Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) Chief David Zini has reportedly complained that the agency’s legal adviser, together with Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, is interfering with his ability to investigate charges of widespread fraud during last Tuesday’s national elections.
Zini shared his concerns with Central Elections Committee (CEC) chairman and Supreme Court Justice Noam Solhberg during a six-hour meeting on Sunday, Channel 14 reported.
“The head of the Shin Bet, David Zini, complained to his associates and also told Judge Sohlberg during the meeting that the Shin Bet’s legal advisor is blocking him and raising difficulties in order to thwart the investigation into election bias in the Arab sector in close cooperation with the attorney general,” according to Channel 14‘s political correspondent Moti Kastel.
The Shin Bet legal adviser, who has not been identified for security reasons, is a “holdover” from the Ronen Bar era, and has tried to block other sensitive investigations, Kastel reported. (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired former Shin Bet chief Bar in March 2025 citing a growing lack of confidence in his ability to lead the security agency.)
In August 2025, Netanyahu and his government also fired Baharav-Miara, citing “inappropriate conduct and substantial and prolonged differences of opinion.” The decision was reversed by Israel’s High Court a little more than four months later.
In a joint video statement featuring Sohlberg, Zini and Gali Baharav-Miara broadcast on Sunday evening, no outward signs of disagreement were visible. According to an English version of Sohlberg’s statement provided to JNS by the Central Elections Committee, Sohlberg said that “serious suspicions” requiring examination had been raised regarding foreign funding intended to influence the elections and that the inquiry was ongoing.
However, he said that the suspicions were not enough to overturn the results. “Our position is that even if the suspicions are substantiated, this would not undermine the integrity of the electoral process or the election results as a whole,” he said. “This coming Wednesday, the official results will be published and submitted to the President of Israel, as they stand.”
Israel’s right-wing parties have also protested the way the investigation is being handled. Netanyahu posted a link on social media to the Channel 14 report. “Shin Bet chief Zini complained to Sohlberg: Shin Bet’s legal adviser is tying my hands from investigating,” the prime minister wrote.
ראש השב״כ זיני התלונן בפני סולברג: יועמ״ש השב״כ כובל את ידיי מלחקור pic.twitter.com/wKlaC9gfxs
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) November 1, 2026
Knesset Member Simcha Rothman of the Religious Zionism Party complained in a lengthy X post Monday that together with other MKs, he had turned to Sohlberg and Zini to demand an investigation. Sohlberg at first demanded a swift investigation, then, “suddenly, out of nowhere, in a scene out of a hostage movie, Solberg, Zini, and Dean Livne [the CEC’s Acting Director General] are sitting together with Gali Baharav-Miara, and Sohlberg explains that even though the investigation hasn’t concluded yet, there’s no need to worry—everything’s fine,” wrote Rothman.
Rothman told JNS on Monday, “I can say with a very high degree of certainty that there was large-scale bribery. I have enough evidence to say so.”
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir of the Otzma Yehudit Party, in a statement provided to JNS, said that if the suspicions are born out, it’s a “shocking corruption scandal and a grave blow to democracy and to the sovereignty of the State of Israel.” If the election was spoiled by foreign money, then a new election should be held as soon as possible, he said.
The opposition parties reacted in the opposite manner, praising Sohlberg’s statement. Gadi Eisenkot of the Yashar Party said, “The despicable and malicious attempt to deny the results of the elections, to undermine the will of the public, to discredit an entire public and drag Israel into another election has failed.”
Yair Golan of the Democrats Party said, “Sohlberg and Zini have made it clear. Now it’s Netanyahu’s turn to announce immediately and explicitly that he recognizes the results of the elections and respects them. As long as Netanyahu refuses to do so, he is giving a tailwind to the conspiracy of election fraud.”
So far, the suspicion is that foreign actors, namely Qatar and Turkey, channeled tens of millions of shekels to bring out the Arab vote. Qatar and Turkey deny any involvement.
A second scandal, being investigated separately, involves the arrest of three activists from the Arab Joint List (Ra’am) Party in the southern Negev. They were found with envelopes containing cash allegedly to bribe voters, Ynet reported. The Israel Police is leading that investigation.
Ad Kan, a right-wing Israeli NGO, told JNS that testimonies from hundreds of polling committee members had reached the group from the roughly 2,000 polling stations in the Arab sector. In one example, a Jewish polling official saw a table manned by a sheikh and several young people set up outside the polling station. When he asked what they were doing, he was told: “None of your business, get out of here.”
When his friend exited from another polling station, he said they “almost lynched us—two Jews against 50 Bedouin.” After the police showed up and quieted things down (he said that actually the police were scared and tried to hush them up), a Bedouin later came over and offered him 400 shekels in fuel cards to vote for the Joint List. When he told the man that he didn’t have a car, the Bedouin left and came back with 800 shekels for both him and his friend. “Come on, both of you, 800 shekels if you send me photos of you putting Joint List slips into the envelopes,” he said.
“Of course, we refused,” the pollster said.
The second polling station official photographed trash bins filled with torn money envelopes bearing Ra’am’s party logo, which the sheikhs had distributed, Ad Kan said.
The concern surrounding the Arab-Israeli vote, which due to its record turnout garnered 19 seats in the Knesset, the largest number ever, is that the Arab parties could now emerge as potential kingmakers, providing the opposition, currently with 48 seats, the required number to form a government.
Netanyahu and Israel’s right-wing coalition insists that relying on the anti-Zionist Arab parties would cross a red line.
One of Eisenkot’s campaign pledges was that he wouldn’t form a government resting on the Arab parties, which are anti-Zionist.
In an X post on Oct. 31, Eisenkot laid out four principles a Knesset member must meet to join his bloc. The Joint List, an alliance of three Arab parties, which won 11 seats, refuses to meet the fourth: recognition of Hamas as a terror group and the need to destroy its military and governing presence in the Gaza Strip.
The Joint List has offered to support the opposition from without the government, first to change the Knesset speaker, which would give the opposition control of the legislative process. Netanyahu’s allies say that any cooperation with the Arab parties is beyond the pale.
It was unclear until Monday if the opposition would be able to go through with its plan to switch the Knesset speaker, but on Monday opposition member Avigdor Liberman of the Israel Beiteinu Party, who is reportedly reluctant to work with the Arab parties, announced he would support the appointment of Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid Party as speaker if such a move was implemented. He also announced that he would recommend Eisenkot as prime minister.
