Peloni: Avi Abelow presents Part 2 of his exposure on the Israeli Deep State, while highlighting the import this war on reason and values portents for Israeli society and the public trust in the nation’s justice system.
Avi Abelow | Israel Unwired | May 19, 2026
For years, many people rolled their eyes whenever I warned about the growing political power of Israel’s legal establishment and a “deep state” of unelected officials who are constantly working against Netanyahu and his governments from implementing policies to protect our country and strengthen the Jewish identity of the country.
“Conspiracy theories.”
“Paranoia.”
“An attack on democracy.”
But then cases like the Roman Gofman affair emerge, and it becomes harder and harder for honest Israelis to ignore what is happening right before our eyes.
This is no longer about “protecting the rule of law.”
This is about unelected legal officials using their power to influence political outcomes, block appointments, undermine elected governments, and shape the future of the country according to their own ideological worldview, against the will of the people who vote for Netanyahu and right-wing, religious governments.
And the most disturbing part is that they”de senior legal officials continue doing so while presenting themselves as the defenders of “integrity” and “democracy.”
The recent attempt by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and her deputy Gil Limon to torpedo Netanyahu’s appointment of Major General Roman Gofman as head of the Mossad perfectly illustrates the problem.
Before the public even saw the affidavit at the center of the controversy, the Attorney General rushed to the High Court with dramatic urgency, presenting the situation as if she possessed explosive evidence that fundamentally disqualified Gofman from serving as head of Mosad.
The implication was clear: there was supposedly damning information so serious that immediate intervention by the court was necessary to stop the appointment.
But then something remarkable happened.
The contents of the affidavit finally became known, the entire narrative collapsed, and even the Supreme Court did not fully cooperate with the Attorney Geberal’s attempt to block the appointment.
Not only did the “confidential” affidavit fail to destroy Gofman’s credibility, it actually strengthened his version of events.
The very secret document presented by the Attorney General as the smoking gun ended up undermining the Attorney General’s claims instead.
Think about how extraordinary that is.
An unelected legal authority attempted to intervene in one of the most sensitive national security appointments in the country. She created public drama, implied severe wrongdoing, sought to pressure the court, and reportedly even tried to prevent the Prime Minister himself from seeing the relevant material because of its “sensitive” nature.
And in the end, the central evidence itself pointed in the opposite direction.
That is not a minor embarrassment.
That is a warning sign for the health of Israeli democracy.
Because this story is not really about Roman Gofman.
It is about a growing pattern that millions of Israelis already recognize.
Again and again, legal officials who were never elected by the public behave less like neutral guardians of the law and more like political actors fighting ideological battles from within the system itself.
Appointments are negated.
Government policies are obstructed.
Security decisions are challenged.
Laws passed by elected representatives are frozen or weakened.
And nearly every major move by a right-wing government is immediately treated with hostility by elements within the legal establishment, in place to defend the government and its policies.
At some point, honest people must ask the obvious question:
If legal advisers consistently oppose the elected government’s agenda, are they still functioning as legal advisers, or have they become political veto players?
In a healthy democracy, legal institutions are supposed to ensure that governments operate within the law.
They are not supposed to become an alternative governing authority.
Yet in Israel, the Attorney General holds extraordinary power compared to most democracies. Unelected legal officials can effectively paralyze government decisions, freeze appointments, refuse representation, and create enormous institutional obstacles to policies they oppose.
And when that power is exercised selectively and politically, public trust in the legal system inevitably collapses.
This is precisely why so many Israelis increasingly feel that there are now two governments in Israel:
the one voters elect, and the one made up of unelected legal officials that believes it knows better than the voters.
Even those who oppose Netanyahu should be deeply troubled by this trend.
Because this is not ultimately about Left versus Right.
No democracy can function properly when unelected officials believe they possess the authority to continuously overrule, obstruct, or delegitimize elected leadership.
That is not democratic balance.
That is institutional supremacy.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s response to the Grofman case reflected the frustration felt by a massive segment of the Israeli public. Whether one agrees with all of his rhetoric or not, the underlying concern he expressed is real: large parts of Israel’s legal establishment are not committed to serving the elected government neutrally, rather they actively work against it.
Instead, they increasingly appear to view themselves as guardians against the government itself.
And that is an extraordinarily dangerous mindset in a democracy.
The deeper tragedy is that many Israelis still fail to understand the long-term consequences of this reality.
When the public loses trust in legal institutions, the institutions themselves are weakened.
When courts are perceived as political actors, respect for judicial authority erodes.
And when legal officials repeatedly intervene in political battles, they drag the justice system itself into the center of partisan warfare.
That damage may take generations to repair.
Israel desperately needs a legal system that the overwhelming majority of citizens view as fair, professional, restrained, and politically neutral.
But neutrality cannot exist when legal authority is repeatedly weaponized against one side of the political map.
The Roman Gofman affair did not create this crisis.
It simply exposed it yet again.
And more and more Israelis are beginning to realize that the greatest threat to Israeli democracy is not from the elected politicians at all, but from unelected officials who increasingly believe they are entitled to rule over them.
And this is precisely why any Israeli who genuinely cares about preserving the rule of law and restoring public trust in Israel’s democratic institutions must support comprehensive judicial reform, like the reforms advocated by Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Because without structural reform, nothing changes.
The same unelected legal establishment will continue concentrating enormous power in its own hands, intervening in political decisions, blocking appointments, freezing government policies, and increasingly functioning as an ideological veto player over elected leadership.
Many Israelis who vote for center or center-left parties convince themselves that they are supporting “moderation” or “balance.” But the political reality is far simpler. Any government led by Bennett, Lapid, Gantz, Eisenkot, or their political allies will immediately halt any meaningful judicial reform effort and preserve the current system exactly as it is.
And that means preserving a reality in which unelected legal officials continue exercising extraordinary political influence without meaningful checks or democratic accountability.
One does not need to agree with every proposal put forward by Levin or Smotrich to understand the deeper issue. The current imbalance of power inside Israel’s governing system is unhealthy, unsustainable, and deeply damaging to public trust.
If Israelis want a legal system that returns to its proper role, enforcing the law instead of shaping the country’s political direction, then serious judicial reform is no longer optional.
It is mandatory.
I agree with all that Avi Abelow has stated. But I wonder, how will it be possible to remove every single deep state employee with power to undermine the current government? How will it be possible to identify them all? Can they all be fired en masse?
The Attorney General has the biggest target on her back due to her high profile in the government and the regularity with which she undermines or attempts to undermine the Netanyahu government. But even members of the High Court act regularly to attempt to defeat the government whenever they disagree ideologically with the government’s policies. In fact this is what they think is their main job and, they hope, their main contribution to Israeli history.
Then there are members of the defense and security establishment who want to see Netanyahu fail, more than they want a safe and secure Israel. How can these individuals be identified, and once identified, how can they be liberated to find employment elsewhere?
I think there needs to be a discussion in Israel amongst the Israeli people about the best way to solve this problem, beyond identifying it as a problem.