A game of political survival: Netanyahu’s personal vendetta against Shin Bet chief

When Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced this weekend that he was seeking to dismiss the top brass of Israel’s domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet, he claimed that it was down to a lack of trust in bureau chief Ronen Bar, and to clear out officials who had failed to prevent Hamas’s devasting October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. But analysts say that at least two Shin Bet investigations hang over Netanyahu, and that he is desperate to save his own skin.