Clash between Israeli gov’t and Shin Bet enters next round after intel official is arrested for new leak

The already simmering tensions between the government and its domestic intelligence service, the Shin Bet, reached a new high on Tuesday with the revelation of yet another scandal involving the leaking of classified information.

A Shin Bet officer, only identified as “Aleph,” was arrested on suspicion of having leaked classified information to Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli and two journalists: Israel Hayom’s Shirit Avitan Cohen and Channel 12’s Amit Segal.

The affair was first reported on Monday, but a court lifted a gag order on Tuesday, revealing most details of the case.

The new affair again fanned the flames of the ongoing battle between the government and the Shin Bet, whose director, Ronen Bar, was dismissed by the government before the High Court froze the decision.

Responding to a storm of outrage from coalition officials, the Shin Bet later explained that Aleph “is suspected of having exploited his security position and his direct access to Shin Bet information systems to take classified information and transfer it to unauthorized parties, on several occasions and secretly.”

According to the intelligence agency, initial suspicions against Aleph have strengthened, and he is now suspected of having “actively worked to extract classified materials, in a deliberate manner.”

The agency also preempted new criticism of its treatment of journalists after Jerusalem Post Editor-in-Chief Zvika Klein was arrested as part of the Qatargate investigation, which is also ongoing.

“Shin Bet wishes to emphasize that at no stage were journalists investigated, they were not asked to give testimony as part of the investigation, and no phone taps were carried out on journalists.”

Officials in the government coalition excoriated the Shin Bet over the arrest of Aleph, who initially was held without access to a lawyer.

Aleph’s lawyers said he had served in the Shin Bet for decades and admitted to the leaks. However, he said Aleph wanted to bring “information of immense public importance” to public attention, “while ensuring no security-related information was disclosed.”

The leaks focused on two issues, one being a Shin Bet investigation of the Israel Police, and the other, details from the Shin Bet’s Oct. 7 probe.

The first was used in a report from Amit Segal, according to which the Shin Bet concocted an investigation of alleged right-wing extremism in the police with the aim of harming the minister responsible for the police, National Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Segal accused the Bar and the A-G of "hunting down" the source of the leak after his report embarrassed them.

According to a summation of the affair by Segal, it began when “Ronen Bar told the Attorney General a chilling story about the takeover of the police by Kahanism.” This refers to the ideology of Rabbi Meir Kahane and his party, “Kach,” which was banned from running in the elections due to its extremism in 1988.

Segal wrote that A-G Gali Baharav-Miara then looked into allegations that Ben Gvir overstepped his authority, but found they were wrong, which allegedly caused Bar to launch "a secret and unprecedented investigation of the police," particularly suspecting the spread of Kahanism in its ranks.

Segal claimed that Bar ordered his subordinates "to bring some findings," but again, to no avail. These futile investigations embarrassed Bar and the A-G, Segal said, prompting the arrest of Aleph.

Aleph’s lawyers said that the information leaked to Avitan Cohen included secret parts of the Shin Bet’s October 7 probe, which, unlike the public summary that “pointed mainly to the political echelon on certain issues, presented a more complex picture regarding the Shin Bet’s conduct and position.”

The Likud Party and Diaspora Minister Chikli slammed the Shin Bet while praising Aleph for exposing the workings of the Shin Bet “deep state.”

Chikli called Aleph a “hero of Israel” and accused Bar of surveilling a minister amid the war, while denying that the leaked information posed a danger to the state’s security.

Prime Minister Netanyahu didn't immediately comment on the issue but shared the Likud's statement on X.

“A Shin Bet officer who felt that the organization under Ronen Bar had become a political body was arrested and interrogated in the Shin Bet's dungeons,” the Likud said in an official statement, further alleging that Bar and the Attorney General “turned parts of the Shin Bet into a private militia of the deep state that undermines the rule of law and the foundations of democracy.”

Under their watch, said the Likud, “the Shin Bet arrests and investigates journalists, extorts a police officer with threats, and launches political sham investigations against ministers and Knesset members from the coalition – all in order to prevent Bar’s dismissal.”