A day after the Supreme Court’s bombshell ruling overturning the judicial overhaul’s reasonableness law, MK Zvika Fogel of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party equated the court with terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Fogel, who serves as head of the Knesset’s National Security Committee and who has made bellicose statements in the past, wrote: “First we’ll destroy Hamas, then we’ll take care of Hezbollah, and for dessert, we’ll sort things out at the Supreme Court. Each in its own time. Patience” (emphasis in original).

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, the head of Fogel’s Otzma Yehudit party, briefly “liked” the post before undoing the action. But he defended his colleague, asserting that anyone who thought Fogel was comparing the High Court to the terror organizations “needs to work on their reading comprehension.”

On Monday, the Supreme Court repealed the so-called “reasonableness law” in an 8-7 decision. This amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary, passed by the Knesset in July, is the only significant piece of legislation from the coalition’s judicial overhaul package made into law. It barred all courts, including the High Court, from deliberating on and ruling against government and ministerial decisions based on the judicial standard of reasonableness.

Right-wing lawmakers, including Ben Gvir and the head of the National Religious Party, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, as well as Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who spearheaded the legislative overhaul, lashed out at the court.

Levin said the court demonstrated “the opposite of the spirit of unity required these days for the success of our soldiers on the front.” He added that the government “will continue to act with restraint and responsibility” so long as the military campaign against Hamas in Gaza is in progress, indicating that the government’s response might wait until after the war is over.

Smotrich told the Ynet new site that the ruling again spotlighted the court’s “sad” detachment from the reality on the ground as Israel fights a war against Hamas in Gaza, with those who protested for and against the overhaul together in the trenches, not wanting to “return to October 6,” when divisiveness was rife.

“The court cannot sit in its ivory tower” and divide the war-torn country, he said.

Fogel’s post sparked intense condemnation on social media and by public figures.

At the same time, contentious remarks by former head of the Shin Bet Carmi Gillon were also under scrutiny. In his comments, widely reported Tuesday though they were made in late October at a speaking event, Gillon compared the zeal of the religious right to global terror organizations and insinuated it would use similar methods.

“There is a political right that wants to take over the lives of all Israeli citizens through tried and true methods — just like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and like ISIS and like Hamas, and like the Iranian Revolution under Khomenei — to take over everyone’s lives,” Gillon, also a former ambassador to Denmark, said in a newly released recording from that event.

Head of the National Unity party Benny Gantz condemned both Fogel’s and Gillon’s statements, saying the comparisons they had drawn were “despicable,” shameful” and a “moral abomination.” Said Gantz: “Division, incitement and violent and despicable discourse have no place in Israeli society anymore.”

Tuesday’s X post was hardly Fogel’s first recent foray into inflammatory speech: At a Knesset hearing at the end of November over a bill that would impose the death penalty on terrorists, Fogel told relatives of hostages who objected to the legislation that they were “representing Hamas” and not the interests of the State of Israel.

In February of 2023, the former Israel Defense Forces brigadier general gave his unambiguous backing to Jewish rioters who rampaged through the town of Huwara hours after two Israeli brothers were killed by Palestinians in a terror attack there, saying: “A closed, burnt Huwara — that’s what I want to see.” Police summoned the lawmaker in March for questioning as part of a probe into alleged incitement to terror.