Ronen Bar sparks row with letter to Netanyahu about actions of ‘hilltop youth’ being a ‘large stain on Judaism’

The head of Israel’s security agency, Shin Bet, has warned the country’s leaders that Jewish terrorism in the West Bank is out of control and has become a serious threat to national security.

Ronen Bar issued the warning in a letter to the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the attorney general and members of the Israeli cabinet, some of whom are outspoken backers of the extremist settlers responsible for the escalating violence.

Bar’s letter, sent last week but published by Israel’s Channel 12 News on Thursday night, has highlighted the wide, acrimonious gap between the far-right wing of Netanyahu’s coalition and Israel’s security apparatus.

The national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of those criticised by Bar for inflammatory behaviour, called for the Shin Bet head to be fired, triggering a rebuke on Friday from the defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

  • PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    414·
    3 months ago

    Yeah, the time for this condemnation was 20 years ago. It’s a bit late to seem genuine on the matter now.

    • Gsus4@mander.xyzEnglish
      23·
      3 months ago

      They should have purged all the extremists after Rabin was murdered.

      • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOPEnglish
        11·
        3 months ago

        At the very least they should have clamped down on them. Israel’s lack of response has emboldened the settlers into thinking they can do whatever they want.

    • Milk_Sheikh@lemm.eeEnglish
      7·
      3 months ago

      You are not part of the community of Israel… You are not part of the national democratic camp which we all belong to in this house, and many of the people despise you. You are not partners in the Zionist enterprise. You are a foreign implant. You are an errant weed. Sensible Judaism spits you out. You placed yourself outside the wall of Jewish law… We say to this horrible man and those like him: you are a shame on Zionism and an embarrassment to Judaism.

      Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, after the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre.

      I’ve haven’t seen such a strong condemnation of Jewish extremism or terrorism since from any MK or PM. The current lot are instead fanning the flames actively, and I’m glad to see someone in the government call Itmar out publicly.

    • LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      92·
      3 months ago

      Yeah I was just gonna say he’s saying this now? As though the settlers just popped up yesterday, as though this hasn’t been a problem since the colonization began.

  • febra@lemmy.worldEnglish
    312·
    3 months ago

    All settlers are terrorists. They don’t belong in the West Bank.

  • jpreston2005@lemmy.worldEnglish
    183·
    3 months ago

    “It isn’t crime because it’s the use of violence to create intimidation, to spread fear. That is terror,” he wrote, describing how the campaign had “significantly expanded” in the absence of an adequate police response and with the connivance of some national leaders. The militants had gone from using “cigarette lighters to the weapons of war”, the security chief said, adding that some of those weapons had been provided by the state.

    Wow. Leader in the isreali military saying that violent terrorists are using weapons provided by isreal expressly for the purpose.

    Remember kids, you only get state sponsored terrorists from terrorist states. isreal is, by its own admission, an apartheid state engaging in terrorism.

    Meanwhile, the democratic nominee for president is forced to re-assert that she believes “isreal has a right to defend itself and we will continue to support them with weapons to do so,” specifically because the terrorist state peddles its influence over seas via dark money super pac AIPAC. A terrorist state is legally abusing campaign finance laws in order to sway our elections and politicians. Thanks citizens united! Thanks republican supreme court! Now we’re ALL sponsoring the ongoing isreal terrorism!

  • acargitz@lemmy.caEnglish
    141·
    3 months ago

    And that folks is the difference between respectable, institutional brutal violence and not respectable vigilante brutal violence.

  • Jagothaciv@kbin.earth
    7·
    3 months ago

    Jewish terrorism in the West Bank. Should have purged those extremists years ago. But we in the US have our own domestic terrorists who keep helping them. We need to eradicate them here too.