The Blitz: Bar, Baharav-Miara, and Bibi and his Bullies

The summary dismissal of Ronen Bar, head of Israel’s Shin Bet in a late-night Cabinet meeting on Thursday night, required no debate, of which the unanimous decision is clear and bare evidence. The time allotted for the meeting was to allow each member of the cabinet time to berate him, each in turn; each trying to outdo the other in using the most insulting, denigrating and vicious phrases to attack him, in the hope that their statements would make the headlines, which they could then boastfully point to, as proof of their commitment to the Coalition of Cowards.

We have a word in Hebrew to describe what they intended: Aleihum (to gang up on someone). Such “aleihums” have become this government’s favorite method to try to strip those they have targeted of their dignity. With Bar, it didn’t work.

Imagine their disappointment upon hearing that he refused to attend, leaving them feeling deflated, like an unconsummated anticipated night of wild passion. Instead of them having Bar pilloried at the table while they took turns to pelt him with their carefully crafted rhetoric, they were left facing an empty chair. And instead of them taking perverse satisfaction in seeing him cowed into a sullen silence, they were left reading a letter he sent, the language of which displayed a statesmanship to which the rabble in their expensive suits and power ties could only dream of being able to emulate. I wonder if, despite his absence they still took turns to attack him, just so that the speeches they rehearsed in front of the mirror did not go to waste? I imagine it gave them the same satisfaction as one gets from shooting at paper targets.

Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet (Courtesy of the Times of Israel, Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The disregard Netanyahu and his ministers showed in sweeping aside the prescribed procedures required for the dismissal of a senior civil servant such as Ronen Bar, expose a defiant disdain for any legal restrictions to their power. This disdain has become a defining characteristic of this government. Infatuated with the insurmountable majority power they hold, they arrogantly believe that they have no obligation to respect laws and procedures, let alone adhere to them. If a law stands in their way, change the law; they have the majority to do so, so why not? Who is going to stop them? I mean, they were “democratically elected” and therefore represent the “will of the people”, right?

“The urgency of the situation is such that there is no time to follow the procedure as set out by law”, their condescending statement said, in response to the AG’s formal letter outlining the necessary procedures that need to be taken before they can fire the head of Shin Bet. When the pretext for immediate and sudden dismissal is something as amorphous as “a lack of trust”, what could possibly be so “urgent” that is justifies waiving all procedures and the necessity to substantiate the dismissal with a solid factual and legal foundation presented to The Grunis commission for senior appointments? One would think that it was Bar, not Urich and Feldstein, who was receiving payments from a hostile foreign entity such as Qatar while also being a senior civil servant, not the one investigating the security breach. The only urgency I can think of, is the progress made in the investigations against Feldstein and Urich, concerning their connections to Qatar. And, if this is the reason, that would explain why Netanyahu does not want the explicit reasons for Bar’s dismissal on record, when precisely at this critical juncture in Shabak’s investigation, a concrete financial connection between Jay Footlik, Qatar’s lobbyist, and Feldstein is publicly exposed. Because it would expose his clear conflict of interests for wanting to be rid of Bar, now, without delay.

“Qatargate” – Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein (courtesy of the Times of Israel,Yonatan Sindel/Flash90).

The government’s knee-jerk response to the Supreme Court injunction against Bar’s dismissal, issued by none other than the honorable Gila Canfy-Steinitz (who also happens to be Bibi’s former bosom buddy, Yuval Steinitz’s wife) – a conservative judge if ever there was one – that they will not honor the ruling, indicates the collective mentality of this coalition; the belief that the insurmountable majority they hold gives them not only the power, but the right to brazenly challenge the authority of the highest legal arbiter in Israel – and in any country which calls itself a democracy.

Apropos democracy, the following was what Smotrich said about the Shabak Law, which states that a central aim of the Shabak is to protect Israel’s democracy: “We should exclude the job of preserving democracy from the Shin Bet’s statute”. That about sums up his true intentions.

Meanwhile, Shlomo Karhi, the Gaon of Gematria, who must have taken an online course in Israeli Constitutional Law with the University of Oman to now feel qualified to lecture judges who have decades of legal experience and learning, about the Court’s jurisdiction, presumptuously stating that, “You have no legal authority to interfere in this. This is the government’s authority. Your order is void.”

And, as for Netanyahu, who is so deep in conflict of interest that Yossi Fuchs had to pull a snorkel out of his briefcase for him to breathe? “Can someone imagine that we’ll continue to work [with Bar] without trust because of a court order? It can’t happen and it won’t happen.” (… Said manufactured “lack of trust”, because of Netanyahu’s panic surrounding Shabak investigations into illegally leaked documents, and suspicions of treason in the PM’s Office, nicknamed Qatargate, and the potential blowback onto him).

It is no longer about whether the Executive Branch has the authority to dismiss a senior civil service without due process, it is about their belief, that because they hold the majority, *their* decisions are sacrosanct, not that of the Supreme Court. It is about the demonstrable disrespect they have for any authority that stands in the way of what they want to do; whether it be the Attorney General, or the Supreme Court.

It is the same disrespect they demonstrate towards fellow MKs of the Opposition. There is no longer substantive debate or deliberation in the Knesset, or in the Committee meetings. They grudgingly allow the Opposition MKs to address the walls and the ceiling, for all the consideration they are given, and then, without even relating to what was said, they ram through the vote. Because they can.

It is no surprise, therefore, that the Opposition is toothless. The impassioned speeches they make fall on deaf ears. They have no power to even embarrass the Coalition, because with 68 votes against 52 on a good day, it doesn’t matter what you do and who is absent from the vote, the bill, or the resolution will pass.

And there is the rub: by continuing to act like the “responsible” Opposition, and by participating in the committees and plenum debates, they are providing this illegitimate government with the pretext of legitimacy. This government, which is blatantly disrespecting the Courts, the AG – and them, the Opposition – which is trample on all the precedents and procedures that are set in place to limit the power of the Legislature and the Executive in order to maintain a balance and preserve the independence of the arms of government, is intent on emasculating our democracy, and the Opposition should stop giving their behavior the guise of democratic acceptability.

Opposition leaders, Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid and Yair Golan (Courtesy of the Times of Israel, Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)/

While 200,000 citizens have risen in protest to save our democracy, demonstrating in the street for four days running – despite the cold and the rain, and while the Histadrut, the Israel Business Forum and the Hi-tech Forum have announced that they will strike if the government does not honor the Supreme Court decision, along with the universities, the time has come for the Opposition to play its part, by creating pressure which cannot be ignored. The time has come for the Opposition to refuse to participate anymore in the charade which allows the Coalition the pretense that they are legitimate participants in a democratic system while they dismantle it, rampantly and ruthlessly using their power to rape the system of all the facets which safeguard our democratic system:

Boycott Knesset Committee meetings; they vote above their heads, anyway.
Boycott the Knesset Plenum sessions; they don’t care what you say, anyway and pass the laws without a second thought.
Rip the mask of legitimacy from their faces; expose their pretense for what it is.
Refuse to be their foil of democracy. Leave them facing empty chairs.

If this government is knowingly precipitating a constitutional crisis, these actions could allow the Opposition to wrest the initiative from them. And maybe, finally, they will be heard.

Like Gandalf said: “You will not pass!”