On Wednesday, after Israeli forces intercepted a protest flotilla headed to Gaza and brought the participants to an Israeli port, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Israeli minister of national security, posted a video on social media. The short clip shows the far-right politician taunting the detainees with nationalist slogans as the handcuffed prisoners are forced to kneel. One activist shouts “Free Palestine!” and is pushed to the ground by security personnel. “This is how we receive supporters of terror,” Ben-Gvir posted.
The latest provocation by Ben-Gvir proved something that many Israelis have suspected for years: Ben-Gvir is not merely a nightmare for Israeli liberals, but the fulfillment of the fantasies of Israel’s enemies. He provides them with precisely the ammunition they need to argue, time and again, that Israel, in its fight against Hamas and Hezbollah, is the aggressor, and a cruel one at that. Ben-Gvir is a gift to the terrorist groups and the countries that seek Israel’s destruction. The flotilla activists did not actually plan to “break the siege” of Gaza, as they claimed. They wanted to provoke Israeli authorities and document their reaction. In their wildest fantasies, they could not have imagined that the Israeli official in charge of the country’s police would fulfill their hopes by posting videos humiliating and taunting them. And they must be equally delighted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pathetically restrained reaction.
In February 2021, on the eve of parliamentary elections, Netanyahu declared that Itamar Ben-Gvir “is unfit” to serve as a minister in the government, adding “his positions are not mine.” Netanyahu lost that election, and Naftali Bennett became prime minister. But after Netanyahu won the next election, in November 2022, his views on Ben-Gvir suddenly evolved, and he appointed this previously unfit man to his cabinet. As absurd and outrageous as that appointment sounded in the early days of the “full-right government,” it has turned out far worse than anyone could have predicted.
Placing Ben-Gvir in charge of the police and prison services was akin to appointing an arsonist to run the fire department—which, incidentally, also falls under his authority.
[Michael W. Sonnenfeldt: The challenge for American Jews]
Ben-Gvir, in addition to being an authoritarian racist, is a bona fide criminal. He has been found guilty in Israeli courts of eight offenses, including rioting, obstructing a police officer, incitement to racism, possession of propaganda material for a terrorist organization, and support for a terrorist organization.
For decades, Ben-Gvir operated on the extreme fringes of Israeli politics. Raised by Iraqi Jewish parents in a secular home, he became religious at age 12 and a few years later joined the Kach movement, later designated in Israel as a terrorist organization. He never served in the Israeli military, disqualified by his membership in Kach. In October 1995, he gained national notoriety when he ripped the hood ornament off then–Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s Cadillac and declared, “Just like we got to this emblem, we’ll get to him, too.” Weeks later, Rabin was assassinated by the far-right extremist Yigal Amir.
Over the ensuing years, Ben-Gvir continued his provocations. He participated in demonstrations against Jerusalem’s Pride parade; hung a portrait in his home of the Meir Kahane supporter Baruch Goldstein, who murdered 29 Palestinian worshippers in the 1994 massacre at the Cave of the Patriarchs; and repeatedly inflamed tensions surrounding the Temple Mount. In May 2021, after being elected to Parliament, Ben-Gvir established a makeshift office in a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, enraging local residents.
And it was this man whom Netanyahu chose to appoint as minister of national security. Since his installation, the national security of Israeli citizens has steadily deteriorated. With Netanyahu’s tacit approval, Ben-Gvir has worked to transform the police into a kind of political militia operating on his behalf, often against opponents of the government. Ben-Gvir involves himself in the appointment not only of senior police officers but also of lower-ranking positions. Every appointment at the rank equivalent to commander in the U.S. military requires his approval, and he personally interviews candidates. Haaretz previously reported that Ben-Gvir’s wife, Ayala, was involved in the removal of Tel Aviv District Commander Ami Eshed because he had not used sufficient force against anti-government protesters.
[Daniel B. Shapiro: Smirking past the gallows]
As a result, Israelis’ sense of personal security continues to erode while the police fixate on targeting left-wing activists and backing far-right activists who harass anti-government demonstrators. The murder rate reached a new high in Israel over the past year, as did youth violence. And settler violence has surged to frightening levels amid the paralysis and indifference of the police force. As a matter of policy, the police routinely ignore violent attacks carried out by settlers against Palestinian civilians. Many of these incidents end in the deaths or injuries of Palestinians at the hands of armed settlers.
And Netanyahu? He looks away. He is silent about Ben-Gvir because he’d rather keep him at his side rather than turn him into an enemy—even when he knows the damage this causes to Israel, even when Israeli citizens themselves are harmed. After the October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel by Hamas and the kidnapping of 251 people to Gaza, Ben-Gvir took a series of inflammatory measures that worsened conditions for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Ronen Bar, the former chief of Israel’s domestic intelligence service, the Shin Bet, warned Ben-Gvir that these actions were harming the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, even exposing them to severe physical abuse. Bar asked him to stop. Ben-Gvir ignored the warning. So did Netanyahu. When Israeli hostages were later released from Gaza, several described how they had been brutally beaten and tortured while Hamas captors told them: “This is because of Ben-Gvir.”
In any functioning democracy, a prime minister or president would dismiss a minister like Ben-Gvir. In the Israel of 10 or 20 years ago, a man like Ben-Gvir would never be allowed near the cabinet room. The fact that this racist thug has been handed policing power by Netanyahu says more about the state of Israel’s democracy and political values—and in particular about the prime minister’s values—than many Israelis might like to admit. But our prime minister is someone for whom political survival consistently takes precedence over the good of the country. It is safe to assume that he will allow Ben-Gvir to continue to light the country on fire to advance his hateful goals.
The post Israel’s Human Wrecking Ball appeared first on The Atlantic.
