On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu sent a sharply worded letter to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara in response to the ongoing dispute regarding the dismissal of ISA Director Ronen Bar. Netanyahu also moved up the scheduled cabinet meeting on the matter from Wednesday to Tuesday in an attempt to address the issue more swiftly.
The Prime Minister argued that judicial involvement in the decision interferes with the government’s ability to make critical security decisions. In his letter, Netanyahu emphasized that the decision to remove the ISA Director falls solely under the authority of the government according to the Israel Security Agency Law. “This is a security decision of the utmost degree, in peace, and even more so, during an emergency and due to urgent security challenges,” Netanyahu wrote to the Attorney General. “Your attempt to take control of the government’s security considerations during a war under the guise of legal advice is a dangerous denial of the government’s authority.”
Netanyahu took aim at Baharav-Miara’s accusations of a conflict of interest and accused her of “abusing her authority.” He argued that her claims were misguided, stating, “Your hints at illegalities and a conflict of interest are the total opposite of justice. Your instruction to regularly open investigations into the Prime Minister’s staff, which even the Police do not understand their purpose, is an abuse of your authority and an invalid practice that has become a method and its goal is to deprive authority from the elected echelon.”
The Prime Minister further criticized Baharav-Miara’s assertion that the ISA Director’s position was not one of personal allegiance to the Prime Minister, calling it a misrepresentation. “Your claim that the position of ISA Director is not ‘a personal position of allegiance under the Prime Minister’ is a manipulation. The Prime Minister and government did not demand personal allegiance. The legislator is the one that the agency is subject to the government and the Prime Minister is in charge of the director. Hence, to fulfill their roles, the government and Prime Minister must trust the agency director and his abilities to successfully lead the agency in the face of urgent challenges. That is the trust that was violated.”
In the letter, Netanyahu underscored that the government would soon be discussing the matter in a cabinet meeting, where Baharav-Miara would have the opportunity to voice her legal position. “In the next meeting, the cabinet will discuss, among other things, the dismissal of the ISA Director amid the loss of confidence on the part of the Prime Minister and many of the cabinet members. You will be invited to this meeting. You can listen in detail to the reasons for the proposal and express your legal stance before the cabinet decides on the matter.”
{Matzav.com Israel}

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