Itamar Ben-Gvir — The Terrorist Who Grew up Hating Arabs at the Head of the Israeli Ministry of Defense

The New Yorker published an article by Ruth Margalit in its upcoming February 27 edition in which she investigated the life and biography of Ben-Gvir, stating that no one offends liberal and centrist Israelis just like Itamar Ben-Gvir, who entered parliament in 2021 and leads a far-right party called Otzma Yehudit or Jewish Power.

Meir Kahane has long been the role model and ideological source of Ben-Gvir, the Brooklyn rabbi who moved to “Israel” in 1971 and, during one term in the Knesset, tested the country’s moral limits.

Ben-Gvir, 46, was convicted of at least eight charges, including supporting a terrorist organization and inciting racism, and amassed a criminal record so long that when he appeared before a judge, “we had to change the ink on the printer,” said Dvir Kariv, a former Shin Bet official.

As recently as last October, Netanyahu refused to share the stage with him or even appear with him in pictures, but a series of disappointing elections persuaded Netanyahu to change his mind.

 

The End of Democracy

Late last year, as the most right-wing government in the history of the Israeli Occupation was sworn in, a desperate joke circulated online: a photo that had been squared to resemble a captcha—a test designed to distinguish between human and computer—depicted members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

The correct answer included half of them. That was the message that has become typical for the center the left of “Israel” in recent years: “grim, cynical, ultimately resigned,” as described by The New Yorker.

A few weeks later, Netanyahu’s government introduced the first phase of judicial reform that would weaken the country’s Supreme Court and make the government largely immune to censorship.

In fact, right-wing lawmakers had put forward a similar measure before, but it was considered too extreme.

Netanyahu’s opponents say what has changed is that he is now charged, on trial, for providing political favors to tycoons in exchange for personal gifts and positive press coverage.

By removing restrictions on executive power, sweeping reform threatened to place “Israel” among illiberal democracies such as Hungary and Poland.

In an exceptionally sharp speech, the head of the country’s Supreme Court, Esther Hayut, called the project a “fatal blow” to democratic institutions.

Since then, tens of thousands of protesters have poured into the streets of Tel Aviv and other cities every Saturday, and one protester’s banner summed up the sentiment: “For sale: democracy. Model: 1948. No brakes.”

Netanyahu leads the Likud Party, a party defined by conservative and populist ideas.

Likud has long held hardline positions on national security, but its leaders have traditionally glorified the rule of law, maintained a balance of power, and supported free speech.

Netanyahu used to court centrist voters in an attempt to convince the undecided, but as peace talks with the Palestinians failed and religious nationalism gained strength, the Israeli left dwindled, and Netanyahu’s party became more radical.

Recently, a Likud MP introduced a proposal that would effectively bar many Arab politicians from running for parliament.

Protesters warn that Israeli headlines are beginning to become a guide for future authoritarian regimes; ministers appear to have been carefully selected to undermine the administrations they run; the new justice minister intends to undermine the judiciary, and the communications minister has reportedly threatened to stop funding the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, hoping to divert the money to a channel favorable to Netanyahu.

The Minister of Heritage described organizations representing Reform Jews as a “real danger” to Jewish identity.

 

Ben-Gvir’s Extremism

However, no one offends liberal and centrist Israelis like Itamar Ben-Gvir, who entered parliament in 2021 and leads a far-right party called Otzma Yehudit or Jewish Power.

Meir Kahane has long been the role model and ideological source of Ben-Gvir, the Brooklyn rabbi who moved to “Israel” in 1971 and, during one term in the Knesset, tested the country’s moral limits.

Israeli politicians seek to reconcile the identities of “Israel” as a Jewish and democratic state, and Kahane has argued that “the idea of a Jewish democratic state is nonsense.”

In his view, demographic trends will inevitably turn non-Jews in “Israel” into a majority, so the ideal solution is “immediate deportation of Arabs.”

For Kahane, Arabs were “dogs” who “must sit quietly or leave.” His speech was so violent that lawmakers on both sides used to leave the Knesset when he spoke, his Kach party was eventually barred from entering parliament in 1988, and Jewish Power is considered an ideological offshoot of Kach.

Ben-Gvir, 46, was convicted of at least eight charges, including supporting a terrorist organization and inciting racism, and amassed a criminal record so long that when he appeared before a judge, “we had to change the ink on the printer,” said Dvir Kariv, a former Shin Bet official.

As recently as last October, Netanyahu refused to share the stage with him or even appear with him in pictures, but a series of disappointing elections persuaded Netanyahu to change his mind.

 

Netanyahu’s Predicament

Netanyahu has been a dominant Israeli political figure for a generation, serving as prime minister for an unprecedented 15 years. But in 2021, he was sidelined by a parliamentary coalition that included for the first time an independent Arab party.

During last year’s election, Netanyahu returned with what a legal scholar described as an “aggressive form” to secure a successful coalition, organizing an alliance between Jewish Power and another far-right party called Religious Zionism.

The coalition won the third-largest share of seats in parliament, so drastically exceeding expectations that Netanyahu now faces the disturbing prospect of power-sharing with Ben-Gvir, a man whom former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert described as an imminent danger to “Israel” compared to a nuclear-armed Iran.

Instead of giving him an honorary job, Netanyahu appointed him as national security minister.

In “Israel,” the embattled left wing has stopped questioning whether a divisive person like Ben-Gvir can reach the highest levels of power. Instead, the question is: can it be contained?

When Ben-Gvir entered the government, he insisted that he had become more moderate, assuring a crowd that he no longer supported the idea of “killing Arabs,” and even two of his far-right mentors broke away from him over what they saw as unacceptable concessions.

Some of the far-right activists wear T-shirts with the logo “Notorious I.B.G.” (In one of his TikTok videos, which has been viewed 1.3 million times, he kicks a soccer ball that is suggested to represent Arab politicians. “I’m training kicking Ayman Odeh, Ahmed Tibi, and Mahmoud Abbas to Syria.")

But the dispute also helped Ben-Gvir in the election, as he can now reasonably claim that he no longer represents the far right of “Israel.”

Ben-Gvir became a lawyer in his mid-thirties, often demonstrating the ability to stay within the confines of the law. In 2015, he rebuked his followers to stop shouting “Death to Arabs” and instead chanting “Death to the terrorists,” explaining that this chant would be “legal with a stamp.”

“I’ve learned from him how to challenge the system without crossing a red line,” Raphael Morris, a hard-right activist who heads a movement called Return to al-Aqsa Mosque, told The New Yorker.

“[Ben-Gvir is] an extremist, but a pragmatic one. He knows how to walk between the raindrops.”