Two would-be authoritarians, alike in attacking democracy: The Trump-Netanyahu alliance grows ever more toxic
As Netanyahu moves to fire the Shin Bet chief, Israel faces a moment of democratic reckoning that will be eerily familiar to Americans
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump are using the same playbook to try to break down democracy. Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Columnist Dan Perry March 20, 2025
Israeli democracy has known crises, but few as concentrated, consequential and absurd as what’s unfolding now. And the chaos might sound awfully familiar to American readers: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is explicitly drawing from President Donald Trump’s playbook of democratic erosion.
Netanyahu has spent months trying to fire the attorney general, a position that in Israel’s system is independent and immensely powerful. That same attorney general is now blocking Netanyahu’s attempt to also fire the head of the Shin Bet security agency, which is separately investigating his advisers over alleged illicit payments from Qatar. The Shin Bet chief has suggested he may not recognize his own dismissal — while, in a bizarre twist, Netanyahu has just sued his predecessor. With these and other actions, Netanyahu’s government has quietly revived its 2023 assault on Israel’s justice system.
A leader desperately attempting to defang the independent judiciary that forms his greatest threat; trying to bend intelligence agencies to his personal will; and working to systematically discredit every institution — and individual — that might be able to in any way check his power. Sound familiar?
If not, maybe Netanyahu’s own words this week will serve as a helpful cue: “In America and in Israel, when a strong right-wing leader wins an election, the leftist Deep State weaponizes the justice system to thwart the people’s will,” he wrote on X, the social media platform owned by Trump’s right-hand man, Elon Musk. “They won’t win in either place! We stand strong together.”
(“100%,” Musk replied.)
Yet Netanyahu has proved different from Trump in one critical capacity: He has been unable to wreak havoc quite as effectively as his American counterpart. He has not been able to fire prosecutors looking into the many charges against him; has not succeeded in defying the courts; and has not been able to politicize the civil service apparatus in quite the way Trump has tried with the FBI and Justice Department.
The reason for this difference lies in the structure of the two democracies. The United States, despite the multiple layers of resistance built into its federal system, has come over time to involve what has been called an “imperial presidency” with vast powers and the right to issue sweeping executive orders. Israel lacks all of that. With no written constitution to interpret, in a system that has developed ad hoc, the executive office Netanyahu holds has been able to establish fewer powers.
Israel does have a powerful judiciary, an iconic security establishment, and a traditionally formidable cadre of gatekeepers genuinely dedicated to liberal democracy — the courts and an array of civil servants led by the attorney general and “legal advisers” within government departments. Also, a civil society that is mobilized with passion to block Netanyahu.
So, while Trump has used allegations of a “deep state” to justify running rampant over every federal institution he can, there is some real truth in Netanyahu’s complaints that he is constrained by unelected civil servants and judges. The counterargument is that such constraints are absolutely necessary in a situation as explosively brittle as Israel’s. Living under the trauma of constant security threats and with the unresolved issue of millions of Palestinians under military occupation, without rights — not to mention the complications that come with a citizenry with clear memories of life in non-democratic countries — comes with different stakes.
Netanyahu’s attempt to purge the security establishment
Netanyahu’s frustration has long been evident. He has repeatedly tried to reshape Israel’s government into something closer to the illiberal models of Hungary and Turkey, but each time, a mix of public outrage and institutional resistance has slowed him down. His 2023 judicial overhaul — which would have dramatically weakened the judiciary, allowing politicians to cancel judges’ decisions — was derailed by historic protests, court interference, widespread opposition across society and then the war.
But his most recent efforts are unprecedented. Last week, the government launched the complex procedure required to fire the attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara. Days later, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar’s predecessor Nadav Argaman went on TV and cryptically declared that if he felt democracy was at stake, he would reveal “what he knows” about Netanyahu. The next day Netanyahu sued Argaman for blackmail. On Sunday, he met with Bar and announced on TV that he’d fire him because he had “lost faith.”
In a rare public statement, Bar responded by suggesting Netanyahu sought from him “personal loyalty” instead of fidelity to the state — a phrase that instantly called to mind Trump’s infamous demand for loyalty from James Comey at the FBI. Baharav-Miara immediately stepped in, warning that Bar’s dismissal required legal review and could not proceed due to “concerns the procedure is tainted by illegality and conflict of interest.”
Bar, whose agency mandate includes a responsibility for “preserving democracy,” reportedly suggested he would not accept his own dismissal. Meanwhile, the Cabinet is set to rubber-stamp it tonight, anyway.
This is playing out against the backdrop of a bitter national dispute over responsibility for the security failures involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack; the resumption of a war in Gaza with no clear endpoint; and a government that is widely believed to be prioritizing its political survival over national interest. The opposition has already announced large-scale protests, with leaders warning that Israel is hurtling toward authoritarianism.
Will Israel’s institutions, backed up by protesters, hold the line? Or will Netanyahu, through sheer persistence of the kind that Trump has brought to bear, manage to wear them down?
The coming weeks will be critical. If both Bar and Baharav-Miara are removed, it will send an unmistakable message: No institution, not even the security services, is safe from political interference. And that would mark a fundamental shift — not just for Israel, but for democracies everywhere watching this crisis unfold.
Democracies at a crossroads
The timing is impossible to ignore. In recent weeks, the Shin Bet has been investigating suspected illicit ties between Netanyahu’s office and Qatar, in a scandal known as “Qatargate.” Opposition leader Yair Lapid has vowed to challenge Bar’s dismissal in court, arguing that Netanyahu is trying to sabotage a criminal investigation into his own office.
The result is a showdown unlike anything in Israeli history. A sitting intelligence chief is resisting a prime minister, while the nation is at war. It raises deep constitutional questions that will almost certainly land before the Supreme Court, which itself has been under sustained attack by Netanyahu’s government. (Many of Netanyahu’s cabinet ministers declare that they do not recognize the court’s president, Yizthak Amit, seeing him as too activist — or too liberal.)
A decade ago, precipitating a crisis like this would have drawn immediate condemnation from the U.S. government. But today, the world’s leading democracy is embroiled in its own institutional struggles. When Americans look at Israel and Israelis look at the U.S., it is increasingly difficult to say which democracy’s norms have eroded more — and which country’s leader is more authoritarian in inclination.
Trump has shattered long-standing expectations about how a leader should behave, and Netanyahu appears to be following the same path, testing the limits of the system at every turn. In Israel those limits — so far — have largely held. If Netanyahu succeeds, it will be a major, Trump-like victory in his long campaign to erode Israel’s democracy.
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