Former Israeli security chiefs to Herzog: Don't sign judicial reform into law
Ex-Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman's first public move since leaving the post was to condemn the Netanyahu government's judicial reform.
Nadav Argaman, the last Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief, made his first known public move on Thursday since retiring, signing on to a letter condemning the current government’s judicial overhaul plans.
The letter, from Commanders for Israel’s Security (CIS), representing over 400 former senior defense establishment officials, including former Mossad chiefs and top IDF officials, called on President Isaac Herzog to refuse to sign the current government’s initiative into law, should it pass the Knesset.
Argaman stepped down on October 13, 2021 after having served as director since May 2016 with overwhelmingly positive reviews.
Over 400 former security officials call on Herzog to act against reform
His spokesman declined to comment about why he chose this moment to break his public silence, but the letter was unsparing in its vehement criticism of the government’s plans to alter the legal establishment in revolutionary ways.
Although the president signing bills passed by the Knesset into law is generally considered an administrative formality, it is possible that Herzog could technically delay the law going into effect.
The Knesset could respond by removing the president’s signing power.
The CIS letter said Herzog himself had recognized that the judicial overhaul’s “harm to the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state” would be a source of “crying out to generations” of Israelis in despair.
Other top officials signed on the letter, included former Mossad chiefs Tamir Pardo and Danny Yatom, former police chief Shlomo Ahronishki, former IDF intelligence chief Aharon Zeevi Farkash, former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon, former National Security Council chief Uzi Arad and CIS director and IDF deputy chief Matan Vilnai.
Pardo said in an interview with KAN News on Wednesday that “Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] wants to cancel the trial and to continue as prime minister...The only thing he can do is to leave his position and enable his party to appoint someone in his place. If he wants the State of Israel to flourish, he needs to go home.”
Earlier this week, 12 former national security council chiefs, including four who worked for Netanyahu – one of whom was the most recent former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen – called on him to delay passing the law and to try to do so through compromise and dialogue with the opposition.
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