Israel’s Shin Bet is ranked among the world’s most effective and impressive domestic security agencies. Its reputation is well-earned. Few security services can boast of such impressive counterterrorism results in one of the world’s most challenging and complex arenas. But even the vaunted Shin Bet is apparently flawed, as proven by its failure in recent weeks to foil three deadly terrorist attacks.
In keeping with tradition, no one at the agency is trying to shirk responsibility for the disaster, reflecting the concept that every “successful” terrorist attack is a Shin Bet failure, no matter its record and the dozens of others it thwarted. Three consecutive attacks on Israel’s streets since March 22 resulted in 11 deaths — nine Israelis and two Ukrainian migrant workers.
