Lawmaker Tally Gotliv is apparently on her way out of Likud and into Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party — a move agreed on in principle though not finalized at time of writing. This is a defection driven not by ideology, but by a textbook case of political self-preservation.

Unfiltered and uninhibited as ever, Gotliv took the trouble to spell out in a Channel 14 interview on Tuesday why her apparently imminent departure from Likud to Ben Gvir’s far-right party is so urgent. “If, God forbid, Likud gets 19 seats, I’ll find myself in Shin Bet detention facilities,” Gotliv declared.

In other words, she has to jump ship to ensure that in the incoming 26th Knesset, she will be positioned to resubmit a request for parliamentary immunity from criminal prosecution. In her view, remaining in the No. 20 spot on the Likud slate leaves her at risk of finding herself outside the Knesset – an assessment that reflects a striking lack of confidence in Likud’s election day chances — and inside a high-security interrogation room.

In May 2026, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara delivered a copy of an indictment against Gotliv to the Knesset speaker, charging her with unlawfully revealing the identity of a covert Shin Bet officer who is the romantic partner of prominent anti-government protest leader Shikma Bressler. The offense, under the Shin Bet Law, carries a potential sentence of up to three years in prison.

Bressler was not any high-profile civilian; she served as the iconic driving force behind the massive 2023 mass demonstrations against the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul.

By targeting Bressler’s partner, Gotliv stoked a popular right-wing conspiracy theory that the “deep state” – specifically the Shin Bet and the military establishment – had covertly orchestrated the anti-government protests from behind the scenes. Outing a covert intelligence officer was a deliberate, illegal attempt to fabricate proof for that baseless narrative.

Because the allegations involve exposing an active intelligence operative, Gotliv faces severe national security charges rather than standard civil charges. This explains her ostensible horror at the prospect of finding herself in “Shin Bet detention facilities” – restricted interrogation centers designed for espionage and counter-terrorism suspects, where detainees can be held in isolation and denied access to legal counsel for days. It is a daunting prospect for a parliamentarian accustomed to broad legal privilege, though not a scenario she is actually likely to face, as I will explain lower down.

The concise indictment outlines how Gotliv exposed the officer’s name........

© The Times of Israel