As leftists protested on the streets on Motzei Shabbos against the government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister released a video message to the Israeli public.

Netanyahu’s message addressed the leftist claims that the Prime Minister is ousting Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara due to the investigation opened against former aides in his office regarding their ties to Qatar, a case that has been dubbed “Qatargate.”

It should be noted that the Supreme Court on Friday ordered the government to freeze Bar’s dismissal.

“Citizens of Israel,” Netanyahu said, “Tonight I have a dramatic disclosure of facts that will shake you, but before that, I want to make it clear: Ronen Bar will not remain the head of the Shin Bet, there will be no civil war, and Israel will remain a democratic country. We are a country of law, and the law in the State of Israel says simply, the government is entitled to terminate the tenure of the head of the service before the end of his term, and that is exactly what it did.”

“But, in recent days, claims have been made that the dismissal of the Shin Bet chief was carried out to prevent the investigation into Qatar. So now you will hear from me a shocking description of the facts that should concern each and every one of you, citizens of Israel.”

“My distrust in the Shin Bet chief began on October 7 when he failed to wake me and others, and it grew to the point of removing him from the negotiation team [for hostage release talks], and all of this happened long before the decision to open the investigation into Qatar. I thought the right time to end the tenure of the Shin Bet chief would be after he submits the Shin Bet investigations into the failures of October 7. This is what happened with the IDF Chief of Staff.”

“I instructed the Shin Bet chief to submit the investigations to me by February 15. On February 15, on the date he was supposed to submit the investigation, Ronen Bar sent me a letter. He wrote to me that he is unable to submit the Shin Bet investigation on the date I requested. And he concluded the letter: ‘In light of the above, I would like to submit the main points of the investigation no later than February 27.’ But on February 27, he did not submit the investigation to me, and he requested an additional postponement of several days, and again, I agreed to it.”

“But see what happened on that very day, on February 27, in the evening, in a rare ‘coincidence’ that is impossible to contrive, the Attorney General announced the opening of an investigation into Qatar – on February 27, at 9 p.m.”

“The facts prove unequivocally that the dismissals are not intended to prevent the investigation; the investigation was intended to prevent the dismissals. So you tell me, who here is acting with ulterior motives?” Netanyahu dramatically concluded.

(YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)