The New Betrayal of the State of Israel Doesn’t Look Like What People Think

The new betrayal of the State of Israel is not about selling state secrets, or accepting envelopes, suitcases, or suitcases stuffed with cash. It is not overt, crude, or immediately visible. It comes disguised as yet another appointment that looks, on paper, like a proper procedure. Take, for example, the appointment of the new deputy head of the Shin Bet. Moves like this send a clear message down the ranks: it is not knowledge or professional integrity that matter – but loyalty.

For anyone who thinks “betrayal” is reserved for espionage, secret handoffs, or money under the table, here is the uncomfortable truth: the most dangerous betrayal is far more elegant. It leaves no obvious marks, no stench. It looks like a routine appointment, a cabinet decision, a government resolution – taken in a forum that now functions largely as a rubber stamp.

In reality, none of these appointments is merely “another appointment.” Each one quietly changes the rules of the game. That is a betrayal of Israel as a liberal democracy – and, as we learned on October 7, a betrayal of the state itself. It is like removing bricks from a building, one by one, until it suddenly collapses.

This week, former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak said things many find hard to hear – and even harder to refute. Israel, he argued, is no longer a “normal” liberal democracy. Rights are eroded daily, and the system is, in practice, controlled by a single individual. As I have written before, he also pointed to the unequal use of police power – effectively turning the police into the private militia of a minister previously convicted of supporting terrorism – as yet another symptom of the same disease. This is the sober assessment of someone who spent a lifetime inside the defensive mechanisms of the regime and recognizes their erosion in real time.

At this point, some will say: fine, but there are still elections, courts, laws. That is true. What we have, then, is a formal democracy. The forms are filled out. The titles remain. The procedures are followed. But the substance slowly drains away – like air leaking from a tire. You keep driving, until suddenly you realize you’re riding on the rim.

Consider this analogy: imagine appointing a colonel directly to the position of deputy chief of staff. Even if he were talented, intelligent, perhaps even brave – that is beside the point. The issue is the norm.

A concrete example? The High Court of Justice recently rejected, by a two-to-one majority, petitions against the appointment of David Zini as head of the Shin Bet – thereby effectively approving it. Supreme Court President Yitzhak Amit dissented, pointing to a serious flaw in the decision-making process. A flaw as subtle as an elephant in the room: appointing an extremist with no real experience in the field, behind his commander’s back, following a so-called job interview conducted in the back seat of a car.

Formally, the ruling found that “no defect occurred.” Substantively, it left a bitter aftertaste – of something crooked, of a widening gray zone precisely where no gray zone should exist: at the very top of Israel’s internal security apparatus, likely the most powerful body in the country, equipped with tools that could be turned against Israeli citizens themselves.

How do I know? Because the “payment” came immediately. Zini selected his deputy, known as “N,” an appointment approved by the prime minister and set to take effect next month. According to reports, this is someone who never served as a division head within the Shin Bet, whose appointment has already sparked discontent within the organization, and whose primary qualification appears to be his recent proximity to the developing Byzantine court on Balfour Street.

Let us set aside, for a moment, the suspicion of overt politicization and run a simple thought experiment – one anyone who has ever served in a chain of command will immediately grasp. Imagine again a colonel parachuted into the role of deputy chief of staff. However capable he may be, that is not the issue. The issue is the norm. The deputy chief of staff – like the deputy head of the Shin Bet – is not just another role. It is a central axis in the use of force, responsible for professional stability, command continuity, and, above all, internal trust.

Are you loyal? Congratulations – you’re promoted.

When layers of experience are skipped, a message is broadcast to everyone below: knowledge doesn’t matter. The process doesn’t matter. The system doesn’t matter. What matters is loyalty. Once that message sinks in, it does not remain confined to appointments. It seeps into intelligence assessments, report writing, the courage to say “the emperor has no clothes,” and – most critically – the ability of an intelligence organization to remain professional when its conclusions are inconvenient for those in power.

The commission of inquiry that will one day investigate the failures of October 7 will discover that this was one of the central factors leading to that catastrophe. And yet the prime minister continues down the same path, dismantling every oversight mechanism the Israeli state still has.

This is the true betrayal – no less severe than the Qatari money scandal that stank up the Prime Minister’s Office. There is no need to know “N” personally to understand the deal being made: independence traded for dependence, professionalism for political discipline. No conspiracy theories are required – just look at the pattern: the destruction of gatekeepers, the weakening of security institutions, the dismantling of the fragile nervous system of Israeli democracy.

Even those who support the prime minister should ask themselves one simple question: would you want Shin Bet commanders who first ask, “What is right for the country?” – or ones who first ask, “What is right for Netanyahu?” If the latter, we should not be surprised when the Shin Bet turns from a watchdog of democracy into the watchdog of its owner – and struggles to confront threats from within and without, as many whose values no longer align quietly leave an organization that no longer operates by the principles it once instilled.

Some will say: “What do you want? Everything is legal. You’re exaggerating again. Everyone appoints their own people.” True. It is also legal to smash your own house with a hammer. But the state is not anyone’s private house. The state is a delicate contract between citizens and institutions. The moment security appointments become just another tool in a political survival struggle, that contract is torn – even if no court ruling has yet put it in writing. History, including the destruction of past Jewish kingdoms, offers plenty of lessons here.

Democracy is not just election day. Democracy is the ability of a system to say “no” to a prime minister; the ability of a security organization to warn without fear; and the public’s confidence that the guard at the gate was chosen for experience and operational competence – not political loyalty.

If we want to remain a truly Jewish and democratic state – or perhaps any state at all – it is time to wake up. Because when the air starts leaking from the tire, the ride still feels fine at first – until you suddenly realize you’re on the rim, unable to fix it, speeding down the highway toward the abyss.