There is no going back from this precipice. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s predictable but nonetheless callous and crude firing of the head of the Shin Bet security service, Ronen Bar, is not only an affront to democracy but a visible inflection point in Israeli history.
There are numerous learned articles on the legal and political aspects of the event, but there’s a much broader and ominous picture here: that of a fundamental constitutional crisis that is not your standard Israeli political emergency.
This is why extreme — but always lawful — measures are called for. To effectively stop Netanyahu’s brutal assault on Israeli democracy, the entire opposition needs to resign. Even if only 40 of the opposition’s 52 members, out of 120 Knesset members, quit, effective immediately, it creates an unprecedented constitutional crisis that would likely trigger an election.
Can the Israeli public count on the opposition to do the right thing, even if such an action is very much out of the box? No. Of course not.
That means there are only two elements that can stem this political earthquake that threatens to cause a tsunami: the public flooding the streets in far greater numbers than during the 2023 constitutional coup; and the Supreme Court. While the latter is limited in how much it can intervene, the public isn’t.
Will the public rise to the occasion? That remains to be seen — but the critical factor here is the urgency. There may not be a more pertinent moment.
In a functioning democracy with multiple layers of effective checks, balances and guardrails, the dismissal of the head of an internal security agency is not a defining moment. In a functioning democracy, the head of the Shin Bet is both replaceable and even expendable.
But Israel under Netanyahu is not a functioning democracy but rather, a liberal democracy being coerced into transforming to a quasi-authoritarian illiberal democracy.
Netanyahu’s claim that “there is no trust” between himself and Bar is peculiar. If mutual trust is the criterion that defines Netanyahu’s ability to work with someone, then he’d be self-employed and in solitary confinement.
This is Israeli democracy’s “to be or not to be” moment. I rarely tend to dramatize events, and deeply dislike speculation and conjecture. However, this is the real deal. It is not a portentous alarm bell, nor a red flag seen from afar. It is a clear and present danger. This is the moment of truth.
If this dismissal passes, there may never be free democratic elections in Israel ever again. A pro forma, electoral pseudo-democracy, perhaps. But not a democracy.
This is Israel’s “Weimar moment,” and its fragile, brittle, precarious democracy is being lethally challenged by a desperate, unhinged man who has waged war on his own country for the past two years. If you think this is hyperbole, look at the Weimar Republic and think of Israel being in a “Weimar moment” ever since Netanyahu instigated his constitutional coup in January 2023.
A “Weimar moment” is not only a catchy political-science term, or an exact analogy to the Weimar Republic in Germany between 1919-1933, but also a description of trends and trajectories. It is a period of extreme political instability, populism, insecurity leading to demagogic vitriol against the judiciary and so-called elites. A time when a delicate democracy faces severe internal political challenges that might lead to its implosion or collapse. Meanwhile, the public may have no faith in the political system, but it may also be jaded, confused and paralyzed into inaction.
This is the precipice to which Mr. Netanyahu has brought Israel. “My primary obligation is to the law, not a personal oath of loyalty,” Shin Bet chief Bar said in response to his dismissal. His firing awaits both the attorney general’s opinion on the legality and justification of it, and then, almost inevitably, the Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, which is already being petitioned to issue an injunction on the grounds of Netanyahu’s conflict of interests — since the Shin Bet is currently investigating his office for breaches of national security protocols.
The dismissal of the Shin Bet chief goes to the very heart of three interconnected things. First, Mr. Netanyahu’s inherent authoritarian tendencies, expressed by his launching of the constitutional coup and subsequent actions. His disdain for the self-imposed constraints of democracy and the core values of liberal democracy are well documented.
Second, his sole motivation: political survival after the October 7 calamity and his grandiose attempts to forge an alternative narrative based on prevarication and distortion that the Israeli army and Shin Bet were in fact responsible for the debacle, not him, the actual prime minister. He was failed, he was misled, he knew nothing. Ignorance is bliss.
Third, his ongoing war against the reviled “deep state” elites. Last Thursday, former Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman threatened to “tell all I know about him” in the event that Netanyahu “breaks the law.” For Netanyahu, who filed a complaint with the police commissioner the next day, this was a moment of unadulterated clarity and vindication, providing tangible proof that there’s a cabal made up of Israel’s defense establishment and judiciary out to get him.
Netanyahu immediately accused Argaman and Bar of extortion. When, during their 15-minute meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu notified Bar that he plans to dismiss him, Bar responded: “On what possible basis are you accusing me of extortion? Where and on what exactly am I extorting you?” Netanyahu answered: “I read it in [Yedioth Ahronoth political columnist] Sima Kadmon’s column on Friday.” That revelation was reported by Yedioth’s acclaimed veteran columnist Nahum Barnea.
It would be misleading to assume that Netanyahu fired Bar because the Shin Bet is investigating the Prime Minister’s Office. That certainly contributed to the timing of the decision, but is not the real motivation. This is all about the narrative: A failed prime minister trying to crudely absolve himself of responsibility for the policies that led to the October 7 catastrophe.
Netanyahu’s detractors and critical commentators are now completing each other’s sentences: He is destroying Israel. He is unhinged. He is in the throes of a continuous political tantrum. He is in meltdown. He is scared, panicky and impulsive — or, conversely, he knows exactly what he’s doing and thinks he can get away with it.
Perhaps. But the bigger issue is the well-being and immediate future of Israeli democracy — and that is more in the public’s hands than Mr. Netanyahu’s. But if the public succumbs to fatigue and resignation, there is no going back from this.
First published in Haaretz, 17.03.2025
