An Israeli political analyst has issued a stark warning on Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is dismantling its own institutional machinery. 

Attila Somfalvi, a senior political analyst on Channel 13, said Netanyahu’s coalition is engaged in a deliberate effort to hollow out the regime's bodies and place them fully under political control. "What the government is doing is the systematic dismantling of Israeli institutions, weakening them, and turning them into bodies under political influence," he said, noting that this trend became even more apparent after October 7.

Instead of addressing the deep security and governance failures that led to the events of October 7, Somfalvi argues that Israeli leaders have chosen to undermine their own institutions. "Instead of dealing with security, officials continue to break Israeli institutions into pieces," he told the channel. He warned that "political influence has begun to reach key bodies, including the Israeli army, the Shin Bet, the police, the judicial establishment, the law enforcement authority, and others."

Somfalvi further detailed the extent to which Israeli politics has been consumed by attempts to centralize power, weaken judicial oversight, and politicize security agencies, warning that senior officials have increasingly resorted to intimidation tactics and public humiliation to silence institutional criticism.

Power Struggle

The institutional crisis he describes comes at a moment when Netanyahu is currently facing an ongoing corruption trial on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. He is also facing an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, which accuses him of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Inside "Israel," however, the warrant has barely shifted public opinion, with many Israelis adopting a bunker mentality that views international scrutiny as hostile and irrelevant compared to the occupation's internal turmoil since October 7.

Recent months have also seen high-profile clashes between Netanyahu’s circle and senior members of Israel’s security apparatus, including an unprecedented confrontation with the Shin Bet chief. Netanyahu’s push to remove Ronen Bar, a move the Supreme Court temporarily froze, deepened fears that the government is attempting to bend the internal security service to political will. Bar later resigned, warning that political interference was compromising professional decision-making. 

The turmoil surrounding the Shin Bet leadership has led many analysts to describe a widening power struggle over how far the government can go in restructuring state institutions to serve ideological and political priorities.

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