Bar said he was reminding the audience of the people behind the statistics, as \u201conly when you see them do you understand the meaning of responsibility and the price of making mistakes and failing.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhen we thwart an attack, we can only imagine those we saved, and when we fail to thwart a massacre, we see with our own eyes who was murdered,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cResponsibility is infinite \u2014 you cannot distribute it, only take it. And in leadership, it is better to take responsibility for failures than credit for achievements,\u201d said Bar, who admitted responsibility<\/a> in the first weeks of the war against Hamas for the Shin Bet\u2019s failure to prevent the terror group\u2019s onslaught.<\/p>\n \t True leadership \u201cdoes not end with taking responsibility for the failure,\u201d he said. \u201cIt ends with taking responsibility for fixing it,\u201d and pointed to the Shin Bet\u2019s actions on October 7, 2023, itself as its first step toward fixing its mistakes.<\/p>\n The next step to fix things, Bar continued, was the internal investigation into the failures of October 7 carried out within the security agency, from which he said it has \u201clearned how to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut the only way to conduct a comprehensive investigation into this failure, to know what really happened, to dispel the conspiracies that endanger our continued existence, to learn what to fix and to ensure that it does not happen again is through a state commission of inquiry,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n He said the commission must be one led by professionals that \u201csees the whole picture and knows how to tell the whole story and decide what needs to be done so that it does not happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Returning to the opening theme of his speech, Bar told the conference that Ofir and Hersh would want a state commission of inquiry, and that their families want a state commission of inquiry, and that \u201cthis is what our children expect from us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBecause,\u201d he said, \u201cthe moment we did not decide to investigate the entire system, we essentially sentenced them to the next October 7.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo let us stop quarreling and enter this process together,\u201d he said. \u201cTo learn, with the goal of becoming better.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt happened on our watch, so it is our responsibility,\u201d Bar concluded.<\/p>\n Bar left his post in June after Netanyahu\u2019s cabinet voted to dismiss him, prompting a legal battle<\/a> in the High Court of Justice.<\/p>\n \t Netanyahu has opposed the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 onslaught, in which Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians murdered amid horrific acts of brutality, and abducted 251. It was the single deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust and the worst disaster in modern Israeli history.<\/p>\n The government is instead trying to establish its own probe<\/a>, claiming that a sizable portion of the public would not accept the findings of a traditional state probe. Netanyahu echoed that argument in his speech on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a failure here, a huge failure,\u201d he said. \u201cThis failure must be thoroughly investigated, it must examine the political echelon, the military echelon, the security echelon, everyone. And this is only possible if we do this with a broad national examination commission, that is not tailored to one side or the other.\u201d<\/p>\n He compared such an investigation to the US body popularly known as the 9\/11 Commission, which conducted a probe into the September 11, 2001, attacks.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the greatest disaster in US history, 9\/11, they established a commission composed of half Republicans and half Democrats,\u201d he said. \u201cNobody had an advantage. Everyone could raise any question, and any person the sides wished to call. That is what will happen here too.\u201d<\/p>\n That commission, under the Republican administration of then-president George W. Bush, was led by a Democratic former governor of New Jersey. While the members of the government\u2019s investigative body have yet to be named, the people determining its mandate are sitting cabinet ministers.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/vlcsnap-2025-04-28-21h21m28s943-copy-640x400.jpg\")
\n\t\tShin Bet chief Ronen Bar announces that he will step down from his position on June 15, in an address at a memorial event for fallen Shin Bet personnel, April 28, 2025. (Screenshot)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/WhatsApp-Image-2023-04-04-at-19.40.40-e1733082089831-640x400.jpeg\")
\n\t\tPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, on April 4, 2023. (Kobi Gideon\/GPO)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AFP__20251115__846H7UR__v1__HighRes__IsraelPalestinianConflictPoliticsProtest-640x400.jpg\")
\n\t\tIsraeli anti-government protesters lift up placards during a demonstration against the prime minister and in support of establishing a state commission of inquiry into Hamas\u2019s October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, in Tel Aviv on November 15, 2025. (Jack GUEZ \/ AFP)<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/F251101YS05.jpg\")
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