According to Shimon Nataf, a senior researcher at Kohelet Policy Forum, regarded by many as Israel's foremost conservative think-tank, the term "deep state" is a misnomer; it's not deep at all, it is really quite shallow. It's not covert, or illegal; it's part of Israel's bureaucracy.
In Israel, legal advisors are especially powerful and, in fact, they control the government ministries and institutions in which they work. As part of Israel's legal system and political structure, they are considered by many to be essential to the way the government works. But, many of these legal advisors oppose government policies and assert their own Leftist agenda.
The arrest of the Military Attorney General and the involvement of the Attorney General have revealed how the deep state works. Employing many hundreds of lawyers, they represent a quasi-government/system with no accountability. Legal advisors have absolute power and can't be challenged, or fired (except for proven 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.
The current investigation of leaders of the Histadrut 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 corporations and banks, 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 allegations, 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 Justices of Israel’s Supreme Court, and many lower court judges are affiliated with a Leftist ideology and the way they are chosen precludes significant balance. This has practical consequences.
For example, more than a decade ago, Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish decided that all Arab claims of land ownership on non-state owned land in Judea & Samaria were valid, regardless of whether there was any proof of ownership. Although there was no legal basis for her decision, this became defacto law, without any Knesset approval, or legislation. (See my JPost oped, “Beinish’s bombshell.”)
The role of the Supreme Court in the deep state is thoroughly examined by legal expert Yonatan Green 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. Colonel (Res) Gidi Harari, “thousands of Israeli businesses are being extorted by organized crime in Israel. Primarily in the north of Israel and in the south, businesses are paying "protection money" to companies of very questionable repute and are succumbing to this extortion because the police and the government are not able to get ahead of the problem.” The deep state profits from this kind of illegal activity.
Although people have written about the deep state in Hebrew, no one (that I know of) has explained -- in English-- comprehensively and explicitly how the deep state controls every aspect of our political economy. At least as important, however, is understanding how Israel's ethos and identity was shaped by people affiliated with Leftist parties and their ideology. That created a false self-delusion which distorts and still promotes self-destructive, defeatist, unrealistic policies, and uncritical thinking which undermine our integrity and our raison d’etre.
Simply put, Israel’s shallow, or deep state, represented by an all-powerful judicial elite and legal establishment, and promoted by most of its mainstream media, is undemocratic and threatens our survival. You can help by exposing it.
Dr. Moshe Dann is a historian, writer, and journalist who lives in Israel.