WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The biggest strategic threat currently facing the Zionist regime is the deterioration in its foreign relations, particularly with the United States, mainly due to the new cabinet’s attempts to weaken the judiciary, a leading Israeli security think tank has warned.
Every year, the Institute for National Security Studies releases a report detailing what it deems to be the greatest threat the occupying regime is facing. In previous years the renowned institute, affiliated with Tel Aviv University, has cited Iran, the war in Syria, and Hezbollah resistance movement’s precision missile project.
This year, its annual assessment, warned that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet may take measures that will be perceived by the West as damaging, which could endanger the occupying regime’s relations with Washington and its security in the long run.
The report said the regime’s attempts to make changes to the judicial system will increase polarization within the occupied territories, consequently weakening resilience - “a critical component in Israel’s ability to cope with external threats”.
In early January, the new cabinet, the most right-wing in the regime’s history, laid out plans to overhaul the judicial system.
If implemented, the so-called reforms are expected to weaken the judiciary, which Netanyahu and his coalition of far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties accuse of advancing a left-wing agenda through key court rulings.
The plan, which has sparked massive protests in Tel Aviv and Al-Quds, would also leave the door open for the regime to quash corruption charges Netanyahu is facing.
Meanwhile, tensions between the judiciary and the regime have escalated in recent days following a supreme court ruling that disqualified Aryeh Deri, a cabinet minister, from holding political office over past criminal convictions.
Deri is one of Netanyahu’s closest and most experienced allies and played a central role in his return to power.
The INSS report said the judicial crisis and attempts to pass laws pose a significant risk to the regime’s foreign ties and its relations with western countries.
In the short term, it added, this imperils security and western-Zionist regional interests.
Tamir Hayman, the managing director of INSS, said 2023 poses a host of challenges to the regime in the region.
The report said this could be Netanyahu’s most significant political challenge, and warned that any damage to relations with Washington would “directly impact Israel’s management of other fronts”.