Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not even completed the process of assembling his new government, he and his partners are already preparing for a dramatic change in the legal system. The all-out war against the Supreme Court that began in Netanyahu’s previous term and was led by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked continues. This war of words may well slide into popular revolt. And while the opposition parties are organizing a large demonstration bearing the name of “Defensive Shield for Democracy,” the prime minister and his ministers have opened a front against former senior defense officials.

The right-wing war against the Supreme Court was designed to pave the way for an override clause and Netanyahu's immunity legislation. Similarly, the right's verbal assaults on former senior security officials are designed to lead to annexation of the West Bank by the new government that is expected to take shape in the coming week.

The Commanders for Israel's Security (CIS) movement has been very active the past few months warning the Israeli public against the talk of annexation. The movement, founded in October 2014 as a spontaneous initiative by a number of high-ranking officers in the reserves, first called on Netanyahu to adopt the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative as a basis for diplomatic-security negotiations and jump-start the diplomatic process with the Palestinians. This, of course, never took place but later, when the two-state solution crashed, the movement's goals changed. Hundreds of former high-ranking officers joined the group from all sectors of the security system: the Israel Defense Forces, the Mossad, the Shin Bet and the police.

Last December, when the annexation plot was thickening, the CIS movement ran billboards with the slogan, “The time has come for a divorce from the Palestinians.” Based on their research, CIS members warned that if Israel decides to pursue annexation — even only involving the West Bank's Area C — it would lead to “cessation of security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority and, most probably, to [the PA’s] demise and an outbreak of violence on the territory [that would necessitate] the re-conquering of Areas A and B including the 2.6 million Palestinians living there. This would not be from choice but from security constraints.”