The System That Bibi Built

Benjamin Netanyahu approaches the October 27 election with a characteristic paradox hanging over his long tenure. After nineteen intermittent years in power, the longest-serving prime minister in Israel's history is not merely battling traditional political adversaries on the left or center. He is confronting an entrenched, militaristic right-wing opposition—a political force largely forged by his own transactional style of governance.

The institutional imprint left by the Likud leader since his emergence on the national stage in the early 1990s is profound. Having ridden a wave of fierce opposition to peace deals with Palestinians and Syria into office as the country's youngest prime minister in 1996, Netanyahu systematically reshaped the mechanics of the Israeli state. His governance model relied heavily on making extreme-right and religious factions indispensable partners in his coalitions. In return, religious courts gained expanded jurisdiction over civil and business matters, while ultra-Orthodox institutions secured record levels of state funding.

This ideological consolidation was written directly into statute in 2018 when the Knesset passed the Nation-State Basic Law, enshrining Israel as the exclusive state of the Jewish people and defining illegal settlement expansion as a national priority. Despite petitions from human rights groups, the High Court declined to block the legislation, which international legal experts subsequently cited in broader assessments of the country's policy toward Palestinians.

Yet the most contentious arena of Netanyahu's reign remains the legal system. Facing three distinct corruption indictments filed in 2019 that could carry prison time—and facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over war crimes charges in Gaza—Netanyahu pursued sweeping overhauls to restrain what he routinely called a judicial dictatorship. His governing coalition altered the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee to ensure political dominance over court appointments. While his repeated efforts to remove the attorney general failed, he succeeded in dismissing the military's advocate general following a leaked video depicting soldiers abusing a Palestinian detainee, after which the troops involved were cleared of charges.

Netanyahu's institutional realignments extended deep into the security apparatus as well. He consistently placed political allies in senior roles while clashing with establishment leaders who challenged his authority. Following the October 7, 2023 attack, his attempt to shift blame onto military and intelligence heads prompted former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar to file a defamation lawsuit against him.

As Netanyahu promises his base that he will complete his judicial program if re-elected, his opponents pledge a total reversal of his policies. Rebuilding independent checks and balances or unwinding statutes embedded over nearly two decades, however, presents a structural hurdle that a mere change of leadership cannot easily solve.

Written by Christiane Hofreiter christiane.hofreiter@alpineweekly.com