Israel's Democratic Guardrails Come Crashing Down as Netanyahu Imitates Trump - Israel News - Haaretz.com
The planned firing of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, approved unanimously Thursday night by the best and brightest of Israel's kakistocracy – its government of the worst – is far from an isolated event. The Supreme Court's injunction Friday on the decision, and Netanyahu's previous hints that he might not heed the court's ruling, make this a constitutional crisis of monumental proportions.
The dubious legality of the firing procedure – not approved by the attorney general and destined to reach the court after a hail of petitions – is of course important. The unbridgeable lack of trust between Netanyahu and Bar is of course critical.
The Shin Bet security service's inquiry into the events leading up to the calamity of October 7, 2023 – some of it containing scathing criticism of Netanyahu's policy and performance – is an obviously acute situation. So here's a brief status report on the precarious state of the country's checks and balances, as Israeli democracy's guardrails come crashing down fast and furious by Netanyahu's design.
Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar. There's an unbridgeable lack of trust between him and Netanyahu.Credit: Sraya Diamant
• The Knesset is ineffective and weak, and the structure of Israel's parliamentary democracy, where somehow so many lawmakers are in the cabinet, negates the notion of the separation of powers.
• The opposition is dysfunctional, devoid of ideas and paralyzed into inaction by the Knesset's perennial weakness.
- In his darkest hour, Netanyahu is as dangerous to Israel as any foe
- Netanyahu wages war against anyone who tries to protect Israel's fragile democracy
- Netanyahu is leading Israel into a dictatorship
• The defense and finance ministries are under the total control of Netanyahu and his acolytes.
• The State Comptroller's Office has become a nonentity that doesn't bother itself with supervising the government.
• The civil service commissioner has become a political appointee who advances political goals.
• The police have almost ceased to exist as an independent investigative and law enforcement agency. They've become the feudal fiefdom of the far right, a political militia.
• Most of the media has been voluntarily subdued, fully complicit with the government, or regularly harassed and intimidated by it. Haaretz is a rare outlier.
• The cabinet has unanimously approved the firing of the Shin Bet chief, and next week it will deliberate on the dismissal of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.
Protesters in Jerusalem on Thursday. As things stand now, the Israeli public is even a greater check than the Supreme Court.Credit: Oren Ben Hakoon
So what's left of a once-effective system of checks and balances? And then there were two: the Supreme Court and the Israeli public. The court, whose president, Justice Isaac Amit, is being boycotted by both the prime minister and the justice minister, is a guardrail that deflects malfeasance only when the court is petitioned. So the Israeli public becomes the only potentially effective check.
But the term "the public" is amorphous. How the public will act is always unpredictable and now contingent on fatigue and a realization that Israel's democracy is on a life-support system. After massive demonstrations against Netanyahu's constitutional coup in 2023, the devastation, shock and agony of October 7 naturally resulted in reticence, and other than demonstrating for a hostage deal, the public has remained subdued and introspective.
Netanyahu is obviously inspired and empowered by Trump's wrecking-ball, lets-destroy-everything approach in the United States. Despite the enormous structural and systemic differences between the two countries, their political systems and their political cultures, Netanyahu sees Trump as a model to emulate.
The only reason Netanyahu isn't dismantling ministries and government agencies like Trump and his co-president, Elon Musk, is because in Israel's decrepit politics, ministers dole out thousands of jobs and government contracts to friends and allies.
Neither Trump nor Netanyahu are democrats. Despite their different styles, they're wannabe autocrats disdainful of democracy and resentful of the checks and balances of a modern democracy.
Donald Trump in the Oval Office Friday with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Netanyahu is afraid of the president's disdain for "losers."Credit: Carlos Barria/Reuters
Netanyahu has fully adopted Trump's incendiary rhetoric and catchy political language: The "deep state" is out to get me, everything written or broadcast about me is fake news, the liberal elites are persecuting me, the bureaucracy is illegally preventing me from governing, the judiciary is rigged against me, I represent the real people but the elites are trying to deprive the people of their free will. The groveling and sycophancy toward Trump is direct.
"In America and in Israel, when a strong right wing leader wins an election, the leftist Deep State weaponizes the justice system to thwart the people's will. They won't win in either place! We stand strong together," Netanyahu posted on X.
The timing of the post wasn't coincidental. Netanyahu was trying to convey a message to Trump, and that message is his ulterior motive. Firing the Shin Bet chief and beginning a process to dismiss the attorney general is an imitation of what Trump is doing, after Netanyahu launched a broadside attack on democracy and a furious constitutional coup in 2023. It's a message to Trump: Look at me, I'm strong and instill chaos just like you.
Netanyahu knows that Trump is the type of bully who detests weakness and anything that reeks of "losers." In October 2023, less than a week after Hamas' attack and the most catastrophic day in Israel's history, all Trump had to say about Netanyahu was "he's a loser." Trump regularly brandishes that moniker against generals who caution against reckless military operations, and he has used it profusely to batter Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Trump is surely familiar with the polls showing that 76 percent of Israelis see Netanyahu as responsible for the October 7 debacle and 65 percent think he should resign. Netanyahu is aware that any events that expose his political vulnerabilities – mass demonstrations, frailty in his governing coalition, pushback by gatekeepers like the Shin Bet chief, the attorney general and the Supreme Court, or threats by former intelligence chiefs and defense officials to speak out – exude the wimpiness that Trump dislikes.
Add to that a growing impression around Trump that Netanyahu is manipulating him over Gaza, and worse, trying to create conditions that will drag America into a war with Iran, and it's clear why Netanyahu, afraid that Trump will turn against him, had to project what he thinks is strength.