Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday publicly accused the head of the Israeli National Security Agency of lying to the country's Supreme Court, the last turning point in a legal battle for Netanyahu's attempt to fire the head of security, Ronen Bar.
In a 13 -page immail declaration of 13 pages, defending his decision to remove Mr. Bar, who guides the bet Shin, Netanyahu tried to refute the surprising accusations that Mr. Bar did against the Prime Minister in an equally fascinating juroring that Mr. Bar presented last week at the Supreme Court of Israel.
The extraordinary exchange of recriminations came in the context of a case presented by the Israeli guard dog organizations and the opposition parties against Mr. Netanyahu to ignore the Mr. Bar, with the full approval of his government, citing a lack of trust.
Mr. Bar said that the decision to remove him did not derive from professional considerations, but from “a expectation of personal loyalty”.
The case enchanted Israel, embodying a long -standing internal crisis that puts the right supporters of Netanyahu, against the most liberal Israeli on the balance of power between the branches of the government and the character of Israeli democracy.
To be able to govern on the validity of the expulsion of Mr. Bar, the Court may now have to decide which sworn declaration in conflict is more credible. Alternatively, the judges could fight for a compromise, with an agreed date that Mr. Bar resign.
Mr. Bar had accused Mr. Netanyahu of having set personal loyalty above respect for the judgments of the Supreme Court in case of constitutional crisis. He also said that the Prime Minister had insisted on the improper use of the powers of the Shin Bet to spy the Israeli citizens who had guided or financed anti -government protests.
Mr. Bar said that he was asked to sign an opinion – drawn up by Mr. Netanyahu or his helpers and on the basis of what the Mr. Bar suggested were Spuri security topics – which would have hindered the progress of a process of corruption in progress involving the prime minister. Netanyahu is accused of corruption, fraud and violation of trust, accused of having provided supporters rich in regulatory favors in exchange for illicit gifts and a favorable media coverage. In his sworn declaration, Netanyahu rejected those statements, using his authority to support some of his topics with quotes selected by transcriptions of reserved meetings and relationships that would normally be classified for decades.
As for his trial, Netanyahu said he simply asked the Mr. Bar to provide an urgent security plan for his protection while testifying in court after Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia, launched a drone that damaged the house of the Netanyahu family in the city of the sea of Casarea Israeliana.
Netanyahu claimed that he did not want to delay the testimony, but he only wanted the hearings of the court to be moved to a safer position.
He described the statement that Mr. Bar was asked to spy on the leaders of legitimate protests such as “a complete lie”, saying that he was worried only for cases of violence and harassment of public figures. Hit from Mr. Bar, Mr. Netanyahu accused Shin's bet of not having scruples for having passed the authorities when he was to chase far -right activists.
Netanyahu has not explicitly denied the statements of Mr. Bar on the demand for loyalty in case of constitutional clash between the Supreme Court and the government, but Netanyahu said that Mr. Bar formulated the complaint differently in the classified part of his sworn declaration.
On Sunday in a detailed response, issued hours after Mr. Netanyahu released his sworn declaration, Mr. Bar said that he was “full of inaccuracies, inclined quotes and half truths destined to distort the context and alter reality”.
Mr. Bar had tracked down the loss of trust and the desire of Netanyahu to reject him to a series of moves that the head of security made at the end of 2024 and at the beginning of 2025, including his decision to investigate Netanyahu helpers suspected of safety violations in cases that involve the loss of classified documents and ties with Qatar.
Mr. Netanyahu supports in his sworn declaration of having lost all confidence in the Mr. Bar on October 7, 2023, when Hamas mounted his fatal attack against Southern Israel, turning on the devastating war in Gaza. By blameing the Mr. Bar for not having foreseen or prevented the attack, Netanyahu said he was responsible for what he called “the greatest failure of intelligence in the history of Israel”.
Netanyahu wrote: “You should rub your eyes to believe” the recommendations issued by Mr. Bar shortly before the attack, following some worrying signs of Hamas's activity in Gaza.
Mr. Bar had recommended from any large Israeli actions that could lead to a “calculation error”, revealed Netanyahu, to stick to what he described as an incorrect concept of “preserving the quiet in Gaza at any price”. (Mr. Netanyahu had also been signed for a long time to this policy, according to Mr. Bar.)
“While Ronen Bar was preventing actions for fear of escaping a war, Hamas had already started a war!” Mr. Netanyahu wrote in his sworn declaration.
Netanyahu also rejected the statement of Mr. Bar that he had warned the war in the year before the attack led by Hamas, citing the fragments of transcriptions of meetings and intelligence relationships in which Mr. Bar said that Gaza was “discouraged” and that Hamas leaders were not trying to start a war.
Mr. Bar said much before Mr. Netanyahu's decision to fire him that he would resign in an appropriate time as part of the responsibility for the failure of intelligence.