Ben Gvir, the Convicted Racist Who Owns Netanyahu, Makes Major Threat
Israeli prime minister may own the Biden administration, and Congress, but he doesn't own the Israeli radicals
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the convicted racist and Israeli’s clownish national security minister, said he would disband the country’s war cabinet if the genocide in Gaza is slowed in any way.
“If anyone intends, God forbid, to halt the IDF before Hamas has been defeated and all the hostages have been returned, he should take into account that Otzma Yehudit will not be with him,” he said, according to The Cradle. “The idea of reducing activity in Gaza is a failure of war management by the small [war] cabinet. It should be dismantled immediately. The time has come to restore the reins to the wider [security] cabinet.”
Ben-Gvir, the head of Otzma Yehudit, or Jewish Power, a far-right political party, threatened earlier this month to dissolve the fragile extremist government, which would mean Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu would lose his government and face charges that could put him behind bars for years.
Ben-Gvir represents the fringe that has become mainstream in Israel since the beginning of the year. NPR noted that 15 years ago, he was convicted in Israeli court for inciting racism and supporting an anti-Arab movement which Israel has outlawed as a terrorist organization.
Most Americans know very little about Netanyahu’s extremist, racist government.
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister in charge of West Bank territories, told The Times of Israel earlier this month that there are 2 million “Nazis” living in the West Bank after recent opinion polls showed most living in the region approved Hamas’s 7 October attack.
The paper asked him about security funding in the West Bank, and Smotrich indicated that Israel will have to up its game.
“There are 2 million Nazis in Judea and Samaria, who hate us exactly as do the Nazis of Hamas-ISIS in Gaza,” he said, according to the paper. The paper noted about 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank. Smotrich’s comments reflect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position that anyone who does not outright condemn the Hamas attack is today’s equivalent of a German Nazi.
TRENDPOST: Our readers are familiar with Smotrich, who, long before the Hamas attack, called on Israeli forces to wipe out an entire Palestinian village earlier this year. He has endorsed the all-out bombing campaign and initially rejected calls for a ceasefire—even if it meant no release of hostages. (He later approved of the ceasefire, only after he was assured Israel would continue its bombing campaign after the temporary pause.)
Smotrich called the decision to allow two fuel trucks to enter Gaza a “grave mistake.” The amount of fuel was considered a pittance for what was needed in hospitals and homes.
Ben Gvir agreed with Smotrich at the time: “So long as our hostages don’t even get a visit from the Red Cross, there’s no sense in giving the enemy humanitarian gifts.”
He reportedly told fellow members of his Likud party that he is the only leader in Israel who can prevent any hope for a Palestinian state in Gaza or the West Bank after the ongoing war against Hamas.
The Times of Israel, citing the Kan public broadcaster, reported that Netanyahu made the remark as support for his party erodes.
The paper wrote: The stance clashes directly with the policy of the Biden administration, which has sought to revive talk of a two-state solution in order to maintain the support of the Arab world, as he continues to offer full-throttled backing of Israel.
Netanyahu said Israel will take control of the security oversight in Gaza after the war and—no matter who ends up governing the city in the future—Israel will need to have the ability to enter the city at any time to “kill the killers.”