Last month, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Ronan Bar addressed a long and poignant letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in which he wrote, among other things: "We are determined to complete our mission in Gaza. All those who aspire to see a safer world should refrain from interfering or stopping us."
"The UN Charter states that the goal of the organization is to 'renew belief in the most basic human rights, in human dignity and the importance of human life, and the equality of rights between men and women.' Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip for 17 years and grossly ignores these principles, and the needs of the 2.2 million citizens living in Gaza," he wrote.
"During the activities of Hamas on October 7, there was no respect or rights whatsoever. The UN was founded to ensure that [such things would happen] 'never again' – anywhere in the world. But on the day of the massacre in October, it returned in full force. Jews were brutally murdered, just for being Jews. The IDF is an army that operates in accordance with the highest moral principles. We do not act deliberately against civilians," Bar said.
"Reality forces us to act in a civilian environment. We are forced to do this by a terrorist organization that acts as a sovereign on the ground and kills civilians, Israelis and Gazans alike, from the first day it was founded," the Shin Bet chief wrote.
"This is the time to remind you, Mr. Secretary-General, that Yahya Sinwar himself was sentenced to five life sentences in Israel for murdering Palestinians – not Jews. Gaza should be freed from Hamas, not from Israel. Hamas is ISIS."
Ronen Bar continues: "Out of respect for the thousands of lives that have already been lost, and in order to save many more lives, please help us remove the rule of evil from the Gaza Strip and restore faith in the most basic human rights, human dignity and the value of human life, as written in the UN Charter. Help us restore the belief in equal rights between men and women, Palestinians, Israelis, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and others," he implored.
"Help us bring back our fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters: back home. Help us bring our grandparents back home. Help us save our babies and return them to their families, to begin healing our wounds."
When the letter was sent to the UN secretary-general, most of the children held by Hamas had not yet been returned. Even now, 10-month-old Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel are still in the murderous hands of Hamas, which claims that they were killed.
UN head misses meeting with Shin Bet chief, sends deputy instead
At the beginning of his letter, Bar mentions that a few months ago he arrived at the UN building for a meeting that was supposed to take place with Guterres, but because the secretary-general didn't show up, it was finally held with his deputy, Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro. Bar wrote to Guterres that in that meeting he described to Migiro the tense situation in the Middle East, especially around Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza.
"I emphasized to her," writes Bar, "the risks of breaking out into a multi-arena conflict, and perhaps even a global one, in light of the great tension between the powers."
"I asked her that the UN strengthen the stabilizing factors in the area and help neutralize the factors that cause instability," he wrote.
"Among other things, I mentioned the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, and the need to put pressure on him to order him to return the bodies of our fighters and Israeli civilians in his hands. I emphasized the need to solve the problem of arms smuggling to Gaza, and the problem of the dual use of materials that are transferred from Sinai to Gaza, and you asked for the help of the UN on these issues."
UN did not answer his requests
"Unfortunately," concludes Bar, "none of these requests of mine were answered, and what did happen is what we all feared would happen."
At this point, Bar harshly criticized the words of the secretary-general himself: "I heard your statements regarding the recent events in Israel and Gaza: You set up a symmetry between the acts of cruelty and the violation of human rights between Israel and Hamas, and nothing could be further from the truth.
"Crimes against humanity and war crimes were committed against Israel, Israelis, and other nationalities. Additional war crimes were committed when Hamas shot and injured civilians who tried to leave the northern Gaza Strip, after its warnings from Israel, [civilians who] refused to be a human shield in the service of Hamas," he wrote.
"War crimes were committed when Hamas used hospitals as combat headquarters and humanitarian aid as a cover for terrorist operations," the security chief wrote.
"The attempt to create a moral parallel between the terrorists of Hamas and the defense forces of the IDF is wrong and repulsive on a moral level. There is no way to balance when you compare acts of murder and torture of children and babies to the unfortunate but necessary suffering of civilians who are cynically used by Hamas as human shields. Hamas exploits the citizens of Gaza for its manipulative needs and its public relations.
Bar: Free world not the same after October 7
"The world must understand that on October 7, the reality of the free world changed dramatically," Bar wrote. "We have clear evidence proving that the crimes against humanity, brutally committed by Hamas, were part of its operative plan. On that black Sabbath, the thousands of Hamas terrorists did what their leaders ordered them to do: they raped our wives and daughters, strangled our babies, and burned our houses with entire families inside. They tortured mothers in front of their children, and children in front of their mothers.
"After them, came hordes of rioters who sowed [more] destruction and death in our quiet communities. The perpetrators of these crimes do not belong to the human race and are not human," he lamented.
"This is not a war about ideology or religion, it is a fight between the good and the bad. Israel stands on the first line, as the last line of defense for the defense of the free world, standing between darkness and light, between barbarism and humanity. We are the protective layer between those who mourn death, and those who worship it."
Letter shows frustration with world's indifference
The extraordinary letter of a Shin Bet leader to the UN secretary-general reflects the frustration among decision-makers in Israel, at all levels, regarding the high degree of international indifference to what happened on October 7, in the face of the growing identification with and condemnation of Palestinian suffering in Gaza.
The words reached their peak in statements of US President Joe Biden, as well as those of several leading American university presidents who said or implied that calling for the genocide of Jews may not constitute a violation of the rules and regulations of their institutions – and the belated and lax condemnation of the UN's and other women's organizations for the terrorists' brutal acts of rape, murder and abuse of Israeli women.
In talks held by Israeli political parties with foreign leaders, diplomats and public opinion leaders, it was said that Israel has a severe "credibility problem" in the world, which is compounded by a general ignorance regarding the nature of the conflict in the Middle East and manifestations of new and old antisemitism, especially among the younger generation.