Netanyahu Says He Will Seek to Dismiss the Head of Israel’s Internal Security Service

 Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends his trial on corruption charges at the district court in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends his trial on corruption charges at the district court in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP)
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Netanyahu Says He Will Seek to Dismiss the Head of Israel’s Internal Security Service

 Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends his trial on corruption charges at the district court in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends his trial on corruption charges at the district court in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday he will seek to dismiss the head of the country's internal security service this week, following a power struggle over the Hamas attack that sparked the war in Gaza.

Netanyahu said in a statement he has had “ongoing distrust” with Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar, and “this distrust has grown over time.”

The Shin Bet is responsible for monitoring Palestinian armed groups, and recently issued a report accepting responsibility for its failures around the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. But it also criticized Netanyahu, saying failed government policies helped create the climate that led to it.

The tensions boiled over this weekend when Bar’s predecessor, Nadav Argaman, said he would release sensitive information about Netanyahu if it is found that the prime minister had broken the law. Netanyahu accused Argaman of blackmail and filed a police complaint.

The Shin Bet did not have an immediate response to Netanyahu's announcement.

Netanyahu has resisted calls for an official state commission of inquiry into the Oct. 7 attack and has tried to blame the failures on the army and security agencies. In recent months, a number of senior security officials, including a defense minister and army chief, have been fired or forced to step down.

Bar had been one of the few remaining senior security officials since the Oct. 7 attack to remain in office.

Netanyahu said removing Bar from his position would help Israel “achieve its war goals and prevent the next disaster.” The prime minister is expected to appoint a loyalist in his place, slowing any momentum for the commission of inquiry.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, a good-governance civil society group, called Netanyahu’s announcement a “declaration of war on the rule of law” and claimed that he does not have the authority to take the step against Bar because of investigations into his own office.

Netanyahu is also angry that the Shin Bet is investigating members of his staff for their dealings with Qatar. The Shin Bet, and Bar, have been closely involved with the hostage negotiations during the war in Gaza.

Netanyahu recently removed Bar from the negotiating team and replaced him with a loyalist, Cabinet minister Ron Dermer. Israeli media have reported on deep policy differences between the negotiators, who have pushed for a hostage deal, and Netanyahu, who continues to threaten to resume the war.



Doctor Deported to Lebanon Had Photos ‘Sympathetic’ to Hezbollah on Phone, US Says

A general view of The John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, US, July 27, 2021. REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi/File Photo
A general view of The John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, US, July 27, 2021. REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi/File Photo
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Doctor Deported to Lebanon Had Photos ‘Sympathetic’ to Hezbollah on Phone, US Says

A general view of The John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, US, July 27, 2021. REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi/File Photo
A general view of The John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, US, July 27, 2021. REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi/File Photo

US authorities on Monday said they deported a Rhode Island doctor to Lebanon last week after discovering "sympathetic photos and videos" of the former longtime leader of Hezbollah and its fighters in her cell phone's deleted items folder.

Alawieh had also told agents that while in Lebanon she attended the funeral last month of Hezbollah's slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, whom she supported from a "religious perspective" as a Shiite.

The US Department of Justice provided those details as it sought to assure a federal judge in Boston that US Customs and Border Protection did not willfully disobey an order he issued on Friday that should have halted Dr. Rasha Alawieh's immediate removal.

The 34-year-old Lebanese citizen, who held an H-1B visa, was detained on Thursday at Logan International Airport in Boston after returning from a trip to Lebanon to see family. Her cousin then filed a lawsuit seeking to halt her deportation.

In its first public explanation for her removal, the Justice Department said Alawieh, a kidney specialist and assistant professor at Brown University, was denied re-entry to the United States based on what CBP found on her phone and statements she made during an airport interview.

"It's a purely religious thing," she said about the funeral, according to a transcript of that interview reviewed by Reuters. "He's a very big figure in our community. For me it's not political."

Western governments including the United States designate Hezbollah a terrorist group. The Lebanese armed group is part of the "Axis of Resistance", an alliance of Iran-backed groups across the Middle East that also includes the Palestinian movement Hamas, which sparked the Gaza war by attacking Israel almost a year ago on Oct. 7.

Based on those statements and the discovery of photos on her phone of Nasrallah and Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, the Justice Department said CBP concluded "her true intentions in the United States could not be determined."

Alawieh and a lawyer for her cousin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In Monday's filing, the Justice Department also defended CBP officials against claims by the cousin's legal team that Alawieh was flown out of the country on Friday evening in violation of an order issued by US District Judge Leo Sorokin that day.

The judge had issued an order barring Alawieh's removal from Massachusetts without 48 hours' notice. Yet she was put onto a flight to France that night and is now back in Lebanon.

The judge on Sunday had directed the government to address "serious allegations" that his order was willfully violated ahead of a hearing that had been scheduled for Monday.

That hearing was canceled on Monday at the request of the cousin's lone remaining attorney, after lawyers at the law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer representing her pro bono withdrew, citing "further diligence" about the quickly-moving case.

A lawyer with that firm said she had gone to the airport on Friday and shown a CBP officer a copy of Sorokin's order on her laptop before Alawieh's Air France flight departed, and another CBP official in a declaration on Monday said he was made aware that occurred before taking Alawieh to the boarding area.

But the Justice Department said the notification needed to be received through standard channels and be received by the agency's legal counsel for their review and guidance, which did not happen.

"CBP takes court orders seriously and strives to always abide by a court order," Justice Department attorneys wrote.

The Justice Department's filing was later sealed by Sorokin at the request of a lawyer for the cousin. Reuters reviewed it from a public terminal in the courthouse before access was further restricted.