No more conspiracy theories, we need a State Commission of Inquiry

The Likud Party has come a long way since Menachem Begin insisted on “the Supremacy of the Law”.

Today’s Likud has a leader giving a histrionic address to the Knesset, replete with paranoid conspiracy theories about the ‘Deep State’ trying to bring him down, and rejecting the need for a State Commission of Inquiry into October 7 because – so he claimed – “a majority” of the country would not accept the legitimacy of such a commission.

A truer picture was painted by a man who commands infinitely more respect among most Israelis today than the Prime Minister, Yarden Bibas. In his letter to Benjamin Netanyahu, the recently released hostage, who had to bury his wife and two infant children within a couple of weeks of his return, cited 83 percent backing among Israelis for exactly the kind of Commission of Inquiry that Netanyahu claims does not command popular support. (I’ve seen numbers from 70 to 80 percent.)

What Netanyahu is attempting to do is ride the wave of anti-judiciary defamation that he has encouraged – and at times led – for about a decade. A State Commission of Inquiry would be chaired by a former President of the Supreme Court, the institution which the Likud and its coalition partners have painted as an ultra-left institution, relentlessly undermining Israeli security and democracy. And so, Bibi’s loyalists will say, this is why a State Commission is a no-go; it will be not be capable of judging the Prime Minister or his government fairly.

To understand the real reason why he he is desperate to avoid such an inquiry, you could do no better than to listen to journalist Nadav Eyal on a recent episode of the superb Call Me Back podcast. He mentions that though the Prime Minister was not given any specific warnings ahead of the Hamas attack, he received more than four letters from Military Intelligence (which Eyal stresses is highly unusual), three months before October 7, warning that Israel’s enemies are seeing a historic opportunity to attack and some action needs to be taken.

And here’s a question that the Prime Minister will be asked: ‘You received four letters warning that the enemies of Israel are preparing… strategic warnings as to the intention to attack Israel. What did you do? Did you hold one discussion with the security chiefs? Did you ask for more information?… Do you think that a Prime Minister of Israel that receives these warnings can do nothing with this?’

As Eyal notes, Netanyahu also ignored a warning from Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, who tried unsuccessfully to meet with the Prime Minister ahead of the vote on the judicial overhaul to urge him to think about the consequences for Israeli security of continuing down this path of societal division – “there will be a war; I do not know the time and place”.

The good news is that most Israelis are not falling for the Prime Minister‘s version of reality. Nevertheless, disinformation about the Supreme Court in Bibi-ist media has created an echo chamber of half-truths and lies.

I experienced this myself recently when I entered the echo chamber, spending a Shabbat with close friends who – while not particularly fond of Netanyahu himself – have fully bought into the Bibi-ist view of the Court. Inevitably, the conversation over dinner turned to politics, and a civil but forceful debate ensued about Bibi’s culpability for various ills – not least, October 7. I heard the full range of culprits who apparently bear more responsibility than the man who has been Prime Minister for 15 of the past 16 years: previous prime ministers, Rabin, Barak and Sharon; the IDF (captured by the left, apparently); and – most of all – the ‘progressive’, borderline anti-Zionist, Supreme Court. When I asked for a specific example of the Court’s misdeeds, I was told by my hosts that when there were fierce clashes between Palestinian protestors at the Gaza border fence and Israeli soldiers in 2018 (around the time of the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem) the Court had ruled that the IDF were not allowed to fire back with lethal force.

This seemed to exactly fit the image of the Supreme Court that we are used to hearing about from Justice Minister Yariv Levin and other enthusiastic advocates for the government’s “reform” proposals: an Israeli state institution that harms the country’s defense because its leftist, universalist worldview will always place the alleged ‘human rights’ of our enemies over our own right to security.

Except the story was not true. A relatively quick Google search led me to the right information: A group of human rights NGOs had petitioned the Supreme Court in May 2018, asking it to prevent the IDF from firing on Palestinian protestors at the fence, but the Court had ruled against the petitioners. This is from an analysis by Prof. Amichai Cohen:

Justice Melcer, who authored the lead opinion, described the demonstrations as ‘violent,’ and as organized by Hamas as part of its struggle against Israel. Justice Melcer also emphasized that the demonstrations included attempts to destroy security infrastructure (i.e., the fence) and to serve as a cover for the commission of terror attacks.

Inside the echo chamber, this absolute untruth was accepted as fact.

And of course, it is believable if you believe the oft-repeated lie that all of the Supreme Court justices are left-wing. I remember feeling dumbfounded reading an interview with Gadi Taub, one of the most influential intellectuals on the Israeli right, when he baldly stated that the entire Supreme Court bench “mostly hold to the opinions of Meretz”. Today’s Supreme Court includes at least six, arguably seven, justices who would be considered right-wing by any definition that makes sense in the Israeli context—except by the new definition introduced by the government, where “right-wing” means supporting Netanyahu and his government.

And we see the same demonization of the attorney general, who the Justice Minister is now trying to remove (doubtless with the Prime Minister’s quietly enthusiastic encouragement). Like many of the justices, Gali Baharav-Miara comes from a right-wing background. Contrary to the myth, she – like the Supreme Court – almost always supports the government, especially in security matters. Her crime is not actually being “a leftist” (despite the claims on Channel 14 and elsewhere in the Bibi media landscape), but of believing in Menachem Begin’s dictum of the “the supremacy of the law”. As Eliav Breuer wrote in an excellent piece on the attempt to oust Baharav-Miara:

The bottom line is that the A-G is a problem for the government not because of some vague personal vendetta but because she has insisted, courageously at times, that the government act lawfully…

Yes. That is indeed the bottom line. And the bottom line of why this country is in a state of crisis, despite the heroism, courage and patriotism of so many ordinary Israelis, is that we have a government determined to act unlawfully, and then to cover up their corruption with unhinged conspiracy theories.