Rule of Law or a Circus? The Chasm Between Tali and Gali

"First Tali will speak, and then Gali will respond," Knesset Committee Chairman Ofir Katz opened yesterday’s debate on lifting the immunity of MK Tali Gottlieb, in a display of gender chauvinism. "Tali versus Gali," as though we were watching a mud fight between two girls, Tali and Gali. The debate held over the past two days drew new boundaries for Israeli parliamentarism. It summed up some of the contours of the regime overhaul and broadened the perspective on what awaits us if the Bibism-Kahanism coalition is elected again. The central message is that Gottlieb is the authorized and exclusive interpreter of the law, in this case the Immunity Law, not the attorney general, not the state attorney, not Supreme Court precedents. The idea that politicians in the coalition are above the law is a troubling extension of the notion of ministerial supremacy over the law, which is increasingly evident in the conduct of ministers Levin, Ben Gvir, Karhi and others. Now, members of Knesset as well.

Gottlieb, who was given the chance to fight for her immunity, was granted two invaluable gifts, unlimited and outrageous speaking time, and permission to hurl endless insults, filth and poison at the attorney general sitting opposite her, from accusing her of plotting to topple a right-wing government to covering up and protecting the internal treason of the Shin Bet. The fake treason claim took up a central place in Gottlieb’s defense speech, intended to convince the Knesset Committee not to strip her immunity. If she succeeds, she will not be prosecuted for exposing a senior Shin Bet official, the partner of Shikma Bressler. And why did she expose him? Because of his responsibility as the partner of a woman who, according to Gottlieb, encouraged refusal and incitement, which also weakened the state, also invited the murderous attack, and also hid this danger from the prime minister on the morning of October 7.

Gottlieb crucified the Shin Bet, staging a one-woman commission of inquiry, screaming in a tantrum and repeatedly echoing the conspiracy of internal treason. She received generous backing from committee chairman Katz, who presided over the circus-like delirium aimed at turning Gottlieb from the accused into the accuser, just as Netanyahu turned himself into that figure in his speech on the opening day of his trial. Gottlieb, like Netanyahu, points to the real defendants, not themselves, but the attorney general and the state prosecutors. And in both cases, the regime’s "indictments" begin with the leftist legal plot to topple a right-wing government. "I am a soldier of the people," Gottlieb testified about herself again and again, anointed with the oil of divine mission and chosen by providence to save the people of Israel from the malice of the judicial deep state. Just as God chose Moses, so He chose Tali, "I don’t need the applause," to save His people. Never before has such a dazzling mixture of megalomania and victimhood, arrogance and persecution, self-glorification and vilification of others been seen here. "It’s not me, it’s the people, the people are behind me, the people see you, you are a criminal organization," Gottlieb shouted at Baharav-Miara, who managed to keep her sphinx-like composure for long hours.

Baharav-Miara presented her position from the written material, narrowing the endless field that Gottlieb had opened into the narrow, fenced-off domain of a simple indictment, an intentional offense that falls far short of meeting the public and security interest in extending immunity to her. The attorney general explained that the Immunity Law was not intended to protect members of Knesset where its purpose is to protect a Shin Bet fighter, his life, his family and the information in his possession, the endangerment of which amounts to a threat to state security.

A chasm separates "Tali" from "Gali." The first speaks in the name of the eternal people persecuted by its enemies, from Hamas to the prosecution, and in the name of the monopoly granted to her as the sole interpreter of the state’s vital interests. By contrast, the second maneuvers between clauses, laws, the Shin Bet complaint and state security. Gottlieb echoes the front opened by Netanyahu against Ronen Bar and the Shin Bet by portraying them as the main culprits for the massacre, while Baharav-Miara seeks to protect the safety and security of the organization’s fighters from Gottlieb and Netanyahu, who seek to ride on their backs, she for her way to the party primaries, and he to remove guilt and responsibility from himself and, as usual, place them on others.