World
Shin Bet chief says he took the job out of ‘loyalty to the elected leadership’
Shin Bet chief David Zini said Tuesday that he accepted the position because of his ability to be “loyal to the elected leadership,” while declaring that he brings his own agenda to the position and slamming Israel’s legal system.
The recordings, first published by the i24news site, were made of Zini — who entered the role in October 2025 — speaking at an event on Tuesday. Parts of the speech were later released by the Shin Bet.
In the recordings, Zini said he agreed to take on the role because “I felt that I was qualified, maybe even more than others, in my ability to be loyal to the elected leadership, no matter the opinion.”
“I look at the war, I sit in the cabinet, I look at how ministries contribute to the war effort, and I tell you, it’s a miracle,” he said in the speech, which the Ynet news site said was delivered at the conservative Argaman Institute.
“I have a worldview, I am not a marionette blowing in the wind,” Zini said. “I have an agenda, I want to advance it — that is my responsibility. This is my job. I need to be the locomotive. On the other hand, I must be modest toward elected officials. In one moment, I could be the last car on the train — ‘You tell me where we’re going.’”
According to i24news, Zini also spoke disparagingly of lawyers and the legal system in Israel, saying, “Look how many lawyers we have… and from there monsters emerge that harm human rights, individual rights, growth, the economy, prosperity, national security — in every direction you can think of.”
Zini reportedly accused attorneys of “harming and trampling people in the name of all sorts of procedures and regulations. With all due respect and importance to lawyers and legal professionals, they are a tool.”
“I’m not talking about the Justice Ministry,” he added to scattered applause.
Zini said that “part of our difficulties ahead of Simhat Torah stemmed from that,” a reference to the Hamas-led terror onslaught on October 7, 2023.
“We confused essence with technical details, and both are important. To those who understand the essence and believe in it, the small details are more important. And to those who don’t care about the small details, the big things probably don’t really matter either,” he said.
Jewish terror suspects
Meanwhile, the Haaretz newspaper reported Tuesday that Zini is considering removing the head of the Shin Bet’s investigations department from his position over the treatment of Jewish terror suspects.
Sources told the newspaper that recently, Zini and his associates criticized the “lack of proportionality” in the department’s investigators’ treatment of suspects.
According to Haaretz, in the wake of the decision to not use administrative detention for Jewish suspects, the agency has been preventing suspects from meeting their lawyers as one of the last remaining tools they have. That practice has been severely criticized by right-wing lawmakers.
The report also said Zini and his allies in the Shin Bet frequently belittle the heads of agency departments, using a timer in meetings to ensure they don’t speak for too long.
A defense source claimed to Haaretz that the desire to replace the investigations department head was due to the fact that he was associated with Zini’s immediate predecessor, Ronen Bar.
Zini has in the past reportedly downplayed settler violence as “friction.”
Settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, including killings, have been on the rise in recent months and are reported daily, but rarely prosecuted.
Also Tuesday, Haaretz reported that Zini asked Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to reexamine the Shin Bet’s position, submitted before he took office, regarding the Kahanist party “Strong and Complete Jewish Israel.”
The far-right party was disqualified last month from running in the elections in light of information from the Shin Bet, the report said.
According to Haaretz, the Shin Bet warned that the party is run by far-right extremists Baruch Marzel and Michael Ben Ari, who were prominent activists in the Kach party before it formally disbanded in 1994 after the government declared it a terror group.
Ben Ari and Marzel were founding members of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party.
Ben Ari was disqualified by the High Court of Justice from running ahead of the April 2019 elections due to his repeated incitement against Arabs, while Marzel led the Kach party after its founder was assassinated in 1990, and has long been identified with the faction’s goal of forcing Arabs to migrate from the country.
Zini’s appointment to the role of Shin Bet head was shrouded in controversy, and petitioners turned to the High Court seeking to disqualify him for the role, arguing that he was unfit.
A group of former Shin Bet chiefs called on the court to intervene in the appointment, claiming Zini lacked relevant experience and saying he was “messianic” in his religious and political beliefs. The High Court ultimately dismissed the petitions, upholding his appointment.
In April, Zini ordered the dismantling of an unofficial memorial established at the entrance to the intelligence agency’s Tel Aviv headquarters for employees killed in the October 7 onslaught. A relative said Sunday that Zini justified the move by saying “enough time has passed.”
He also reportedly ordered the cancellation of a planned Pride Month event within the security agency and blocked a series of related initiatives, effectively shutting down the organization’s LGBTQ employee group.
Prior to picking him as Shin Bet chief, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly refused to appoint Zini as his military secretary, telling confidants after interviewing him that he was “too messianic.”
