The only person which can give the head of the shin bet an order to do something for political reasons is the prime minister.

And it's explicitly stated in the law that the head of the shin bet has a permission in some cases to tell the prime minister,

I'm not doing this. This is a political order. And this tension historically was something

that was always evident in the work of the shinbet.

It's 10 o'clock a.m. on Wednesday, March 26th in New York City. It is 4 o'clock p.m. on Wednesday, March 26th, in Israel, as Israelis get ready to wind down their day.

Before we move on to today's conversation, one housekeeping note on Tuesday, May 13th at the

92nd Street Y, I will be delivering the State of World Jury address at 7.30 p.m. on the 13th. If you'd

like to register for the event, please go to the show notes. We'll have a link to it or just go to

the 902nd Street Y events page.

I'll be giving the speech and I'll be followed by a conversation I'll be having with Rabbi David

Inber at the Y. Now on to today's conversation. Last Friday, Israel's cabinet voted unanimously

to dismiss Shinbet chief Ronan Barr. The move marked the first time in Israeli

history that the government has fired the head of the domestic security agency. Barr's final

day in office will be April 10th, though Israel's Supreme Court has frozen his suspension. So whether or not

that is his last day remains to be seen. But either way,

Prime Minister Netanyahu's announcement last week about ending Barr's term increased tensions

between the Shimbabet and the government, bringing it to what some are characterizing as a boiling

point and leading to mass protests across Israel. Now, there's a tendency to think that this tension began with the current prime minister,

with Prime Minister Netanyahu.

What we have learned, in reality, is it stretches back decades to the very founding of the state

from Ben Gurian all the way up through Monachem Begin and beyond.

In this episode, we'll explore the shinbet,

...