Shin Bet chief sidelines internal critics of his election-interference probe, Haaretz reports

Haaretz published at 02:05 on Sunday 8 November, under the byline of police and security correspondent Josh Breiner, that Shin Bet director David Zini had removed senior agency officials who disagreed with him from the investigation into alleged foreign interference in the October election, and is attempting to investigate Arab party leaders while providing no evidence. One official is quoted saying “Zini is clearly trying to keep anyone who disagrees with him away from the investigation.” No Shin Bet response appears in the indexed text. This is single-outlet reporting resting on an unnamed source and should be read as a serious allegation rather than an established fact. It follows a week-long sequence: on 1 November the Jerusalem Post, citing KAN, reported three senior officials opposing Zini’s expansion of the probe, with the Shin Bet responding that internal discourse allows a “wide range” of views; on 3 November the Times of Israel reported the attorney general accusing Zini of hindering the investigation, and the Joint List calling him a “political arm” for Netanyahu. On 4 November the election committee certified the results after finding no evidence of fraud.

The target of the probe is also the arithmetic that decided the mandate. Both Arab-majority lists endorsed Eisenkot: the United Arab List first, then the Joint List, whose head Yousef Jabareen told Herzog they were recommending him “in hopes it’ll lead to an improvement for all citizens, particularly Arabs.” Arab parties took a combined 19 seats, the Joint List 12. The framing split is visible in the count itself: on 29 October ABC News reported Netanyahu’s bloc on 53 and “the opposition bloc seeking to replace the premier” on 48, while Haaretz reported the same committee’s completed count as 67 opposition seats to 53. The difference is whether Arab parties are inside the opposition. On Saturday Netanyahu released a pre-recorded Likud video demanding a “national unity” government; the Times of Israel’s Jeremy Sharon reported him claiming Arab parties “want to eliminate Israel.” Yashar dismissed the demand as hypocritical. Eisenkot had already accused him of a “campaign of delegitimization.”

Assessment: The Zini file and the unity demand are the same instrument used at two levels of the state. One seeks to subtract 19 seats rhetorically; the other would subtract them procedurally, by making their holders subjects of a security investigation. Note what has not happened: no evidence handed to prosecutors on three of four politicians, a certified result, a judge chairing the committee. Note also the reporting’s fragility — Breiner has owned this story for a week and is largely alone on it, and “North Korean dictator” is a source’s epithet, not a finding. Protesters at Habima Square on 7 November called for the next government to fire Zini. Whether it can, and on what grounds, is the test of the handover.