By Avi Abelow, JNS
Netanyahu is finally in a position to dismantle the forces that have long sought to subvert the will of the electorate.
One of the most misunderstood and underreported significant developments in Israel’s war effort is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent decision to appoint Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer as the head of the ceasefire/hostage negotiations instead of the heads of the intelligence services.
This is far more than just a shift in personnel—it’s a seismic move against the Israeli deep state, which for years has been taking its orders from the U.S. foreign policy establishment.
Now, with Joe Biden out and Donald Trump actively and swiftly moving to dismantle the deep state in Washington, Netanyahu is finally in a position to do the same in Israel, something he was never able to do in all his previous years as prime minister.
(As an aside, Elon Musk recently explained beautifully and concisely the concept of the “deep state”—explaining that it refers to the unelected government and public sector careerists who direct the policy of a country despite the mandate from elected officials who represent the will of the people.)
For too long, the deep state in Israel has been undermining the will of the elected government, torpedoing senior and junior appointments and using crises to manipulate events in a way that serves foreign interests rather than Israel’s security and sovereignty as expressed by the will of the people in the voting booth.
This was most evident in the judicial reform protests before the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, where elites, backed by the Biden administration and foreign funding, sought to overturn the will of the Israeli electorate who voted for judicial reform.
It was also evident in the failures that led to the Oct. 7 tragedy, as the whole deep state establishment actively supported the IDF insurrection that motivated our Islamonaz*i enemies to launch their planned attack against a broken IDF.
In addition to all of that, the Israeli deep state placed constant roadblocks in Netanyahu’s efforts to conduct the war in a way that ensures true victory over our surrounding Islamonaz*i enemies, failing to implement a proper strategy according to the established war goals of the government, constantly pushing back against the war directives of the government and constantly leaking confidential information to the press that harmed the war efforts and the hostage negotiations.
As reported in Israel yesterday, a senior official familiar with the details of the prime minister's move regarding the head of the Shin Bet security service said:
"The achievement of securing the release of six of our hostages in one round, alongside the return of four fallen hostages tomorrow, is the result of the prime minister's decision to change the composition of the negotiating team.
"The new team changed the dynamics and led a true negotiation instead of mere concessions. It also put an end to the constant and biased briefings against the prime minister and the political leadership, which only emboldened Hamas to dig in and escalate its demands."
That is why I say that any analysis one has read in the media over the past few years about the judicial reform proposal, the war or the hostage situation that ignores the deep state’s influence in all those events from A to Z, is simply not trustworthy—it misses the real backstory driving events in Israel.
Enter Ron Dermer, a man who knows the American political system better than anyone else in Israel, second only to Netanyahu. Unlike opposition leader Yair Lapid, who sought to ingratiate himself with Washington’s deep state progressive elites, Dermer has a deep understanding of how the U.S. foreign policy machine works.
Dermer’s appointment means that Netanyahu is finally moving toward dismantling the deep state’s grip on Israel’s decision-making process.
His immediate goal is clear: dismantle Hamas and bring home as many hostages as possible, without being shackled by the sabotage of Israel’s bureaucratic elite.
By contrast, Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, who has been actively involved in leading the negotiations until now, is heavily connected to Israel’s deep state.
As hard as it is to internalize, many of Bar’s actions in this war and in the negotiations, were not about helping achieve victory and saving all of our hostages, but pushing for surrender to free the hostages, preventing Israel from being able to achieve a decisive victory.
It is important to understand that with all the holy work he has done over the years in the security services, Ronen Bar, more than anyone else, is personally responsible for the failure of the IDF to protect Israelis on Oct. 7.
According to reports in Israeli media, Bar knew about the invasion already at around 3 in the morning, and he sent special teams of Shin Bet agents to save senior officials in the communities on the Gaza border.
Not only did he not update the prime minister about the situation until 6:30, after the invasion had already begun, but he didn’t warn the IDF to wake up the soldiers and take their positions along the Gaza border fence to be prepared to prevent the invasion. The official explanation given by the Shin Bet is “they only thought it was going to be an attack on two communities with a few hostages taken.” This has been reported a number of times by reporter Ayala Hasson on Israel's Channel 11.
Can you imagine that despicable explanation? Only two communities and some hostages, so he didn’t warn the army or the prime minister?
And this is only one of the horrific failings of the intelligence service under Bar’s leadership that led to the devastating failure of Oct. 7.
He should have been fired on Oct. 8, but the deep state would have gone crazy, so he has remained in his position until today, and only now, after Trump’s win, does Netanyahu feel that he can replace him in the negotiations.
On the political front, Bar understood that surrendering to Hamas’s demands would destroy Netanyahu politically. The Shin Bet director's main allegiance was to a judicial elite and foreign-backed protest movement seeking to topple Netanyahu’s government.
Now let’s focus on the hostage protest movement.
If the hostage issue truly was the sole issue that mattered to the leaders of the protest movement, they would have been demonstrating to stop the aid to Hamas, protesting against the United Nations, UNRWA, the International Red Cross, Egypt, Qatar and Europe—all enablers of the Hamas atrocities with leverage to force Hamas to free our hostages. But no, since day one, they instead chose to direct their protests solely at the Israeli government, even promoting horrific claims such as that Netanyahu wants the hostages to die in Gaza for political reasons.
That tells you everything you need to know about their real agenda.
As long as Israel fails to achieve a complete victory, Netanyahu remains the convenient scapegoat. Full military success, despite the pushback from the heads of the military and the Shin Bet, would expose the failures of the military leadership, the security services and the deep state operatives who have mismanaged Israel’s defense for years, and mismanaged the war.
As sad as it sounds, that is why figures such as Ronen Bar and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Halevi have led the war in such a way that Israel would essentially need to surrender, with Hamas remaining in power in Gaza. That serves the interests of the deep state to weaken Netanyahu and his government.
Dermer, on the other hand, understands the strategic game, on both the geo-political front and the domestic front.
Slowly but surely, with the U.S. deep state now being dismantled by Trump, Netanyahu has taken his first step in dismantling the Israeli deep state and to replace it with leadership that serves the people of Israel, not foreign interests out to keep Israel under the control of the deep state.
Many on the right wish the process was happening faster, but it was never possible until Trump took office. And no other realistic prime minister option at the moment has the resilience that Netanyahu has to withstand the immense pressure of the leftist cult and the entrenched bureaucratic elites of the deep state.
Armchair critics may complain about Netanyahu, but navigating Israel’s survival in a region full of Islamonaz*i enemies, and through these treacherous internal waters as well, is no small task.
This is not just about war strategy. It’s about Israel’s future as a sovereign Jewish state, free from foreign manipulation and internal sabotage.
Netanyahu is steering the Jewish state of Israel toward safe shores, ensuring that Israel’s leadership is accountable to the Israeli people—not the unelected deep state apparatus that has worked against Israeli interests for far too long.
The noise from the deep state establishment and its media allies is just that—noise. It will fade into irrelevance as Netanyahu continues to dismantle their stranglehold on the country. The real story is unfolding behind the scenes, and it is a story of reclaiming Israel’s sovereignty from those who have sought to erode it. The deep state is finally being exposed and weakened.
That’s why Dermer’s appointment to lead the hostage talks is no mere administrative decision—it’s a pivotal moment in Israel’s battle for its independence from the forces that have long sought to control it from the shadows.
The next critical move Netanyahu must make is to replace the attorney general, who has repeatedly acted as an obstacle to the government rather than supporting it.
Instead of facilitating the government's policies and appointments, Gali Baharav-Miara has systematically blocked key decisions and legislative efforts. Instead of investigating confidential leaks of senior politicians (like Knesset member Gilad Kariv) and security officials who undermine the government, she concocts investigations against those helping the war effort; instead of investigating barbaric terrorists, she is investigating holy IDF soldiers; instead of helping the government pursue a policy to help our holy IDF soldiers protect us, she comes up with legal restrictions that stop our holy IDF soldiers from protecting us and themselves. And that is a short list of the problems caused by sabotage from our own justice system.
This isn’t just bureaucratic interference, it’s a direct subversion of the elected government’s mandate. Netanyahu must act now to ensure that legal counsel, and the whole justice system, is reformed to mete out justice and not continue pursuing its activist deep-state agenda.
