The Pursuit Of The Unattainable: Israel’s “Deep State”
By: Ron Jager
No other country in the Western world has been forced to live under the constant threat of war, terrorism, invasions, missile attacks, and suicide bombings. While other nations have experienced wars in their history, Israel has faced continuous conflict from the day it was established as the Jewish homeland after nearly two thousand years of exile. The Hamas invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023 was only the latest manifestation of the barbaric attacks carried out by our Arab neighbors, not to mention the ensuing war on seven fronts, forcing Israel to defend itself almost daily from attacks by Hamas, Iran, Yemen, and Lebanon.
Intuitively, this ongoing reality of the endless cycle of war and terror is a product of the Muslim Arab refusal to accept the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East. But the rejection of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish homeland cannot alone explain the historic phenomenon of endless war and terror.
Judicial activism by unelected officials in government ministries, often termed “legal advisors,” act as a super-government that prevents government ministers from carrying out their duties and fulfilling their roles. These judicial activists operate to a certain extent as a “deep state.” To amplify the deep state’s message, they use the media to control the narrative, influencing policy and public opinion through the dissemination of disinformation.
As a result of this Judicial overreach, the Israeli Judicial system has systematically weakened Israels’ security, empowered anti-Semitism throughout the West, resulting in the outpouring of global anti-Semitism that threatens not only Israel, but Jews everywhere. Israel’s “deep state,” personified by the judicial system, prevents an end to the endless cycles of war and terror, but they are not alone. The four pillars of Israel’s “deep state” include the judiciary, the media, bureaucratic civil servants, and progressive political forces. Together, Israel’s “deep state” leads the country via unelected bureaucrats, legal advisors, and judges who have thwarted the will of the people by preventing Israel’s elected government from passing laws and ensuring policies that in other Western nations would not be subject to legal review.
The political bias of Israel’s “deep state” has influenced all sectors of government, allowing bureaucrats in the military, the police, and security agencies to operate with legal immunity, promoting progressive policies that contradict or nullify the laws and decisions passed by Israel’s duly elected officials.
This “weaponized” legal system acts exclusively against conservative or right-wing governments that reject their progressive political agenda. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s court trial appearances over the past three years have given the public a convincing glimpse into how the prosecution and investigative police units have orchestrated a witch hunt against the Prime Minister, many of his appointees, and political aides. Let there be no doubt that these prosecutors, police, and jurists are not protecting the rule of law against executive overreach, they are committed to pursuing a progressive agenda that goes way beyond what is politically and morally acceptable to the majority of the Israeli people. The “deep state” is systemic, malignant, and global. Israel’s “deep state” treats every single act or decision by Israel’s democratically-elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the end of Democracy.
It was President Eisenhower who first coined the term the Military-Industrial Complex, which many scholars have described as the American “deep state,” an entrenched, unelected, secretive network comprising the military, intelligence agencies, corporate defense contractors, and Silicon Valley. This expansion reflects a permanent national security state rather than just a military-focused industrial alliance. This entity grew exponentially since World War II, merging with intelligence agencies and Wall Street. In this “state within a state,” unelected bureaucrats and industrial leaders actively shape policy, sometimes operating independently of elected officials. Many observers maintain that the “deep state” is a real, evolving structure that perpetuates itself behind the scenes of the legitimately elected government.
The “deep state” poses a challenge for democratic nations throughout the world, including the United States. Yet for Israel, the “deep state” has prevented Israel’s democratically-elected government from taking the necessary steps to end the endless cycles of war and terror. Judicial decisions by Israel’s Supreme Court have prevented Israel from reaching a decisive victory in wars or concluding waves of terror. Due to judicial intervention and overreach, ceasefires have replaced permanent long-term solutions; international diplomacy has replaced military success and decisive victories. Human rights and humanitarian aid for the enemy supersede the sanctity of life for Israeli soldiers and citizens. Terror organizations were kept on a low burner, weakened but never fully destroyed. Israel’s “deep state” created a culture that espoused a political bias that embraced a progressive agenda that preferred ceasefires over long term peace, and “managing” terror rather than eliminating it. As the motto from the 60s said: make love not war.
What Israel’s “deep state” fails to understand is that wars that are ended without a decisive victory will eventually return either as terror or as a full-scale war. The attack of October 7 and the ensuing war has taught the Israeli people that we should never accept a reality that no other nation would tolerate. All Democracies make mistakes and not every decision by the current government has been flawless. But Israel’s political leaders have been held accountable and will have to overcome the test of elections in the coming months, something that evades the leaders of the “deep state.” Not only will the “deep state” not be held unaccountable, their objective of having the final say will hopefully be unattainable sooner rather than later.
Ron Jager grew up in the South Bronx of New York City, making aliyah in 1980. He served for 25 years in the IDF as a Mental Health Field Officer in operational units. Prior to retiring, he was Commander of the Central Psychiatric Clinic for Reserve Solders at Tel-Hashomer. Since retiring, he has been involved in strategic consultancy to NGOs and communities in the Gaza Envelope on resiliency projects to assist first responders. To contact: [email protected]. Website: RonJager.com.
