A few weeks ago under the title “Breaking,” the journalist Ben Caspit published a report that should have been considered a sensation. According to the article, the head of the Shin Bet, David Zini, a direct product of the Messianic nationalist Ultra-Orthodoxy, mobilized an Operations Unit to thwart Jewish terrorism.

The report came against the backdrop of increased violent acts of Jewish terrorism, originating from groups of Settlers directed at the weakest aspects of Palestinian society.  Mostly targeting the communities in the Jordan Valley, but also in the northern mountains of Hebron. The settlers’ audacity is growing because they feel like their violence is backed by the government and the helplessness of the IDF and Shin Bet.

The Netanyahu government is working to restrict the functioning of the Shin Bet’s Jewish Division and harm the ability of the organization to combat Jewish terrorism. We got a taste of this about a year ago when the recordings of the commander of the Judea and Samaria District, Commander Avishay Mualem were leaked to the media after he became involved in criminal proceedings.

In response to the recordings being released, Netanyahu said “It is not acceptable in a country governed by law to arrest a citizen without evidence.” This, while what happens almost every night in the West Bank are acts of terror by Jews. Terror enacted silently, with a blind eye, and sometimes embraced by ministers in the government and by the coalition.

Ministers Betzalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir do not hide their intentions. Their desires, which enjoy Netanyahu’s backing, are to oppress the Palestinians, expropriate them and expel them from their lands. Under those desires lies a strategic vision - to annex the West Bank and carry out ethnic cleansing and transfer. 

From “Finale” to “Tequila”

The police are already in their hands. Under the command of Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, the IDF shows no interest in the issue, which sends a clear message to soldiers who understand that there is a synergy between them and the settlers. The Shin Bet is led by one of them. 

The story that Caspit published indicates that there are people in the Shin Bet who want to show that the issue bothers Zini. But the simple truth is that the Shin Bet has always operated not only against Palestinian terrorism, but also Jewish terrorism.

The Shin Bet has a dedicated operations unit since its establishment. It began as a department, which until the 1960s also provided services for the Mossad like in “Finale,” the operation that led to the capture of Adolf Eichmann. Later, against the backdrop of system reorganization and restructuring, the department expanded to a division and a wing.

In the 1990s, the wing grew even more and added a unit dedicated to undercover operatives - fighters from all ethnicities and backgrounds in Israel who spoke Arabic and could rely on Palestinians as needed.

Later, the “Tequila” unit was also established, a primary response team that operates in emergency situations such as arresting terror suspects and quickly preventing a planned terrorist attack.

The head of the Shin Bet Ronen Bar sent the Tequila unit to the Gaza Border in the early morning of October 7th when the information that Hamas had infiltrated the communities arrived, but he failed to understand this was a major invasion. The Tequila fighters fought bravely, and five of them fell in battle. 

Over the years, the fighters in the Operation Wing have and continue to operate in the West Bank and Gaza, and since the First Lebanon War, in Lebanon too. Occasionally they go abroad too. 

The Wing is considered especially secretive, and its compartmentalization within the Shin Bet is extremely strict. Its personnel - fighters in the field, desk intelligence officers at headquarters, technologists, and maintenance personnel- are based in a separate office in Central Israel, separate from the organization’s main office in Tel Aviv to limit their interactions with the rest of the organization’s employees. 

The wing’s fighters, many of whom recruited from the IDF’s elite units, undergo specialized training. The operations unit has the best surveillance technology at their disposal: eavesdropping devices, wiretapping, sensors, and pre-equipped vehicles. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Prime Minister Netanyahu pushed to disclose some of the agency’s operational tools against the wishes of Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman. They did so to locate and monitor those is violation of quarantine.

These tools, which use human and technological capabilities, are known in the intelligence community as “HUGINT,” a combination of “HUMINT” (human intelligence) and “SIGINT" (Signals intelligence). These operatives specialize in surveillance, wiretapping, and the silent, covert infiltration into buildings, whether in the West Bank, Gaza or Israel. 

As customary in all special IDF, Mossad and Shin Bet units, unit commanders, wing leaders and even the head of the Shin Bet go into the field to monitor operations, and sometimes even take part in them personally. For example, Ehud Yotam who, acting on the instructions of Shin Bet leader Avraham Shalom, personally participated with other soldiers in the cold-blooded murder of two terrorists in Gaza with sticks and stones after they hijacked a bus in Ashkelon in 1984. 

Among the past heads of Operations Unit were Rafi Tatarka, Tal Shaul, Arik Chernichovsky, Nadav Argaman and Ronen Bar. Recently, N resigned from his position as head of the unit and a new commander has been appointed in his place. 

Too Little, Too Late

Former Shin Bet officials told me that the report that Zini ordered the Operations Unit to be activated against Jewish terrorism indicates that he does not fully understand how the Shin Bet operates. “The Operations Unit has always acted against Jewish terrorism” one of them told me. “They are kind of subcontractors for all the Shin Bet units and provide service to address all threats regarding Jewish and Arab terrorism and espionage.”

In further conversations with knowledgeable sources - perhaps to minimize the damage to Zini’s image - it was explained to me that the directive he issued was only meant to elevate the priority of the issue. The Shin Bet declined to comment.

Zini is like the fox guarding the henhouse. His son was a target of the Jewish Division, which is in charge of combatting Jewish terrorism. Because of this and another relative of his, the Grunis Committee - which approved his appointment - imposed several restrictions on his role regarding this issue to prevent a conflict of interest. 

In any case, even if Zini’s intentions are honest and he is truly beginning to understand the severity of the situation in the West Bank, it is too little, too late. 

The chilling image emerging from the West Bank will likely not be changed by the fact that he ordered the use of electronic monitoring handcuffs against terror suspects as a substitute for the professionally irresponsible decision by Defense Minister Israel Katz - whose motives are clearly political - to stop the use of administrative detention against Jews.

Jewish terrorism is not a decree of fate, and the Shin Bet is capable of handling it just as it successfully handles and thwarts Palestinian terrorism. Zini heads the Shin Bet, the burden of proof rests with him.​

This article was published in Hebrew on Febreuary 28, 2026
Translation: Tessa I. Mank