Businessman Eyal Waldman says former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar should be jailed

Businessman Eyal Waldman, whose daughter Daniel Waldman and her partner Noam Shai were killed in Hamas’s October 7 attack, launched a sharp public attack on former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar. In an interview with Channel 13, Waldman said Bar bears heavy responsibility for the failures surrounding the massacre and declared, “He should go to prison.”

Waldman said that after a meeting with Bar, the two left without shaking hands. According to Waldman, Bar tried to argue that the Shin Bet had issued warnings before the attack, but Waldman rejected that claim outright. “He tried to convince me that he gave warnings, but that is not true. He is trying to convince himself. There was criminal negligence,” Waldman said.

He said he told Bar that he should have stepped down soon after the failure, adding that in his view Bar’s resignation a few months after the slaughter would have served the country better than remaining in office. Waldman also responded to claims that Bar passed warnings to military officials before the attack, saying the way the threat was presented did not reflect the seriousness of the danger and therefore did not lead to proper preparations on the ground.

By the end of the conversation, Waldman said he heard “a lot of excuses,” but remained convinced that the former Shin Bet chief was directly responsible for the breakdown that led to the tragedy. “He had many excuses, and I think he is definitely guilty,” he said.