel’s security, and how do the US and Qatar fit into the picture?

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a special unholy update.
0:02.1	I'm Unite Levy in Tel Aviv.
0:03.9	And I'm Jonathan Friedland in London.
0:16.3	An unprecedented moment in Israel's history, Netanyahu's decision to dismiss the head of Shimbab,
0:22.2	Israel's internal security service, Ronan Bar, never in 77 years of Israel's existence has
0:28.6	any head of the country decided to fire the country's domestic intelligence service.
0:34.4	So this is a watershed moment and we want to talk about it.
0:36.7	The interesting thing is we should tell our listeners listeners it hadn't yet happened because Netanyahu said that this
0:42.4	is his intent. He wants to file Ruaninba. We will explain further down in this episode why it is a
0:48.0	difficult thing to do legally and he still needs to obviously get the authorization of his government.
0:53.5	But that is his intent. And on the intent itself, we need to obviously get the authorization of his government. But that is his intent.
0:55.0	And on the intent itself, we need to explain why this is such a dramatic thing.
0:59.6	Besides unprecedented, this hasn't happened, what is in the background of all this?
1:04.1	Yeah, I think, you know, a huge deal.
1:06.7	I think one good way of explaining it to people, perhaps, is that this is reopening a lot of the divisions that were so, you know, ripped the country apart in the period of the judicial upheaval, the judicial coup back in sort of 2023.
1:22.8	Those divisions reopened and lots of very usually calm and level-headed people saying we're now into
1:28.5	a battle for the soul of Israel, Israeli democracy itself on the line. So yes, this, you know,
1:35.2	it's not just a sort of personnel shift within the intelligence community. This is a very, very
1:40.2	big moment. Yeah, I think that many people in Israel feel this morning that this country is in an all-bets-or-off mode. To understand where we are, I think it's really important to sort of
1:49.5	backtrack and first say what the shin bet is. As I said, it's Israel's internal security service.
1:54.8	And when it stands next to the Mossad and Aman, Aman is military intelligence, all these three
2:00.3	intelligence agencies are the sort of backbone of Israel's security echelon.
	...

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