Benny Begin, ex-minister and son of Likud founder, warns government is ending democracy
Son of late prime minister Menachem Begin writes that government ‘does not want to govern, but to rule without limits,’ urges early elections to halt ‘destructive process’
Benny Begin, son of the Likud party’s iconic founder and former prime minister Menachem Begin, warned Sunday that the current Likud-led government is seeking a regime that is not democracy, and called for early elections to end the “destructive process.”
In a Hebrew-language post to his Facebook page, Begin panned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition for its decision of no confidence in Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, made earlier in the day, saying the move “testifies that this government does not want to govern, but to rule — to rule without limits and without wisdom, a new and dangerous regime, whose name is not yet known, but will not be democracy.”
The cabinet’s decision to move to fire Baharav-Miara came after last week it voted to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet security service Ronen Bar. Both moves have sparked public outcry and demonstrations and will both be contested in the High Court of Justice. Critics have also claimed that Netanyahu has a conflict of interest in firing the Shin Bet head, due to the security agency’s ongoing investigation into allegedly unlawful ties between close aides to Netanyahu and Qatar.
Netanyahu has cited a lack of trust in Bar as the reason for wanting him out, and the government accuses Baharav-Miara of repeatedly thwarting its legislation.
Begin, 82, recalled how, nearly a decade ago, he warned Netanyahu that his policies were “deteriorating” the situation in the country.
For several years a minister under Netanyahu, Begin recalled that in May 2016 the latter asked him to again join his coalition but he declined. He told Netanyahu at the time that his government would seek to legislate “bad laws.”
He stressed that he had fond memories of working with Netanyahu in government. “But I did not foresee the depths of the deterioration,” Begin wrote, citing “the continuous, deliberate harm to the Supreme Court and the government decision today, in the midst of war, to push out the attorney general.”
“One of its hallmarks is accusing opponents of being conspirators on a delusional mission for the ‘deep state,’ and even Netanyahu has recently resorted to this,” he wrote, referring to a social media post last week from the prime minister in which he charged that “the leftist Deep State weaponizes the justice system to thwart the people’s will.”
Begin urged early elections, saying: “This destructive process will be stopped by the voters’ ballot that will be cast in the ballot box on the public’s day of judgment.”
Begin has previously criticized the government over its wide-reaching plan to overhaul the judiciary, a process that critics have warned would dangerously erode the democratic character of the country.
In February 2023, as the government was attempting to push ahead with the process, he took part in a protest against the plan outside the Knesset.
At the time he said there was nothing left of his father’s vision in the Likud party.
Begin, who retired from politics in 2022, had already quit Likud and jumped to the breakaway New Hope party.
The Times of Israel Community.