The Erosion and Politicization of the Israeli Security Agencies’ Neutrality Ethos

Until recent years, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shin Bet) enjoyed the highest levels of public trust and were widely regarded as institutions transcending politics. Both organizations adhered to an ethos requiring that those in uniform refrain from any political activity and that their upper echelons remain fully subordinate and loyal to the political leadership. The upheavals that Israel has experienced since early 2023 — the government-initiated judicial “reform” or “coup,” and, later that year, the war that erupted on October 7 — have profoundly undermined this ethos. This erosion can be attributed to three main developments. First, retired senior military officers assumed a prominent role in leading and participating in the protest movement against the judicial overhaul and, by extension, the government itself. The political leadership and many of its supporters interpreted this as evidence that the senior officer corps had long been politically predisposed, even while in active service. Second, many Israelis, encouraged by the rhetoric of government officials, found it difficult to accept that the state had been caught so unprepared for Hamas’s assault on October 7. This disbelief gave rise to conspiracy theories alleging that the security agencies had deliberately withheld information from political leaders, particularly from the prime minister, and, in some cases, even collaborated with the enemy. Third, during the later stages of the Gaza war, many in the opposition became convinced that the IDF’s operational decisions served the government’s political agenda rather than military imperatives. Consequently, as numerous surveys indicate, trust in the IDF and the Shin Bet now largely mirrors citizens’ political orientations, signalling a troubling transformation in their public image from national to politically biased institutions.