Shin Bet chief David Zini said Tuesday that he accepted the position because of his ability to be “loyal to the elected leadership,” while declaring that he brings his own agenda to the position and slamming Israel’s legal system.

The recordings, first published by the i24news site, were made of Zini — who entered the role in October 2025 — speaking at an event on Tuesday. Parts of the speech were later released by the Shin Bet.

In the recordings, Zini said he agreed to take on the role because “I felt that I was qualified, maybe even more than others, in my ability to be loyal to the elected leadership, no matter the opinion.”

“I look at the war, I sit in the cabinet, I look at how ministries contribute to the war effort, and I tell you, it’s a miracle,” he said in the speech, which the Ynet news site said was delivered at the conservative Argaman Institute.

“I have a worldview, I am not a marionette blowing in the wind,” Zini said. “I have an agenda, I want to advance it — that is my responsibility. This is my job. I need to be the locomotive. On the other hand, I must be modest toward elected officials. In one moment, I could be the last car on the train — ‘You tell me where we’re going.'”

According to i24news, Zini also spoke disparagingly of lawyers and the legal system in Israel, saying, “Look how many lawyers we have… and from there monsters emerge that harm human rights, individual rights, growth, the economy, prosperity, national security — in every direction you can think of.”

Zini reportedly accused attorneys of “harming and trampling people in the name of all sorts of procedures and regulations. With all due respect and importance to lawyers and legal professionals, they are a tool.”

“I’m not talking about the Justice Ministry,” he added to scattered applause.

Zini said that “part of our difficulties ahead of Simhat Torah stemmed from that,” a reference to the Hamas-led terror onslaught on October 7, 2023.

“We confused essence with technical details, and both are........

© The Times of Israel