How Benjamin Netanyahu reshaped Israel’s institutions

As Israel heads to the polls on October 27, its polarising and longest-serving prime minister is seeking re-election.

How Netanyahu reshaped Israel after 18 years in power

To his supporters, he is known as “King Bibi”; but to his opponents, he is the king of security failures and corruption.

Disputes over names aside, what is not in question is that Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has left his mark on the country’s institutions, politics and social attitudes during a decades-long career that has been defined by Israel’s lurch to the right.

list 1 of 3 The kingmakers who could determine Israel’s election

list 2 of 3 Hegseth meets Netanyahu on unannounced Israel visit

list 3 of 3 Trump backs Netanyahu: Is the US planning a new Iran attack with Israel?

As he seeks re-election in Israel’s October 27 polls, analysts say his most enduring domestic legacy may be the right-wing, militaristic opposition that he has helped create and now faces.

Born in 1949, Netanyahu entered Israel’s central political stage in the early 1990s by fuelling anger at possible peace deals with the Palestinians and Syria.

Israeli political leaders have accused him of leading incitement that motivated the 1995 assassination of then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was leading negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization, by an ultranationalist Israeli. Netanyahu had led rallies in which participants depicted Rabin in a Nazi SS uniform and held signs of him in the crosshairs of a gun, while others shouted “traitor”.

The Likud Party leader denies any responsibility, but former security officials have said they warned Netanyahu before the assassination and asked him to dial down his rhetoric, only for him to refuse, according to Israeli media reports.

In 1996, Netanyahu’s populist tactics succeeded at the ballot box, making him Israel’s youngest prime minister. Netanyahu’s transactional leadership style gave prominence to extreme-right and religious parties that are now an indispensable part of his right-wing alliance.

Under him, religious courts have expanded powers, including over civil and business disputes. State institutions accommodate religious agendas and allocate record levels of funding to ultra-Orthodox schools and institutions.

Netanyahu inscribed his political ideology, especially on the identity of the state and the status of Palestinian citizens of Israel, into law. In 2018, the Knesset passed the so-called Nation-State Basic Law , which states – among other things – that Israel is the exclusive state of the Jewish people and also makes advancing illegal settlements a national priority.

Human rights organisations in Israel petitioned the High Court to stop the legislation from going into effect, but the petition was rejected. International experts and rights groups cite this law, among others, as evidence of Israel committing the crime of apartheid in its treatment of Palestinians.

Netanyahu also re-engineered state institutions, including Israel’s security structures, appointing loyalists and political allies to senior positions. He also clashed with security chiefs that he deemed antagonistic. And in the aftermath of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack, which triggered Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu deflected blame and responsibility on the security establishment, prompting Ronen Bar, who was the Shin Bet chief in 2023, to sue him for defamation.

People protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed judicial reforms to reduce powers of the Supreme Court, in Tel Aviv, Israel on February 25, 2023 [File: Ilan Rosenberg/Reuters]

A major change to Israeli institutions that was spearheaded by Netanyahu during his 19 on-and-off years in power affected the judiciary, which is examining lingering corruption charges that could see him serve time in prison if he is convicted. Netanyahu, who is up against three separate cases of corruption filed in 2019, denies any wrongdoing.

Under his leadership, the Knesset adopted legislation that changed the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee to ensure greater political influence for the governing coalition.

Netanyahu called it “judicial reform” to stop what he often calls a “judicial dictatorship” ruling over elected officials.

Opponents called it a “coup” that sparked wide-scale protests : a push to curtail the independence of the High Court and give politicians influence over the courts and ministerial legal advisers.

In line with his efforts to subvert independent oversight, Netanyahu tried repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, to fire the attorney general.

But he succeeded in dismissing the military’s advocate general for leaking a video of Israeli soldiers gang-raping a Palestinian detainee. The soldiers were also released and cleared of charges.

At the same time, Netanyahu is dogged by corruption cases dating back to 2019, which could see him serve time in prison if convicted

The prime minister, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes in Gaza, says his work is not over. He promises his supporters he will complete the overhaul of judicial review and press on with other highly controversial policies.

Netanyahu’s supporters and allies view him as a leader who delivers, and one who achieved what others could not. His opponents pledge to undo the damage Netanyahu caused over the past decades, pointing to corruption, social divisions and increasing international isolation as outcomes of his rule.

But undoing such formative changes, many of which are now law, may be easier said than done.

以色列将于 10 月 27 日举行大选，该国极具争议且任期最长的总理正在寻求连任。

内塔尼亚胡执政18年后如何重塑以色列

他的支持者称他为“比比国王”；但他的反对者则称他为安全失职和腐败之王。

撇开人名之争不谈，毋庸置疑的是，以色列任期最长的总理本杰明·内塔尼亚胡，在其长达数十年的政治生涯中，对以色列的制度、政治和社会态度产生了深远的影响，而以色列的政治生涯也以向右翼的急剧转变而著称。

名单 1/3：可能决定以色列大选结果的“造王者”

列表 2/3：赫格塞斯在未事先宣布的以色列之行中会见了内塔尼亚胡

列表 3/3 特朗普支持内塔尼亚胡：美国是否正计划与以色列联手对伊朗发动新的袭击？

分析人士表示，在他寻求在10月27日以色列大选中连任之际，他留给国内最持久的政治遗产可能是他帮助创建并现在与之对抗的右翼军事反对派。

内塔尼亚胡出生于 1949 年，在 20 世纪 90 年代初，他煽动民众对以色列可能与巴勒斯坦人和叙利亚达成和平协议的愤怒，从而进入了以色列的政治中心舞台。

以色列政治领导人指责内塔尼亚胡煽动了1995年时任总理伊扎克·拉宾遇刺事件。当时拉宾正领导着与巴勒斯坦解放组织的谈判，行凶者是一名极端民族主义以色列人。内塔尼亚胡曾组织集会，参与者将拉宾描绘成身穿纳粹党卫军制服的形象，并举着将拉宾置于枪口十字准星中的标语，其他人则高喊“叛徒”。

据以色列媒体报道，利库德集团领导人否认对此事负有任何责任，但前安全官员表示，他们在暗杀事件发生前曾警告内塔尼亚胡，并要求他缓和言辞，但他拒绝了。

1996年，内塔尼亚胡的民粹主义策略在选举中取得成功，使他成为以色列历史上最年轻的总理。内塔尼亚胡的交易型领导风格使极右翼和宗教政党崭露头角，如今这些政党已成为他右翼联盟不可或缺的一部分。

在他的领导下，宗教法庭的权力不断扩大，甚至延伸至民事和商业纠纷领域。国家机构迎合宗教议程，并向极端正统派学校和机构拨付创纪录的资金。

内塔尼亚胡将他的政治意识形态，特别是关于国家认同和以色列巴勒斯坦公民地位的理念，写入了法律。2018年，以色列议会通过了所谓的《民族国家基本法》，该法除其他内容外，还规定以色列是犹太民族的专属国家，并将推进非法定居点建设列为国家优先事项。

以色列人权组织向最高法院请愿，要求阻止该法案生效，但遭到驳回。国际专家和人权组织援引该法案及其他法案，作为以色列在对待巴勒斯坦人方面犯下种族隔离罪行的证据。

内塔尼亚胡还重组了国家机构，包括以色列的安全机构，任命忠诚的支持者和政治盟友担任要职。他还与他认为敌对的安全部门负责人发生冲突。在2023年10月7日哈马斯领导的袭击事件之后，以色列对加沙地带的巴勒斯坦人发动了种族灭绝战争，内塔尼亚胡将责任推卸给安全机构，这导致时任以色列国家安全局（辛贝特）局长的罗南·巴尔以诽谤罪起诉他。

2023年2月25日，以色列特拉维夫，民众抗议总理本杰明·内塔尼亚胡提出的旨在削弱最高法院权力的司法改革方案。[图片：Ilan Rosenberg/路透社]

内塔尼亚胡在其断断续续执政的19年间，主导了以色列体制的重大改革，其中也包括司法系统。目前，司法系统正在调查针对他的长期腐败指控，一旦罪名成立，他可能面临牢狱之灾。内塔尼亚胡面临三起于2019年提起的腐败诉讼，但他否认有任何不当行为。

在他的领导下，以色列议会通过立法，改变了司法遴选委员会的组成，以确保执政联盟拥有更大的政治影响力。

内塔尼亚胡称之为“司法改革”，目的是阻止他经常所说的“司法独裁”对民选官员的统治。

反对者称之为“政变”，引发了大规模抗议：此举旨在削弱高等法院的独立性，并赋予政客对法院和部长级法律顾问的影响力。

为了破坏独立监督，内塔尼亚胡多次试图解雇司法部长，但均未成功。

但他成功地解雇了因泄露以色列士兵轮奸一名巴勒斯坦被拘留者的视频而受到指控的军方总检察长。涉事士兵也被释放并免于起诉。

与此同时，内塔尼亚胡还面临着一系列可追溯至2019年的腐败案件，如果罪名成立，他可能面临牢狱之灾。

这位因涉嫌在加沙犯下战争罪行而被国际刑事法院通缉的总理表示，他的工作尚未结束。他向支持者承诺，他将完成司法审查制度的改革，并继续推进其他极具争议的政策。

内塔尼亚胡的支持者和盟友视他为一位能干的领导人，一位成就他人未能企及之事的领袖。他的反对者则誓言要扭转内塔尼亚胡过去几十年造成的破坏，并指出腐败、社会分裂以及日益加剧的国际孤立都是他统治的恶果。

但要撤销这些影响深远的变革（其中许多现在已成为法律），说起来容易做起来难。