Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken back his choice of Eli Sharvit as the new leader of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency. This happened one day after he announced Sharvit’s nomination. Netanyahu thanked Sharvit for considering the job, but he said he wants to look for other candidates instead. No specific reasons or new candidates were mentioned.
Reports from Israeli news suggest that Sharvit was involved in big protests earlier this year against Netanyahu’s plans to limit the Supreme Court’s powers. Sharvit said he was ready to take on the role and believed Shin Bet could face the tough challenges today.
Netanyahu’s decision came during a big disagreement over the current Shin Bet leader, Ronen Bar. There’s a legal hold on firing Bar as there’s an investigation into his financial connections with Qatar and some of Netanyahu’s aides. Bar is also part of the team working to bring back hostages from Gaza, and Netanyahu’s attempts to remove him have sparked large protests. Many people believe the prime minister is trying to harm important government institutions for his own benefit.
Netanyahu calls the investigation into Bar a politically motivated attack and claims he lost trust in Bar because of intelligence failures that led to a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which started a conflict in Gaza.
Leave a Reply