Amit Segal, Channel 12's political commentator, gave a particularly heated interview to 103fm radio this morning (Wednesday) - which brought to the surface the simmering tension between the political echelon and legal advice.
In a pointed conversation with Gideon Oko and Amichai Atali, Segal provided a sharp analysis of the legal system's conduct regarding the appointment of the next head of the Mossad, attacked Gali Baharav's professional performance in Yara, and explained why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to buy time with the draft law, while waiting for a dramatic change in the Middle East.
The background to Segal's attack is the High Court of Justice ruling that ordered the Grunis Committee to re-discuss the appointment of Roman Gofman as head of the Mossad, and the strong opposition of the current Mossad head, Dedi Barnea, who warned that the appointment could endanger human lives. The interviewers challenged Segal and asked if such a harsh letter from a serving Mossad head shouldn't set off a red light.
Segal responded firmly: "If I am the Prime Minister and the head of the Mossad says something like that to me, it is definitely something I need to take into account.".
However, he claimed: "We have reached a situation where the State of Israel has a law for perpetuating institutions - that no person will be appointed without his predecessor in office deciding what will happen. Incidentally, Ronen Bar also tried to do this after he was fired and to actually determine who his successors are. In my opinion, this is something that is improper, inappropriate, and in a certain sense has brought us to where we are.".
Segal estimated that Goffman would indeed eventually be appointed to the position: "What the High Court of Justice actually did yesterday was severely reprimand, by the way, and with absolute justice, the committee that did not do its job. Really, 'you had one job,' it's not that complicated. It's not like Roman Goffman, he has 12 bribery cases and 7 breach of trust cases here. There is one puzzling, a bit strange event. Summon the boy who was supposedly manipulated. Summon the man who supposedly can shed light on the case, and you'll be done with this damn story. They did a bad job, so they'll have to convene again.".
He added: "The High Court of Justice has shown an unwillingness to step into the shoes of the committee, and is not supposed to examine the purity of character as the Attorney General expected it to do. Since the majority seems quite clearly in favor of the appointment, I would be very surprised if Roman Gofman would not be the head of the Mossad.".
Later in the conversation, Segal directed the fire of criticism directly at the head of the law enforcement system - Gali Baharav-Miara and her deputy Gil Limon - and claimed that their motives were completely political.
""There is no legal basis for this, the legal advisor knows that," said Segal, "Look at this legal advisor and her deputy Gil Limon, they are no longer interested in the law, it is, from their perspective, an excess. The rules are meaningless. We will write them and then cancel them, and then explain that it is not the same thing.".
Segal continued his harsh criticism, claiming that Behrav-Miara is acting out of political motives: "I'm just waiting for the next government, if the polls are correct and another government is formed, to see how that same Gali Behrav-Miara will explain why Zini can be fired and Goffman can be fired and that one can be ousted, because I have no doubt about one thing - that's exactly what she will do. She is currently in the position of head of the opposition of this government and she doesn't care.".
According to him, the legal conduct of the consultancy borders on blatant unprofessionalism: "All of you in the prosecutor's office get up in the morning, you have a law degree, you did an internship, you are there because you understand this. What, isn't there a single person there who is embarrassed? I'm not talking about the bias, I'm just talking about the legal performance. It's really embarrassing. Excuse me. It's a really embarrassing event to come to the High Court and set a historical precedent of a person losing to his client. I don't know of anyone like that. But that's our tragedy. Because the opposition in Israel is so weak and ineffective, and because Gali Bahar-Miara is in fact the opposition, so a politician like a politician, he gets applause from the base.".
If Netanyahu wants
In the first part of the conversation, Segal praised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's efforts to pass the conscription law despite fierce opposition.
""There is a growing appreciation that the law has a chance of passing," Segal stated. "Even if it passes, it will be by a very narrow majority. It must be said that the opposition to the law is a kind of strange coalition no less than the one that supports it. There is of course the opposition, there are those in the Likud and religious Zionism who think that this is a law exempting from conscription, and there are Goldknopf, Tesler and Porosh who think that this is a law that is doomed, that conscripts Torah students and will deal a death blow to the yeshiva world.".
Segal explained that Netanyahu is exerting heavy pressure on Knesset members to pass the law, but raised questions about his real motives: "In order to overcome this coalition, Netanyahu needs to personally exert pressure. That is exactly what he has been doing in recent days, to my understanding with considerable success. It is very difficult to resist the barrage of temptations and threats in a personal conversation with the Prime Minister.
""Why am I still putting a reservation? Because I'm not completely sure that Netanyahu is determined to pass the law. I mean, if Netanyahu wants to pass the law, I think he will pass it. But I don't know yet if he wants to or if he just wants to buy time to move the elections from September to October.".
Oko and Atali wondered why a delay of several weeks was so critical for the prime minister.
Segal explained that Netanyahu is counting on the collapse of the regime in Iran: "We are now in May. The elections, if they are in September, mean that in three and a half months, if the regime in Iran has not fallen, that means that the war in Lebanon has not ended either. That means that Netanyahu is coming to the elections when in the arena that should be his strongest, the achievements in the Seven Front War, he is at a relative low point. That means that even such a sour feeling of rounds never ends. The airlines are not coming back. The north, of course, continues to kidnap. Soldiers are unfortunately falling every week. On the other hand, if the regime has fallen, it is truly a change in the Middle East. Seven weeks is an eternity in the Middle East.".
When Atali assessed that Netanyahu hopes that "either the Fritz dies or the dog dies," Segal responded with humor: "Yes, in this case the dog and the dog's son. But yes, that is certainly also generally true. Netanyahu, with the exception of one very exceptional case, did not call early elections unless he had to. So he now has six weeks in real 'money time' of a war that began on October 7, 2023. We are in 2026 and he is playing for time.".
Will Netanyahu resign?
Finally, Segal was asked if there was a chance that Netanyahu would resign at the last minute in light of his position in the polls, his health condition, and the legal proceedings against him.
Segal replied: "The cemeteries are full of commentators who estimated that this is Netanyahu's last round, so I probably won't take that risk. I think the chance of that is very low. Maybe it's a little higher than it was, say, five years ago, but I still, until I see Netanyahu resign; until I see one of the prime ministers resign of his own free will while he still has a chance of being elected, none of them did it of their own free will or under good circumstances, they all resigned because they knew they had no chance or because their health condition made it impossible, or because they went to prison or ten other reasons. To think that Netanyahu will be the man to set this historic precedent? I don't think so.
""I would have retired, but I would have also hidden under the blanket when the Corona crisis started. You don't just get to be prime minister. It's truly an extraordinary motivation, a sickening arrival. That's true for everyone there. Even more so for someone who will mark the 30th anniversary of being elected prime minister for the first time next week and shows no signs of wanting to let go.".
Segal assessed: "Netanyahu is waiting for his pollster's data to see his situation. We must remember that even according to the poll that is most critical of him, the other side currently does not have a government that is stable, will last long, and will send Netanyahu to prison for years, as happened in Hungary.".
""Regarding the disease, I don't know what the situation is there. If you look at the official statements, the health situation was fine. The last thing is Iran. If we were after the fall of the regime, then the question would be more relevant. Now that all or some of the fronts are open and Iran hasn't fallen, it seems to me that it's a bit early.".
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