According to Shimon Nataf, a senior researcher at the Kohelet Policy Forum, regarded by many as Israel’s foremost think tank, the term “deep state” is a misnomer; it’s really quite shallow. It’s not covert or illegal; it’s part of Israel’s bureaucracy, like that of other democratic countries.
In Israel, however, legal advisers are especially powerful and, in fact, control government ministries and institutions. As part of Israel’s legal system and political structure, they are essential to the way the government works. The challenge, however, is to understand how decisions are made and by whom.
The arrest of the military advocate-general and the involvement of the attorney-general have revealed how the deep state works. Employing hundreds of lawyers, they represent a quasi-government/system with no accountability. Legal advisers have absolute power and can’t be challenged or fired (except for misconduct). Moreover, we don’t even know how many there are, who appointed them, or their role in making political, economic, and military/security decisions.
How does Israel's alleged deep state work?
The current investigation of leaders of the Histadrut labor federation for corruption has also exposed its role in the deep state. It’s not only the political and financial power behind leftist groups and parties, such as the Labor Party; it owns and/or controls many corporations, has vast investments, and influences our entire political, economic, and social system. It’s not just an organization of trade unions; it’s an empire.
According to reports, senior Histadrut officials ran “a ‘give-and-take’ system (in which clients) received jobs in local authorities and corporations in exchange for financial benefits.”
An example of how the Histadrut exercises its enormous power occurred during the summer of 2023, when it helped organize protests against efforts by the government to enact judicial reforms. When the protests failed to stop these efforts, the leader of the Histadrut threatened to call a general strike, which would have paralyzed the country. Under this threat, the government ended its attempt to enact judicial reforms.
Judicial reform is a critical issue because many Supreme Court justices and lower court judges are affiliated with a leftist ideology. This has practical consequences.
For example, more than a decade ago, the Supreme Court chief justice, Dorit Beinisch, held that all Arab claims to land ownership in Judea and Samaria that were not state-owned were valid, regardless of any proof of ownership. Although there was no legal basis for her decision, it became de facto law without Knesset approval or legislation. (See my Jerusalem Post op-ed, “Beinisch’s bombshell,” November 1, 2011.)
Legal expert Yonatan Green thoroughly examines the role of the Supreme Court in the deep state in his book, Rogue Justice: The Rise of Judicial Supremacy in Israel (Academica Press, 2025). Green focuses on how former chief justice Aharon Barak created a judicial oligarchy.
According to IDF Lt.-Col. (res.) Gidi Harari, “Thousands of Israeli businesses are being extorted by organized crime in Israel. Primarily in northern and southern Israel, businesses are paying ‘protection money’ to companies of questionable repute. They are succumbing to this extortion because the police and the government are unable to address the problem. While economic and financial interests largely drive the extortion and threats of violence, they present a dramatic national security threat. They can easily morph into an active strategy of terrorism against the Jewish state.”
Although people have written about the deep state in Hebrew, no one (that I know of) has comprehensively and explicitly explained in English how the deep state controls every aspect of our state and its political economy.
At least as important, however, is understanding how Israel’s ethos and identity were shaped by people affiliated with leftist parties and their ideology. That created a false self-delusion, which distorts and still promotes self-destructive, defeatist, and unrealistic policies and uncritical thinking that undermine the integrity of our democratic system and our raison d’etre.
The writer is a PhD historian, writer, and journalist.