Gantz: 'What begins with words like this can end in blood'

Smotrich vows to ‘trample’ Supreme Court president in blistering attack

Judicial Authority, opposition lawmakers accuse far-right finance minister of incitement against Isaac Amit, whom he calls a ‘violent megalomaniac’

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich vowed to “trample” Supreme Court President Isaac Amit and called him a “violent megalomaniac,” in a scathing attack on Monday that drew widespread condemnation.

Speaking to reporters at the Knesset before a faction meeting for his Religious Zionism party, the far-right minister said that Amit “has an extreme lack of awareness, is doing things in the court that have never been done before, and the result is that we will trample him. There won’t be a choice.”

Amit, he said, was “a violent megalomaniac who is stealing Israeli democracy,” and vowed to “trample him.”

Smotrich added that while he wished he could reach a compromise with the court, “when one side becomes so extreme, it leaves you no option but to fight back with everything you’ve got.”

The minister has long supported his government’s attempts to curtail the powers of the judiciary and has repeatedly attacked the High Court and Amit specifically, often accusing them of undermining democracy when they were at odds with the government’s policies.

Amit is being boycotted by Justice Minister Yariv Levin as part of the wider judicial overhaul, which was launched in January 2023, soon after the government took office. The overhaul — which critics say it is an attempt to break down the system of checks and balances and undermine democracy — sparked massive public protests.

As part of the overhaul, Levin has also been seeking to oust Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, but was blocked by the High Court, which earlier this month voted unanimously to annul the government’s decision to fire her.

The court has also blocked or held up other recent government decisions on procedural or constitutional grounds, including, on Sunday evening, its move to shutter Army Radio.

Responding to Smotrich’s statements, the Judicial Authority, which represents the Supreme Court and the court system, said: “Statements expressing threats against judges are not part of a legitimate public debate. This is an extremely grave statement whose sole purpose is to intensify violent and inflammatory discourse against the judiciary and its head, and is all the more [severe] when the words are uttered by an elected official.”

The comments also drew criticism from opposition leaders, who warned that they constituted incitement to violence against the judge.

In a post on X, Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz wrote that Smotrich’s language “crosses a red line and is a new nadir in this coalition’s crazy attack against the justice system.”

“What begins with words like this can end in blood. Stop the madness!” he said.

Yesh Atid’s Major General (res.) Noam Tibon called for the Shin Bet to immediately review Amit’s security in the wake of the comments by Smotrich, whom he called “a pyromaniac with a microphone…inciting against a symbol of government.”

The leader of the left-wing Democrats party, Yair Golan, likened the government to “a criminal gang.”

“Smotrich, you will not pass the electoral threshold; what you have destroyed, we will fix this year,” he added, referring to repeated polling predicting that the far-right party will fail to enter the next Knesset in elections scheduled for October 2026.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, meanwhile, called for Smotrich’s comments “to be put into action,” and urged the government to openly defy rulings by the High Court.

“The time to act has long since arrived. We say no (!) to illegal orders from the High Court of Justice and save Israeli democracy,” Karhi wrote in a post on X.