As Bibi tries to can his Shin Bet chief, the Left wants to show who's boss

Photo: Flash90

Who holds the ultimate authority over governmental appointments, legislation, and policy decisions in Israel: The Knesset, elected by the people? Or the appointed attorney general and High Court?

Which political faction wields more influence in Israel, the right or the left?

Will Israel’s contentious and perpetually polarized political system address systemic imbalances to implement long-awaited reforms? Or will divisiveness lead to the disintegration of a system in which peaceful coexistence has been rare?

We are about to find answers to these and other questions, now that the Netanyahu cabinet has voted unanimously to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet and the attorney general before the end of their terms, citing a lack of confidence and trust. Israeli law authorizes the cabinet to take this action; however, the High Court and attorney general maintain that they have the right to review and potentially reverse the firings if they are found to be primarily motivated by political or personal reasons.

The cabinet voted to terminate Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet, the body responsible for internal security. This includes gathering and analyzing intelligence and promptly relaying that information to the prime minister. Netanyahu and Bar have publicly traded accusations. Bibi claims Bar failed to alert him about Hamas’s military movements on the night of October 7, 2023. Bibi was also furious at Bar’s performance as chief hostage negotiator, claiming that Bar ignored Netanyahu’s guidance and leaked information on the talks to the media.

While Bar has acknowledged Shin Bet intelligence failures that underestimated Hamas’s intentions, he argues that it was Netanyahu who deliberately sabotaged hostage negotiations because he chose to continue the war on Hamas. Bar denied any involvement in leaks.

The case against Bar has become more complicated as the Shin Bet investigates what’s been dubbed “Qatargate,” allegations that Qatar bribed three Netanyahu aides to promote favorable coverage of their role as hostage mediators. Bar supporters argue that Netanyahu aims to dismiss Bar to suppress the investigation. Netanyahu maintains that he decided to fire Bar before the emergence of Qatargate, claiming the inquiry is a political witch-hunt intended to ensure Bar retains his position.

The government also took action to terminate Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, claiming she abuses her position as Israel’s top law enforcement official to undermine duly passed Knesset legislation, obstruct pending legislation, and usurp cabinet decisions and personnel appointments. Baharav-Miara asserts that she has backed the government 95 percent of the time and when she doesn’t, she is using the powers vested in her position as a bulwark against a government that seeks to weaken the rule of law and promote judicial reforms so it can operate freely, without checks and balances.

The High Court has scheduled a hearing on Bar’s dismissal before Pesach. High Court President Yitzhak Amit, a liberal judge, will preside alongside one more liberal justice and one conservative. He can add more judges to the panel as the case progresses. Until they rule, Baharav-Miara has forbidden the government to interview any candidates to replace Bar.

The process to finalize the dismissal of Baharav-Miara is more cumbersome. The next step will be selecting a search committee to find a replacement. Eventually, she, too, will likely appeal to the High Court to keep her job.

The Left’s Exaggerations

As Netanyahu and the cabinet muster a show of political force, internal unity has taken a beating as the anti-Netanyahu protest movement gathers steam.

The number of anti-government demonstrators, which had decreased in recent weeks, surged to over 100,000 on Motzaei Shabbos.

The Histadrut, Israel’s largest labor union, and the Israel Business Forum, representing the country’s 200 largest corporations, have threatened a general strike should the government defy any High Court decisions regarding the proposed firings.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid even proposed a tax rebellion, which is hypocritical coming from a former finance minister who knows that failing to pay taxes is illegal and harmful to the economy. So much for Lapid’s claims that he is a statesman with a pure political soul who wishes to uphold the “rule of law.”

In widely publicized remarks, former High Court president Aharon Barak — the man most responsible for the judicial activism that the Netanyahu government wants to curb — cried out that Israel was on the verge of a civil war. Other strident leftist voices claim that if the government succeeds in resuscitating its judicial reform package, which includes giving politicians a greater voice in appointing judges, Israel will become a dictatorship, and the Knesset’s next move will be to cancel the scheduled November 2026 parliamentary election.

Under Israeli law, the Knesset can only extend its term and delay elections if it receives 80 votes on a bill requesting that. The only laws the Knesset could probably garner 80 votes for is one that would extend its already lengthy vacations or raise its own salaries.

Recapture the Narrative

All this rhetoric is dangerous because, in reality, while the left decries the government’s use of power, the left has proven even more ruthless and far more efficient in imposing its agenda.

And they don’t need a Knesset majority to do so. They already control a judiciary with unlimited veto power, industrial and business leaders with the economic clout to sink the economy, an aggressive media, and an academia that’s turning more woke by the day. Even the IDF high command and intelligence services are run by people with left-wing or center-left views.

Strangely, right-wing voters have been passive, managing just one sizable nationwide demonstration in support of the government in the past two years. NGOs don’t fund them to take to the streets like they do for the left. But the right has common-sense arguments that they need to vigorously promote if they want to maintain their grip on the Knesset.

The Netanyahu government is not trying to end democracy or impose a dictatorship. The Shin Bet has had 14 directors in its history, and if Bar is dismissed, there will be a 15th. The notion that Netanyahu will quash the Qatargate probe is vacuous. The investigation is underway and will continue even under a Shin Bet head appointed by Bibi’s cabinet. The charged parties would have their day in court if crimes were committed.

Tensions are running hot, but there is still time and space for cooler heads to prevail.

While the US and Israel are not comparable because their political systems differ, Israelis respect the American system. Anyone with that respect and a modicum of American sensibilities should understand why a prime minister and cabinet — just like the American president — should have the power to clean house and appoint their own people once they take office. Netanyahu and his supporters are failing to convey this common-sense concept.

Ronen Bar and Gali Baharav-Miara are holdovers from Naftali Bennett’s short stint as prime minister. Bennett managed to wrangle his way into that office even though his party held a mere seven seats in the Knesset.

Netanyahu’s government has far more legitimacy. With Bibi at the helm, the Likud finished first seven times, and a very close second twice, in national voting during his 17-plus-year tenure as prime minister.

The government is facing the most significant combination of security and geopolitical crises since the founding of the modern State of Israel. This requires steady leadership and a strong sense of internal unity. The political right doesn’t need to resort to the low tactics and threats that the left uses. The right must focus on building its self-confidence and speaking up for itself, as the risks of disunity and letting the left control the narrative without ongoing resistance have never been greater.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1055)