According to Haaretz, Netanyahu reportedly told a security cabinet meeting before the attack on Iran that “only force works,” dismissing the views of academic experts. Weitz suggests that the prime minister’s emphasis on the use of force was not directed solely at the Iranian regime, but also reflected a broader approach to governing dissent at home. Netanyahu has reportedly labelled protest movement activists as “terror amazons” in private, and demanded that the head of the Shin Bet security service take a harder line against demonstrators.
Judicial and Legal Offensives Continue During Wartime
Haaretz reports that the government has not suspended its campaign to undermine judicial independence even as missiles fall on Israeli territory. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the site where a missile killed a woman in Tel Aviv and used the occasion to call for the end of Netanyahu’s corruption trial. The prime minister subsequently attacked Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who had informed the High Court of Justice that she saw no alternative but to seek Ben-Gvir’s dismissal over the alleged politicisation of police operations.
In a related episode, Ben-Gvir challenged Supreme Court Justice Chaled Kabub, an Arab-Israeli jurist, over a petition seeking the minister’s removal. Ben-Gvir posted on social media questioning “whose side” the justice was on in the war. According to Weitz, the implicit message was that the era of Arab citizens of Israel reaching senior judicial positions is being contested.
Legislative Moves to Limit Judicial Oversight
The analysis highlights a pending bill that would prevent the High Court from interfering in ministerial appointments, a measure designed to shield figures like Ben-Gvir and potentially allow the return of convicted lawbreaker Arye Dery to the cabinet. A further law aimed at ensuring government control over the Judicial Appointments Committee is set to take effect in the next Knesset session.
A senior judiciary official was quoted as warning that such measures could eventually lead to criminal organisations having a role in the nomination of judges. Haaretz further reports that Justice Minister Yariv Levin has told legal officials that future coalition figures could make even his own hard-line approach appear moderate by comparison.
Democracy Under Strain
The Haaretz article concludes that the Israeli government is pursuing three hallmarks of authoritarian consolidation simultaneously: taking over the police, undermining judicial independence, and moving to control the media. Weitz argues that a government which has never accepted responsibility for the October 7 massacre, and refuses to investigate it, is now making decisions about the lives and deaths of its citizens under a permanent state of emergency with no effective opposition.
Millions of Israeli citizens who did not vote for the current government are experiencing what Weitz describes as a “double-pronged existential fear”: the threat of Iranian missiles and the threat posed by their own government’s policies. Any military success against Iran, the analysis warns, risks being instrumentalised to further consolidate Netanyahu’s grip on power and complete the coalition’s domestic agenda.