Israel: Cabinet Approves Ronen Bar as Domestic Spy Agency Shin Bet New Chief

The cabinet on Monday approved the nomination of Ronen Bar, the current deputy head of the Shin Bet, to fill the top job at the domestic security service.

Bar’s name was previously barred from publication for security reasons. He was approved for the role despite an anonymous letter claiming unspecified misconduct.

Bar served in the Israel Defense Forces’ elite Sayeret Matkal unit, the same detachment in which Prime Minister Naftali Bennett served, and then entered the ranks of the Shin Bet as a field agent. He was tapped to lead the Shin Bet’s Operations Division in 2011, became head of the service’s resource development department in 2016, and took over as deputy head of the organization in 2018.