'Jews will kill Jews': Israel's top politicos warn of impending civil war
Netanyahu’s war is not just on Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Iraq – it is on Israel's own institutions, opposition parties, and the last shreds of internal dissent. Now, the occupation state's most senior political veterans are warning of a full-on Civil War.
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims to be leading his people to “total victory,” aimed at “changing the face of the Middle East,” he is instead steering the state into autocracy and fueling a domestic collapse.
“We are preparing for the next stages of the war – on seven fronts,” stated the Israeli premier back in early March, prior to abandoning the Gaza ceasefire. Yet he overlooked the internal battleground brewing at home – one with no clear exit.
Simultaneously on trial for corruption, Netanyahu has worked to centralize authority by purging dissent and placing government structures under personal control. This has escalated tensions with Israel’s intelligence community and military establishment, igniting internal unrest that rivals the external war fronts.
A judicial coup
Before the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October 2023, Netanyahu’s ruling coalition had pushed hard for judicial “reforms” aimed at neutering Israel’s Supreme Court. With no formal constitution, Israel relies on the Supreme Court as a final check on executive overreach. Dismantling this institution was a central goal for Netanyahu and his far-right allies.
At the time, President Isaac Herzog was already warning that a civil war was approaching. Weekly protests erupted in Tel Aviv and occupied Jerusalem. Demonstrators feared a theocratic redefinition of the state that would erase its secular character.
Even Israeli intelligence and military personnel joined in opposition, and in March 2023, the Histadrut – the occupation state’s top labor union – endorsed a general strike. Many soldiers even refused to serve.
Though the war on Gaza temporarily sidelined this internal crisis, Netanyahu swiftly revived his power grab once public scrutiny shifted, blaming intelligence chiefs for operational failures while reinstating his purge of rivals.
Power consolidated through crisis
The Israeli judicial reforms, which split Israeli society down the middle in 2023, were aimed at curbing the powers of the Supreme Court. Israel has no Constitution and instead modeled its system on that of the previous British Mandate and Ottoman forces governing Palestine.
The Supreme Court had therefore long stood as a means of preventing politicians in ruling coalitions from fundamentally changing the nature of the State, acting as a balancing force for the government.
Netanyahu’s proposed amendments to this system, more accurately described as an overhaul of the judiciary, would enable his coalition to re-legislate laws, influence how Supreme Court justices are chosen, and drastically limit the powers wielded by the court to strike down laws.
An example of this was the “reasonableness bill,” initially passed in July 2023, that sought to prevent the Supreme Court from cancelling government decisions deemed “extremely unreasonable.”
In all, the Israeli far-right coalition government, composed of extremist religious parties, was perceived as seeking to utilize the judicial overhaul to usher in a series of laws that would make Israel a theocratic state.
Naturally, many Israelis within the army, intelligence agencies, political parties, and financial elite were worried about such foundational changes to the nature of their country and its institutions, thus triggering the robust backlash against Netanyahu.
At the beginning of the genocidal war on Gaza, Israel had formed an emergency war government, which included a range of senior officials from across the political divide. Left in shock by the sudden defeat of Israel’s Southern Command and fixated on what was to follow, the legal reform issue sank into irrelevance for some time.
However, tell-tale signs suggested the domestic crisis was not over, as Netanyahu quickly jumped to blame his own intelligence community leaders for the 7 October failure, triggering infighting that his belated apology could not contain.
By June 2024, opposition figure Benny Gantz and former military chief Gadi Eisenkot had resignedfrom the cabinet, collapsing the fragile unity government. This cleared the path for Netanyahu to reassert his power agenda – first initiated under the guise of judicial reform.
In November 2024, fellow fugitive defense minister Yoav Gallant, who had repeatedly clashed with Netanyahu, was forced to resign. He was replaced by Israel Katz, a long-time loyalist with limited experience. Meanwhile, former rival Gideon Saar was brought in as foreign minister – a strategic co-opting of dissent.
Reshaping Israel’s command
That same month, two senior aides to the Israeli prime minister were indicted for compromising state security by funneling classified informationdirectly to Netanyahu and bypassing official channels. These revelations stemmed from the so-called “Bibi Files” scandal – a trove of damaging material suppressed for months under a gag order imposed on Israeli media.
According to Haaretz, “Netanyahu’s inner circle is up to its neck in investigations.” The report detailed how the prime minister insulated himself from direct liability through a tightly controlled layer of loyalists, creating what the outlet described as “a zone of immunity for himself – a layer of aides and advisors who separate him from the latest suspicions.”
With Shin Bet’s inquiries confined to selective leaks and the Israeli police effectively neutralized by the looming shadow of extremist, right-wing Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Netanyahu has remained untouchable. Ben Gvir had briefly stepped down during the lull in Gaza operations, only to reappear as Netanyahu’s standoff with Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar reignited.
Amid this institutional deadlock, Netanyahu handed responsibility for ceasefire and prisoner negotiations with Hamas to his close confidant Ron Dermer. The move stripped Israel’s Mossad and Shin Bet of their traditional roles in such talks, effectively turning the prime minister’s office into the epicenter of all high-stakes diplomatic engagement. It marked a quiet coup – Netanyahu’s latest maneuver to concentrate power.
He then replaced the outgoing military chief of staff with Eyal Zamir, a long-time ally who previously served as his military secretary. Upon taking office, Zamir initiated sweeping personnel changes in the Israeli army’s high command, restructuring it to better align with Netanyahu’s “seven-front” war doctrine.
Not long after, army spokesperson Daniel Hagari – one of the few public officials to retain widespread trust – was pushed out. Hagari had clashed with the prime minister during the war in Gaza. By November 2023, polls showed just four percent of Israelis trusted Netanyahu, while 73.7 percentplaced confidence in Hagari. Despite ongoing hostilities, the spokesperson’s popularity remained consistent – ultimately sealing his political fate.
The intelligence war
On 21 March, Netanyahu attempted to sack Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, intensifying his power struggle with domestic intelligence chiefs. The dismissal – issued amid growing scrutiny over the “Bibi Files” leak scandal – sparked mass protests and was temporarily blocked by the Supreme Court.
Bar, for his part, has argued that his dismissal was not ordered on legitimate grounds, yet the government has stated a “lack of trust, one which doesn’t create the space for a productive work environment,” was indeed grounds for firing the intelligence chief.
Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara later ruled that the firing of Bar constituted a “conflict of interests,” leading to her own dismissal. In response, the chairman of the Israeli Bar Association, Amit Becher, demanded that Justice Minister Yariv Levin halt the sacking process.
Bar’s ousting coincided with the resurfacing of the “Qatargate” scandal, first reported by Haaretzjournalist Bar Peleg. The affair centered on Netanyahu aides allegedly paid to run a pro-Qatar PR campaign while working inside the PM’s office – yet another sign of corruption eating away at the state’s core.
When the Supreme Court stepped in to delay Bar’s firing, it reignited anti-court rhetoric among Netanyahu’s far-right coalition. The long-running campaign to neuter Israel’s judiciary was back on the agenda.
Road to authoritarianism
Netanyahu’s strategy is now clear: purge dissent, install loyalists, and consolidate power through chaos. As Israeli journalist Uzi Baram puts it, there is a “battle for Israel’s soul.” Former PM Ehud Olmert issued an even graver warning, predicting that “hooligans,” emboldened by Netanyahu’s rhetoric and armed by Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, may soon storm television studios just as they have threatened the judiciary.
“Slowly and quietly,” warned another former prime minister, Ehud Barak, “Netanyahu is leading Israel to the point of no return. The point of democratic collapse will come without us being able to predict it in advance – and at a point when we can no longer stop it.”
Opposition leader and former PM Yair Lapid is now warning of political assassinations inside Israel. Last week, he warned ominously:
“I now want to issue a warning based on unequivocal intelligence information: We are on the way to another disaster. This time it will come from within. The levels of incitement and madness are unprecedented. There will be political murder here. Jews will kill Jews,”
Meanwhile, around 100,000 Israeli reservists arerefusing to show up for duty. The broader public mood reflects deep unease – according to Maariv, 60 percent of Israelis now believe civil war is a real danger.
Hundreds of Mossad veterans, army reservists, and ex-officials have signed a letter demanding a prisoner exchange with Hamas. It is a last-ditch effort to arrest the descent into authoritarianism. Netanyahu's loyalists are issuing orders to fire these veterans.
As war rages abroad, Netanyahu’s fiercest battle is now at “home” – against the very institutions that once defined the occupation state.
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