Israeli Liberals Are Aghast That Next Shin Bet Chief May Treat Them Like Palestinians
Alarm in the liberal camp: Maj. Gen. David Zini is about to be appointed as the head of the Shin Bet security service. An exemplary and praiseworthy portrait of Zini was just published in the Haaretz weekend supplement by Hilo Glazer.
The descriptions there are indeed blood-chilling: a delusional messianic son of a messianic father as the head of the secret service. In his view, the Palestinians are "enemies of the Blessed-be-He," the war with them is an eternal one, and his upbringing ranges from the doctrine of Baruch Goldstein [who massacred Muslim worshippers in Hebron in 1994] to that of the ultra-nationalist homophobic Rabbi Zvi Thau. Scary!
Zini's personality, positions and entire path are indeed terrifying. When benighted religion is the engine and the army and Shin Bet are the tools, the result is unsettling. The blending of a burning religious faith with insane ultra-nationalist imperiousnesscreates unbridled fascism; people like Zini will do everything in the name of these two elements.
But most of the fright stems from fears of what Zini will do to Israeli "democracy." In words that are less politically correct, of what he will do to us, the Jews of this country.
It's possible that the people taking fright are right and Zini will indeed exceed the Shin Bet's boundaries in his operations among the Jewish population. In his view, loyalty to the prime minister comes before loyalty to the law, and the judicial system is a dictatorship.
Perhaps we'll see a return of the dark days of early statehood when the Shin Bet would plant listening devices at different party headquarters. But, isn't it befitting that specifically someone like Zini heads an organization that is so morally corrupt, even if the victims of this rot, for now, are only Palestinians?
What the Shin Bet is doing to Palestinians doesn't bother liberals that much. Even without the terrible Zini, the Shin Bet has acted with cruelty. With dozens of Palestinian detainees who have died only in the last two years, some of them during brutal interrogations by the organization, it's hard to imagine what Zini could do that would be even more awful. Will they extort even more Palestinian cancer patients and homosexuals? Pull out fingernails instead of beating to death?
The liberal camp wants a vegan to manage the slaughterhouse, and here they go and appoint a butcher on steroids as chief. That really isn't nice. But the whole point of the Shin Bet is to consolidate the occupation, the apartheid, the expulsion and "Judaization," through interrogations, mass kidnappings (called "detentions" here), extortion and assassinations, and who is better suited for the job than Zini?
An armed settler stands near Israeli troops during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, August 23, 2025.Credit: Mussa Qawasma/REUTERS
It's unpleasant for liberals to see the Shin Bet of a democracy managed by a declared fascist. Zini spoils their image of our "best boys." This could evoke in them suspicions that the Shin Bet is actually an anti-democratic organization. Zini will prevent the liberal camp from basking in the image of the only democracy in the region.
An extremist religious settler at the head of the enlightened Securitate? Nadav Argaman and Ronen Bar were so much more beautiful. They were liberals, like us. But they did to Palestinians the same things Zini will be doing. Perhaps it is Zini who will finally evoke some public protest at the way the Shin Bet operates?
Our beautiful and good children and brothers are currently destroying Gaza. Bezalel, Zini's value-driven brother, is contributing with his own hands and bulldozers to this massive demolition. Zini's wife, Naomi, thinks that destroying houses in Gaza is a mitzvah, a religious obligation, and that the war in Gaza is a "national rebirth." It sounds awful, but no real shock at the actual destruction has been documented in Israel; just don't do it as a mitzvah, as if that matters or changes anything.
Smoke rises after an explosion in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border on Thursday.Credit: Amir Cohen/REUTERS
The brother of the bulldozer operator from Gaza will be appointed as head of the Shin Bet, with the objective being ethnic cleansing and genocide in the West Bank as well. There is no one more suitable.
But Zini's dystopia has been with us for a long time. When it appears without a kippah or the mumbling of religious phrases or the fulfilment of bizarre mitzvahs, it is regarded with indifference in Israel. The defense minister is proud of the demolition of a high-rise apartment building in Gaza City and threatens to open the gates of hell; he is at most a pathetic character on a TV satire show. Perhaps when it's done in the name of God, we'll finally wake up and object.
Until then, we are all Zini, with or without the messianic component.