From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
In 2nd post against ‘deep state’ in hours, Netanyahu says bureaucrats think they ‘know better than the voters’
After his statement lambasting the “deep state” in Israel and the United States in the shadow of a probe of alleged Qatari payments to his advisers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posts a campaign-like social media video expanding on this.
רה״מ נתניהו (וטופז לוק) בסרטון חדש נגד ״הדיפסטייט״, כשברקע Unstoppable של סיה pic.twitter.com/jc3txQBJDU
— Suleiman Maswadeh סולימאן מסוודה (@SuleimanMas1) March 19, 2025
“They want me and the government to be a potted plant [and not do anything],” Netanyahu says, pointing to a plant in a Prime Minister’s Office corridor.
The cameraman — Netanyahu spokesman Topaz Luk — then asks the premier what the so-called “deep state” is.
“The deep state is the permanent bureaucracy that is barely replaced and sits deep in the Israeli government, and decides that it knows better than the voters,” he answers. “They always lean to the left. If a right-wing government is elected… they say, ‘What is democracy? Why should they make the decisions? Why should we care that you were elected? We make the decisions. And therefore, you can be elected, but you can’t really decide. You want to bring laws we don’t like? We’ll strike them down.'”
The clip, which features the song “Unstoppable” by Sia, then ends mid-sentence.
