Shin Bet Affair Revives Israeli Dispute of Security Needs Versus the Law

Israel’s controversial Shin Bet affair has once again focused a spotlight on a conflict almost as old as the state itself--the one between the security needs of a nation that sees itself in a state of semi-permanent war and that nation’s stated commitment to the rule of law.

“I am familiar with both sides of the coin,” said President Chaim Herzog, a lawyer and former head of Israeli military intelligence, in a nationally televised address Wednesday night.

Herzog was explaining his decision to pardon the head of the Shin Bet, which is comparable to the FBI, and three aides for “any seeming offense” in connection with the 1984 beating deaths of two Palestinian terrorists and an alleged cover-up that followed.

The pair, part of a gang that hijacked a civilian Israeli bus and killed an Israeli woman soldier who was a passenger, survived a rescue raid in which Israeli security forces killed two of their companions. But their captors then led them to a nearby field and beat them to death, government investigations have shown.

Inquiry Sidetracked

In the short term, at least, Herzog’s decision, combined with the resignation of Shin Bet chief Avraham Shalom, effectively sidetracked a full-scale public inquiry into the scandal, which threatened to expose not only Shin Bet wrongdoing but also possible complicity at the top levels of the country’s political echelon.

But according to a barrage of criticism here Thursday, Herzog made a bad bargain. And it appeared the deal could still be unraveled.

“Furor Over Shin Bet Pardon,” a five-column headline across the top of the Jerusalem Post’s front page stated.

Other newspapers adopted the same tone. “The Plot to Silence” said a headline in the independent tabloid, Hadashot. And the leftist daily Al Hamishmar headlined its lead article: “Pardon--Conspiracy to Cover Up for Political Echelon.”

The editorials were even stronger, using terms like “cover-up” and “whitewash.”

‘Affair Has Not Ended’

The newspaper Maariv predicted that “the country will not be silent. . . . This guaranteed commotion will be enough to convince the decision makers that the decision is incorrect. . . . The GSS (General Security Service, or Shin Bet) affair has not ended. It will be with us for a long time yet. . . .”

“New norms have been established in Israel,” wrote Haaretz, which is independent. “Since yesterday (Wednesday), GSS personnel may murder terrorists. . . . The GSS chief will be allowed to suborn his officials to commit perjury. . . . GSS personnel will also be permitted to give false testimony. . . . These astonishing norms are implicit in the amnesty granted by the president.”

The newspaper said Herzog “lent a hand to the undermining of basic concepts of law and order, according to which anyone suspected of criminal acts must be investigated, and if the investigation reveals prima facie evidence, must be put on trial.” And it called for the full Cabinet to overrule senior ministers who favored the deal by ordering a full-scale commission of inquiry into the affair.

The so-called inner Cabinet of 10 senior ministers, five each from Prime Minister Shimon Peres’ Labor Alignment and Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s Likud Bloc, approved Shalom’s resignation and pardon Wednesday morning.

Hadashot compared those ministers Thursday to “a worried junta in some remote South American country looking for a way to remove the rope from around its neck.” Those behind the arrangement represent not the rule of law, but the utilization of the law “only to preserve (their) own power . . . It is a group that is concerned about itself and not about us,” the newspaper editorialized.

Shamir, prime minister at the time of the 1984 incident, has been accused of sanctioning the cover-up, which continued long after Peres took over. Under the Israeli system of government, the prime minister is responsible for the security services, so both political leaders could be vulnerable in any full-scale investigation.

Peres, speaking to police trainees Thursday, said he has never opposed an inquiry into the role of the political leadership in the affair, but he stopped short of backing a Cabinet move for an official investigation.

“I have never said that I am opposed to an inquiry into the political level. The political level directs the operational level and has to give backing to those who carry out the orders,” he said.

“If a disagreement arises, the political level must expose itself to checks and criticisms,” he added.

Shamir, who has vigorously opposed such an inquiry, insisted in a radio interview Thursday that he has “nothing to fear” from a probe.

However, he argued, “we have to see that the functioning of the GSS will continue as normally as possible.”

The foreign minister, who is scheduled to “rotate” back into the prime minister’s job in October under the coalition agreement underpinning the current national unity government, said he understands the concern of jurists over the Shin Bet deal.

“But they should also understand that sometimes state security must come first,” he said.

Herzog made the same point in his address Wednesday night. He said that, in the last year alone, Shin Bet had “uncovered some 320 terrorist gangs, which carried out 379 attacks and attempted attacks throughout Israel. . . . The Israeli public has no idea what a debt we owe to all those unknown fighters . . . and how many lives have been saved in Israel, thanks to them.”

As president, Herzog added, “I feel a duty to stand by the men of the GSS . . . and to prevent a blow to the morale of the intelligence community and the security system, and (to) the battle against terrorism.”

It appeared Thursday, however, that the deal to end the Shin Bet affair could still come unraveled. On Monday, the government faces four no-confidence motions in the Knesset (Parliament) over the affair. Given its large parliamentary majority, however, the greater threats seem to be either a revolt in Peres’ Labor Party or appeals to Israel’s Supreme Court.

Several Labor ministers and many of the party’s members of Parliament are known to be unhappy that Shamir’s possible role in the scandal may not otherwise be explored. Peres has assured his party he knew nothing of the cover-up.

Labor’s Energy Minister Moshe Shahal, who is not a member of the “inner Cabinet” which approved the deal, said he will ask at next Sunday’s meeting of the full Cabinet for a full judicial inquiry into the affair.

Ezer Weizman, a minister without portfolio in the current government, said he too would support a full-scale inquiry.

Weizman told the Associated Press he supports an inquiry because “I want to know where and what was the behavior and the responsibility of Mr. Shamir when he was prime minister. . . .”

Meanwhile, a case involving the Shin Bet affair is already before the Supreme Court. One of the three Shin Bet officials who first exposed the alleged cover-up, and who subsequently lost his job, has petitioned for reinstatement.

And by Thursday evening, at least three more petitions seeking to overturn Herzog’s decision had been submitted to the court, two by groups of lawyers and one by the leftist Citizens’ Rights Movement.