Israel’s internal turmoil continues. Events and scandals which would once have convulsed the country now melt into a continuous pattern of outrages, all of which suggest the governing coalition is dragging the Jewish state down a dangerous path.

In the latest revelation, the head of the country’s Shin Bet internal security service, Ronen Bar, has submitted an affidavit to the High Court alleging various attempts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to subvert the intelligence services and use them as his own personal police force. The allegations which have been published are incendiary enough, and it is believed that the redacted section is almost four times as long.

Bar claims that at the end of meetings with Bibi, the PM would order his secretary and stenographer to leave, so that he could deliver private instructions. Since the so-called Line 300 Affair in 1984, every word exchanged between the Prime Minister and the head of Shin Bet is recorded to remove any possibility of the PM using the service for his own personal or political purposes.

According to Bar, during these private meetings Netanyahu asked him to monitor key figures in the Israeli protest movements. The former intelligence chief also accuses the Prime Minister of asking him to devise security reasons for why Netanyahu should be exempt from standing trial on corruption charges. Most concerningly, Bar claims Bibi sought reassurances that in a constitutional crisis, the head of Shin Bet would take orders only from the Prime Minister, and not from the courts. What’s more, he alleges that when Netanyahu was recently interviewing candidates for the head of Mossad, the external intelligence service, one of them was asked directly if he would be loyal to the Prime Minister above all else: the candidate refused, saying he owed his loyalty only to the state.

This is all shocking, but hardly surprising given the wealth of allegations about Netanyahu’s personal conduct that have emerged in the last couple of years. One of the less incendiary revelations from Bar was that Bibi asked him to say that intelligence updates about possible Hamas attacks ahead of 7 October were withheld from the PM’s office, which Bar refused to do.

Much of Israel’s military top brass has long had it in for Netanyahu, and many of them have a secular “Leftist” politics that clashes with the Right-wing nationalism of the governing coalition. But the spies and security personnel have traditionally been reluctant to get involved in politics. If they are speaking out, things must be serious.

And yet it is difficult to see what effect these bombshell allegations will have. On Monday night, thousands took to Habima Square in Tel Aviv in a protest organised in response to Bar’s comments, with former defence minister Moshe Ya’alon the most senior of several ex-military personnel among the crowds. But larger and more ferocious protests have failed to dent Bibi’s position; it is doubtful that these latest ones will make much of a difference.

Meanwhile, the war in Gaza drags on with no progress made in returning the remaining hostages. Netanyahu’s political priorities to protect and insulate himself have weakened the war effort with the dismissal of defence minister Yoav Gallant in November, as well as the resignation of IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi in January. The longer the war goes on, the longer Netanyahu has an excuse to avoid any legal or political reckoning.

Netanyahu’s demands of personal loyalty to himself above the rulings of the Supreme Court suggest that he knows a greater constitutional crisis is in the offing. He is likely trying to ensure that when it arrives, people in key positions — in the Defence Ministry, the military and the security services — will have his back.

The judiciary remains independent, but it cannot enforce its own rulings. Even in a country with a codified constitution and long-established democratic norms, such as the United States, judiciaries are only powerful if executive branches are willing to enforce or accept their orders, as the US Supreme Court may soon find out.

A country such as Israel, with no codified constitution and a political system less than 80 years old, is particularly vulnerable to democratic backsliding. As long as Netanyahu keeps his coalition together, he is effectively untouchable. The idea of the Likud party removing him, as the British Conservatives did with Liz Truss or Boris Johnson, is unthinkable. Without constitutional protections, the independence of the military and security services is paramount.

If Bibi continues to prioritise his political career to the detriment of the country’s justice system, there is no telling how large the protest movement could become.

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David Swift is a historian and author. His next book, Scouse Republic, is available to pre-order now.

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