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I wish the Israeli Far Right the best of luck in their political endeavors - the more dominant position these Talmudic bigots reach in Israel, the more embarrassing the situation becomes for the international organized Jewry, and the harder it becomes for them to oppose Western nativist parties:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/under...-of-israels-most-notorious-ultra-nationalist/
By JEREMY SHARON
4 August 2022, 10:42 am
Main image: MK Itamar Ben Gvir at the Damascus Gate entrance to Jerusalem's Old City, during Jerusalem Day celebrations, May 29, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
If you are a politician looking to bolster your man-of-the-people bona fides ahead of an election, you head to Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market to gladhand the shoppers and hawkers bustling about its stalls and alleyways.
Last month, the market was host to pre-eminent far-right, ultra-nationalist MK Itamar Ben Gvir, a man convicted in the past of incitement to racial hatred and who, until recently, had a picture of a mass-murderer hanging in his living room.
He was greeted with gusto.
The crowd chanted his name and sang a lively ditty about Ben Gvir being the next prime minister. Numerous market patrons hugged, shook hands, and requested selfies with the far-right leader.
Mahane Yehuda is a well-known bastion of right-wing sentiment, but until recently, a visit by Ben Gvir, 46, would have been little more than a minor curiosity.
But just over a year after squeaking into the Knesset as part of Bezalel Smotrich’s far-right Religious Zionism alliance, polls show Ben Gvir leading the party to a commanding Knesset position. It’s only on the street, or in the shuk, though, that those numbers become real, each selfie a sign of how far to the right Israel’s political pendulum appears to have swung.
In 2019, at the beginning of Israel’s apparently interminable political crisis, Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party was still a political pariah.
It was initially excluded from a union of right-wing, religious parties Jewish Home and National Union, and faced another election in which it would likely fail to enter the Knesset.
Fast forward three years and that situation has now been upended.
The Jewish Home party, the successor of the historic National Religious Party, has almost entirely collapsed and is no longer represented in the Knesset.
The Yamina party, which inherited Jewish Home’s more moderate right-wing voter base, was able to crown its leader Naftali Bennett prime minister for a year. But today, the party is itself facing political annihilation, driven by the government’s decision to ally with the Arab Ra’am party, and rudderless after Bennett decided to step away from politics.
Meanwhile, Ben Gvir is flying high in the polls. Voters who fled Jewish Home and Yamina have seemingly recongregated as backers of Religious Zionism. The party regularly polls at 10 seats or more, up from its current tally of six, though Israeli media polls are generally to be taken with a grain of salt.
One particularly favorable poll for Ben Gvir conducted for Channel 13 News suggested that Religious Zionism would win 13 seats with Ben Gvir at the helm, three more than it would garner if Smotrich were to lead it into the November 1 elections.
Far-right MKs Itamar Ben Gvir (L) and Bezalel Smotrich at the Damascus Gate outside Jerusalem’s Old City on October 20, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Such a result would make Religious Zionism, with its Jewish supremacists and far-right agitators, the third largest party in the country, according to the channel’s polling results.
Another poll conducted for Channel 12 and published last week put Otzma on seven seats and Religious Zionism on just four if the two parties ran separately.
These polling figures demonstrate how Ben Gvir’s ultra-nationalist outfit has gone from outcast to political asset in the space of less than one full Knesset term.
Keenly aware of Ben Gvir’s political tailwind, Smotrich has offered his colleague-cum-rival joint leadership of the united list in order to secure a unity agreement.
Although disputes still persist between the two sides, it appears that a deal is imminent.
Kach advocated the removal of Arab citizens from the country and the establishment of a theocracy. It and its immediate splinter Kahane Chai were both blacklisted by Israel in 1994, after follower Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Palestinians at prayer in the Cave of the Patriarchs.
Ben Gvir insists that Otzma no longer advocates for the kind of racist and segregationist policies of Kach. But he also says his party identifies with Kach’s ideology and Otzma presents itself unabashedly as an ultra-nationalist, Jewish supremacist political outfit.
Otzma advocates for the annexation of the entire West Bank, but without granting Palestinians Israeli citizenship; seeks to expel “disloyal” Arab citizens from Israel without defining how such a determination be made; and encourages Arab citizens in general to emigrate so as to make Israel more homogeneously Jewish.
An Otzma party manifesto from the 2019 election campaign stated that it would “work to remove the enemies of Israel from our country.”
Ben Gvir has been vague as to what defines “an enemy.” Baruch Marzel, a senior member of the party, said he believes “a majority” of Arab Israelis are enemies, although not all of them.
Marzel was banned from running for Knesset by the Supreme Court in 2019 due to incitement to racism.
The party also places a heavy focus on overhauling Israel’s judicial system so that it emphasizes Jewish values over democratic values, especially in regard to minority rights.
In recent years, Religious Zionism in its various incarnations has navigated to more extreme ideological waters while Otzma has toned down the overtly racist policies and rhetoric of its Kahanist predecessors, leaving both parties occupying similar political ground.
But Otzma’s more extremist ideological roots, especially regarding Jewish supremacy in Israel, lend it greater appeal to elements in Israeli society with overtly ethnonationalist beliefs.
Its advocacy for Arab emigration and the expulsion of “disloyal” Arab citizens is something that Religious Zionism does not generally advocate or mention, but gives Otzma traction among extremist elements of the electorate.
Ben Gvir has in recent years been extremely wary of saying anything that might get him banned by the High Court from running for office.
And the challenge of spreading his extremist ideology without slipping into hate speech was on display during his recent jaunt through Mahane Yehuda.
As party supporters chanted “death to terrorists” — Ben Gvir and others on the more moderate right have pushed for installing capital punishment in terror cases — one acolyte cried out “death to Arabs” instead.
The Otzma leader was unamused and vociferously told the renegade cheerleader to revert to the officially approved slogan.
He later told Channel 12 news that it had been years since he had chanted “death to Arabs,” or pushed Kahane’s so-called “transfer” policy.
“I’m no longer 16, 20 or 25… I was wrong when I generalized that all the Arabs should be expelled,” he told the network.
Weeks later, Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing extremist.
A lawyer who has made a career out of defending other right-wing extremists, Ben Gvir grew up in a religiously traditional but not strictly observant family in the middle-class town of Mevaseret Zion.
In his maiden speech in Knesset last year, Ben Gvir outlined how his right-wing views began developing during his youth amid the First Intifada. He became a fervent opponent of the Oslo Accords and after high school studied at the Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea established by Kahane.
These associations and his far-right activism led naturally to a political career with the far-right political factions, and in the 18th Knesset he became a parliamentary aide to MK Michael Ben-Ari, who went on to found Otzma Yehudit’s predecessor Otzma LeYisrael in 2012.
Ben Gvir became the de facto leader of the party in 2019 when Ben Ari and Marzel were banned from running for Knesset by the High Court.
Ben Gvir himself has several criminal convictions to his name. In 2007, he was found guilty of incitement to racism and supporting a terror organization for holding signs at a protest reading “Expel the Arab enemy” and “Kahane was right,” a Jewish supremacist slogan endorsing Kach’s proposal to ethnically cleanse Israel of its Arab citizens.
Until 2020, Ben Gvir had a picture of Jewish terrorist Goldstein hanging on his living room wall. He said he removed it in January 2020 when it became a political liability — Bennett had cited the picture as a reason for refusing a New Right-Otzma Yehudit merger. He has not disavowed his lionization of Goldstein, who was killed while carrying out the attack.
Ben Gvir is also a serial provocateur and has made a habit of staging demonstrations in sensitive locations designed to antagonize Arab Israelis and Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.
Perhaps the most incendiary such incident was in early May 2021. As tensions in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah ramped up over the then-pending eviction of Palestinian families there, Ben Gvir inserted himself into the conflict by setting up a makeshift parliamentary office with fellow far-right provocateur Bentzi Gopstein, head of the racist Jewish supremacist organization Lehava.
The office, a folding table and some chairs under a pop-up canopy set up on a sidewalk, was established opposite the location where protesters against the evictions had been meeting for nightly iftar meals which break the day-long fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan
Ben Gvir and Gopstein brought far-right supporters to the area and a riot was sparked, apparently when one of these activists sprayed what appeared to be pepper spray at the Palestinian iftar table.
Intelligence officials warned that Hamas would fire rockets at Jerusalem if Ben Gvir did not leave, which he eventually did following pressure from then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Days later, Hamas did indeed fire rockets at Jerusalem in response to Sheikh Jarrah tensions and police actions on the Temple Mount, setting off 11 days of intense fighting.
MK Itamar Ben Gvir, seen with Lehava chairman Benzi Gopstein, in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah on May 6, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
During the fighting, police chief Kobi Shabtai accused Ben Gvir of abetting some of the worst inter-communal violence in Israel’s history by bringing busloads of Lehava backers to cities with mixed Jewish-Arab populations, such as Lod, Ramle and Acre, that saw some of the worst fighting during the riots.
Ben Gvir has maintained his firebrand attitude since entering the Knesset, usually aiming his brickbats at Arab or left-wing lawmakers. In July 2021, Ben Gvir scuffled with Knesset guards when he was asked to be removed for calling Joint List MK Ahmad Tibi a terrorist. In October, he and the Joint List leader scuffled in a hospital hallway, and in June of this year, he and Tibi nearly came to blows inside the Knesset plenum.
Aside from seeking to add the death penalty to Israel’s penal code, Ben Gvir has also pursued judicial reform. The Otzma leader, together with other right-wing MKs, has twice brought a bill to a vote in the Knesset which would hand the government and Knesset total control over the selection process for Supreme Court judges, rather than also involving other justices and lawyers as is currently done.
Right-wing Israelis have long seen the court as a bastion of leftism; by installing judges more friendly to right-wing causes, Otzma hopes to remake the court in its ideological image, placing Israel’s Jewish character over its democratic values.
Mizrahi Jews, of Middle Eastern or North African descent, skew in very general terms to the right of the political spectrum and some are likely attracted to Otzma’s chauvinistic nationalism, especially younger voters disillusioned with the status quo.
The Channel 13 poll indicated that two of Religious Zionism’s extra seats with Ben Gvir as party leader would come from the Likud, the historic party of traditional Mizrahi voters, many of whom come from working-class backgrounds and live away from the nation’s economic center.
Mizrahi youth “think no one takes them into account, don’t have a voice, and don’t think they’ll be able to get on the property ladder or get a well-paying job,” said Prof. Tamar Hermann, a senior research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute.
The disaffection makes a radical party headed by a charismatic leader espousing “almost revolutionary” ideals on an ultra-nationalist platform extremely attractive for such people, she added.
There may also be an element of identity politics at play. Ben Gvir is himself a Mizrahi Jew who grew up in a religiously traditional family, which makes him more appealing and easier to connect with for the Mizrachi sector than Smotrich, who, like Likud leader Netanyahu, comes from European stock.
Ben Gvir may also be pulling support from ultra-Orthodox youth, a large subset of whom have become increasingly nationalistic and ethnocentric, according to Moshe Hellinger, a senior lecturer in political science at Bar-Ilan University.
The fact that Ben Gvir is very religious means that although voting for Otzma would constitute a rebellion from the usual instructions of the leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis to vote for ultra-Orthodox parties, they would still be voting for a religious party with Jewish theocratic values at its core.
According to Hermann, the strongly-held belief in ultra-Orthodox society of the elevated status of the Jewish people as the chosen people fits neatly with Otzma’s assertion of Jewish supremacy in Israel.
Ben Gvir’s charisma is also a draw, noted Yisroel Cohen, an ultra-Orthodox journalist and commentator for the Kol Barama radio station.
“There is a vibe and energy about him, he connects to the youth, he goes out onto the streets to meet people,” said Cohen, noting that the politicians of the ultra-Orthodox parties are older and have less personal magnetism.
MK Moshe Gafni (left) with United Torah Judaism party colleague Meir Porush in the Knesset, June 22, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Ben Gvir is also very responsive to personal requests from the general public for assistance on various matters, and frequently responds directly to WhatsApp messages, including from young ultra-Orthodox men.
This direct access increases his exposure and popularity among the ultra-Orthodox, Cohen said.
After two recent terror attacks in ultra-Orthodox cities of Bnei Brak and Elad, Ben Gvir was swiftly on the scene, as he is after many terror attacks, while ultra-Orthodox MKs stayed away.
A good chunk of this support is thanks to the collapse of Yamina, and the consequent absence of a more moderate right-wing, religious political option for some religious-Zionist voters.
Yamina’s entry into a government with Arab and left-wing parties tore the party asunder and alienated a substantial proportion of its voters, some of whom are now turning to Yamina’s former partner on the far right.
New Hope, led by nationalist Gideon Sa’ar, might have won some of those homeless voters, but the party instead leaned toward the center-left and allied with Benny Gantz’s Blue and White.
Beyond the political map itself, Herman noted that “chauvinistic nationalism” is on the rise in Israel in general.
The percentage of Jewish Israelis who believe Jews should have greater rights in Israel than non-Jews has risen from 25% in 2015 to 42% in 2021, according to data from the Israel Democracy Institute’s 2021 Democracy Index.
This trend is especially marked among the ultra-Orthodox, religious-Zionist and religiously traditional voters to whom Ben Gvir is appealing.
The party may also be riding a swell of support thanks to the riots and violence between Jews and Arabs that rocked many mixed cities in May 2021, radicalizing parts of the Israeli right-wing, including traditional Mizrachi voters who populate many of the worst-hit towns.
The riots, which included firebomb attacks on synagogues, homes and businesses, likely gave a tailwind to Otzma’s narrative of an implacably hostile Arab population.
Ben Gvir was physically on the ground in Lod, Ramle, Acre, and other centers of unrest during the riots. He brought with him hundreds of activists from the far-right, Jewish supremacist Lehava organization, run by former Otzma Knesset candidate Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein, to conduct counter protests.
The inclusion of the Islamist Arab Ra’am party in the outgoing government may have been revolutionary, but it also gave Ben Gvir and others in the opposition ammunition to mercilessly attack the government for “relying on Arabs,” both in Ra’am and the left-wing Meretz party.
MK Itamar Ben-Gvir reacts during a press statement of United Arab List party MK Mansour Abbas, at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, May 11, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Members of Ra’am and Meretz opposed the government’s attempt to renew the so-called citizenship law, which prevents Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens from gaining residency or citizenship in Israel. The MKs also helped block the renewal of a law guaranteeing Israeli civil rights for settlers in the West Bank, giving Ben Gvir the opportunity to claim that he had been correct about locking Arab parties out of the political process.
In addition, Ben Gvir has been able to denounce right-wing parties such as Yamina and New Hope for having cooperated with Arab MKs, likely attracting some of their former voters.
Aryeh Eldad, the former head of the defunct far-right Otzma LeYisrael party, Otzma Yehudit’s predecessor, conjectured that right-wing voters who voted for Yamina and New Hope felt betrayed and are seeking to vote for a party that they know will never cooperate with Arab factions.
Likud has attempted to hide its own dalliance with Ra’am — Netanyahu tried to woo the party after the 2021 election — but Eldad said voters would remember, and some Likud supporters could switch to Religious Zionism because of it.
In 2019, ahead of the first of the recent spate of five elections, Netanyahu worked tirelessly to bring the established religious-Zionist parties into a political union with Otzma, who even those hard-right parties had previously shunned. Netanyahu feared that right-wing voters would cast ballots for Ben Gvir, but because he stood little chance of crossing the threshold to enter the Knesset, those votes would end up in the wastebasket instead of bolstering the political right.
At the time, Netanyahu promised the Jewish Home party two ministerial positions and reserved a spot on its electoral slate for a Jewish Home candidate.
“Netanyahu made Ben Gvir mainstream, he gave him legitimacy, this was a very important step,” said Hellinger.
He also drew harsh criticism, including from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which called the merger “reprehensible.”
Netanyahu made the same kind of intervention in subsequent elections and according to Hebrew media reports, has of late reprised his role as matchmaker between Smotrich and Ben Gvir amid tensions between the two.
In February 2021, after his latest intervention on behalf of Otzma, Netanyahu insisted that although he would have him in his coalition, Ben Gvir was “not fit” to be a minister.
But with a potential 13 seats to Ben Gvir’s name, voters in the upcoming election may disagree.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/under...-of-israels-most-notorious-ultra-nationalist/
Understanding the ominous rise of Israel’s most notorious ultra-nationalist
With a poll giving Religious Zionism 13 seats if headed by extremist Itamar Ben Gvir, a look at where these votes are coming from and what they say about where Israel may be headed
By JEREMY SHARON
4 August 2022, 10:42 am
Main image: MK Itamar Ben Gvir at the Damascus Gate entrance to Jerusalem's Old City, during Jerusalem Day celebrations, May 29, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
If you are a politician looking to bolster your man-of-the-people bona fides ahead of an election, you head to Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market to gladhand the shoppers and hawkers bustling about its stalls and alleyways.
Last month, the market was host to pre-eminent far-right, ultra-nationalist MK Itamar Ben Gvir, a man convicted in the past of incitement to racial hatred and who, until recently, had a picture of a mass-murderer hanging in his living room.
He was greeted with gusto.
The crowd chanted his name and sang a lively ditty about Ben Gvir being the next prime minister. Numerous market patrons hugged, shook hands, and requested selfies with the far-right leader.
Mahane Yehuda is a well-known bastion of right-wing sentiment, but until recently, a visit by Ben Gvir, 46, would have been little more than a minor curiosity.
But just over a year after squeaking into the Knesset as part of Bezalel Smotrich’s far-right Religious Zionism alliance, polls show Ben Gvir leading the party to a commanding Knesset position. It’s only on the street, or in the shuk, though, that those numbers become real, each selfie a sign of how far to the right Israel’s political pendulum appears to have swung.
In 2019, at the beginning of Israel’s apparently interminable political crisis, Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party was still a political pariah.
It was initially excluded from a union of right-wing, religious parties Jewish Home and National Union, and faced another election in which it would likely fail to enter the Knesset.
Fast forward three years and that situation has now been upended.
The Jewish Home party, the successor of the historic National Religious Party, has almost entirely collapsed and is no longer represented in the Knesset.
The Yamina party, which inherited Jewish Home’s more moderate right-wing voter base, was able to crown its leader Naftali Bennett prime minister for a year. But today, the party is itself facing political annihilation, driven by the government’s decision to ally with the Arab Ra’am party, and rudderless after Bennett decided to step away from politics.
Meanwhile, Ben Gvir is flying high in the polls. Voters who fled Jewish Home and Yamina have seemingly recongregated as backers of Religious Zionism. The party regularly polls at 10 seats or more, up from its current tally of six, though Israeli media polls are generally to be taken with a grain of salt.
One particularly favorable poll for Ben Gvir conducted for Channel 13 News suggested that Religious Zionism would win 13 seats with Ben Gvir at the helm, three more than it would garner if Smotrich were to lead it into the November 1 elections.
Far-right MKs Itamar Ben Gvir (L) and Bezalel Smotrich at the Damascus Gate outside Jerusalem’s Old City on October 20, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Such a result would make Religious Zionism, with its Jewish supremacists and far-right agitators, the third largest party in the country, according to the channel’s polling results.
Another poll conducted for Channel 12 and published last week put Otzma on seven seats and Religious Zionism on just four if the two parties ran separately.
These polling figures demonstrate how Ben Gvir’s ultra-nationalist outfit has gone from outcast to political asset in the space of less than one full Knesset term.
Keenly aware of Ben Gvir’s political tailwind, Smotrich has offered his colleague-cum-rival joint leadership of the united list in order to secure a unity agreement.
Although disputes still persist between the two sides, it appears that a deal is imminent.
A careful Kahanist
Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party — the name translates to Jewish Power — is the ideological successor of the far-right and racist Kach party which was founded and led by Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was assassinated in 1988 in New York.Kach advocated the removal of Arab citizens from the country and the establishment of a theocracy. It and its immediate splinter Kahane Chai were both blacklisted by Israel in 1994, after follower Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Palestinians at prayer in the Cave of the Patriarchs.
Ben Gvir insists that Otzma no longer advocates for the kind of racist and segregationist policies of Kach. But he also says his party identifies with Kach’s ideology and Otzma presents itself unabashedly as an ultra-nationalist, Jewish supremacist political outfit.
Otzma advocates for the annexation of the entire West Bank, but without granting Palestinians Israeli citizenship; seeks to expel “disloyal” Arab citizens from Israel without defining how such a determination be made; and encourages Arab citizens in general to emigrate so as to make Israel more homogeneously Jewish.
An Otzma party manifesto from the 2019 election campaign stated that it would “work to remove the enemies of Israel from our country.”
Ben Gvir has been vague as to what defines “an enemy.” Baruch Marzel, a senior member of the party, said he believes “a majority” of Arab Israelis are enemies, although not all of them.
Marzel was banned from running for Knesset by the Supreme Court in 2019 due to incitement to racism.
The party also places a heavy focus on overhauling Israel’s judicial system so that it emphasizes Jewish values over democratic values, especially in regard to minority rights.
In recent years, Religious Zionism in its various incarnations has navigated to more extreme ideological waters while Otzma has toned down the overtly racist policies and rhetoric of its Kahanist predecessors, leaving both parties occupying similar political ground.
But Otzma’s more extremist ideological roots, especially regarding Jewish supremacy in Israel, lend it greater appeal to elements in Israeli society with overtly ethnonationalist beliefs.
Its advocacy for Arab emigration and the expulsion of “disloyal” Arab citizens is something that Religious Zionism does not generally advocate or mention, but gives Otzma traction among extremist elements of the electorate.
Ben Gvir has in recent years been extremely wary of saying anything that might get him banned by the High Court from running for office.
And the challenge of spreading his extremist ideology without slipping into hate speech was on display during his recent jaunt through Mahane Yehuda.
As party supporters chanted “death to terrorists” — Ben Gvir and others on the more moderate right have pushed for installing capital punishment in terror cases — one acolyte cried out “death to Arabs” instead.
The Otzma leader was unamused and vociferously told the renegade cheerleader to revert to the officially approved slogan.
He later told Channel 12 news that it had been years since he had chanted “death to Arabs,” or pushed Kahane’s so-called “transfer” policy.
“I’m no longer 16, 20 or 25… I was wrong when I generalized that all the Arabs should be expelled,” he told the network.
A serial provocateur
Most Israelis were first introduced to Ben Gvir in 1995, when the 19-year-old extremist youth leader infamously ripped the Cadillac insignia from prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s car. Showing off the booty, Ben Gvir boasted to a news camera: “We got the car. We’ll get to Rabin too.”Weeks later, Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing extremist.
A lawyer who has made a career out of defending other right-wing extremists, Ben Gvir grew up in a religiously traditional but not strictly observant family in the middle-class town of Mevaseret Zion.
In his maiden speech in Knesset last year, Ben Gvir outlined how his right-wing views began developing during his youth amid the First Intifada. He became a fervent opponent of the Oslo Accords and after high school studied at the Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea established by Kahane.
These associations and his far-right activism led naturally to a political career with the far-right political factions, and in the 18th Knesset he became a parliamentary aide to MK Michael Ben-Ari, who went on to found Otzma Yehudit’s predecessor Otzma LeYisrael in 2012.
Ben Gvir became the de facto leader of the party in 2019 when Ben Ari and Marzel were banned from running for Knesset by the High Court.
Ben Gvir himself has several criminal convictions to his name. In 2007, he was found guilty of incitement to racism and supporting a terror organization for holding signs at a protest reading “Expel the Arab enemy” and “Kahane was right,” a Jewish supremacist slogan endorsing Kach’s proposal to ethnically cleanse Israel of its Arab citizens.
Until 2020, Ben Gvir had a picture of Jewish terrorist Goldstein hanging on his living room wall. He said he removed it in January 2020 when it became a political liability — Bennett had cited the picture as a reason for refusing a New Right-Otzma Yehudit merger. He has not disavowed his lionization of Goldstein, who was killed while carrying out the attack.
Ben Gvir is also a serial provocateur and has made a habit of staging demonstrations in sensitive locations designed to antagonize Arab Israelis and Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.
Perhaps the most incendiary such incident was in early May 2021. As tensions in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah ramped up over the then-pending eviction of Palestinian families there, Ben Gvir inserted himself into the conflict by setting up a makeshift parliamentary office with fellow far-right provocateur Bentzi Gopstein, head of the racist Jewish supremacist organization Lehava.
The office, a folding table and some chairs under a pop-up canopy set up on a sidewalk, was established opposite the location where protesters against the evictions had been meeting for nightly iftar meals which break the day-long fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan
Ben Gvir and Gopstein brought far-right supporters to the area and a riot was sparked, apparently when one of these activists sprayed what appeared to be pepper spray at the Palestinian iftar table.
Intelligence officials warned that Hamas would fire rockets at Jerusalem if Ben Gvir did not leave, which he eventually did following pressure from then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Days later, Hamas did indeed fire rockets at Jerusalem in response to Sheikh Jarrah tensions and police actions on the Temple Mount, setting off 11 days of intense fighting.
MK Itamar Ben Gvir, seen with Lehava chairman Benzi Gopstein, in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah on May 6, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
During the fighting, police chief Kobi Shabtai accused Ben Gvir of abetting some of the worst inter-communal violence in Israel’s history by bringing busloads of Lehava backers to cities with mixed Jewish-Arab populations, such as Lod, Ramle and Acre, that saw some of the worst fighting during the riots.
Ben Gvir has maintained his firebrand attitude since entering the Knesset, usually aiming his brickbats at Arab or left-wing lawmakers. In July 2021, Ben Gvir scuffled with Knesset guards when he was asked to be removed for calling Joint List MK Ahmad Tibi a terrorist. In October, he and the Joint List leader scuffled in a hospital hallway, and in June of this year, he and Tibi nearly came to blows inside the Knesset plenum.
Aside from seeking to add the death penalty to Israel’s penal code, Ben Gvir has also pursued judicial reform. The Otzma leader, together with other right-wing MKs, has twice brought a bill to a vote in the Knesset which would hand the government and Knesset total control over the selection process for Supreme Court judges, rather than also involving other justices and lawyers as is currently done.
Right-wing Israelis have long seen the court as a bastion of leftism; by installing judges more friendly to right-wing causes, Otzma hopes to remake the court in its ideological image, placing Israel’s Jewish character over its democratic values.
Disaffected Mizrahim and ultra-Orthodox youth
There appear to be two main sources of voters who prefer Ben Gvir over Smotrich: Mizrahim and the ultra-Orthodox.Mizrahi Jews, of Middle Eastern or North African descent, skew in very general terms to the right of the political spectrum and some are likely attracted to Otzma’s chauvinistic nationalism, especially younger voters disillusioned with the status quo.
The Channel 13 poll indicated that two of Religious Zionism’s extra seats with Ben Gvir as party leader would come from the Likud, the historic party of traditional Mizrahi voters, many of whom come from working-class backgrounds and live away from the nation’s economic center.
Mizrahi youth “think no one takes them into account, don’t have a voice, and don’t think they’ll be able to get on the property ladder or get a well-paying job,” said Prof. Tamar Hermann, a senior research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute.
The disaffection makes a radical party headed by a charismatic leader espousing “almost revolutionary” ideals on an ultra-nationalist platform extremely attractive for such people, she added.
There may also be an element of identity politics at play. Ben Gvir is himself a Mizrahi Jew who grew up in a religiously traditional family, which makes him more appealing and easier to connect with for the Mizrachi sector than Smotrich, who, like Likud leader Netanyahu, comes from European stock.
Ben Gvir may also be pulling support from ultra-Orthodox youth, a large subset of whom have become increasingly nationalistic and ethnocentric, according to Moshe Hellinger, a senior lecturer in political science at Bar-Ilan University.
The fact that Ben Gvir is very religious means that although voting for Otzma would constitute a rebellion from the usual instructions of the leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis to vote for ultra-Orthodox parties, they would still be voting for a religious party with Jewish theocratic values at its core.
According to Hermann, the strongly-held belief in ultra-Orthodox society of the elevated status of the Jewish people as the chosen people fits neatly with Otzma’s assertion of Jewish supremacy in Israel.
Ben Gvir’s charisma is also a draw, noted Yisroel Cohen, an ultra-Orthodox journalist and commentator for the Kol Barama radio station.
“There is a vibe and energy about him, he connects to the youth, he goes out onto the streets to meet people,” said Cohen, noting that the politicians of the ultra-Orthodox parties are older and have less personal magnetism.
MK Moshe Gafni (left) with United Torah Judaism party colleague Meir Porush in the Knesset, June 22, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Ben Gvir is also very responsive to personal requests from the general public for assistance on various matters, and frequently responds directly to WhatsApp messages, including from young ultra-Orthodox men.
This direct access increases his exposure and popularity among the ultra-Orthodox, Cohen said.
After two recent terror attacks in ultra-Orthodox cities of Bnei Brak and Elad, Ben Gvir was swiftly on the scene, as he is after many terror attacks, while ultra-Orthodox MKs stayed away.
A home for Yamina exiles
Even if headed by Smotrich, polls show Religious Zionism still garnering enough votes to be one of the largest Knesset parties, a dramatic rise for a party many politicians still consider beyond the pale.A good chunk of this support is thanks to the collapse of Yamina, and the consequent absence of a more moderate right-wing, religious political option for some religious-Zionist voters.
Yamina’s entry into a government with Arab and left-wing parties tore the party asunder and alienated a substantial proportion of its voters, some of whom are now turning to Yamina’s former partner on the far right.
New Hope, led by nationalist Gideon Sa’ar, might have won some of those homeless voters, but the party instead leaned toward the center-left and allied with Benny Gantz’s Blue and White.
Beyond the political map itself, Herman noted that “chauvinistic nationalism” is on the rise in Israel in general.
The percentage of Jewish Israelis who believe Jews should have greater rights in Israel than non-Jews has risen from 25% in 2015 to 42% in 2021, according to data from the Israel Democracy Institute’s 2021 Democracy Index.
This trend is especially marked among the ultra-Orthodox, religious-Zionist and religiously traditional voters to whom Ben Gvir is appealing.
The party may also be riding a swell of support thanks to the riots and violence between Jews and Arabs that rocked many mixed cities in May 2021, radicalizing parts of the Israeli right-wing, including traditional Mizrachi voters who populate many of the worst-hit towns.
The riots, which included firebomb attacks on synagogues, homes and businesses, likely gave a tailwind to Otzma’s narrative of an implacably hostile Arab population.
Ben Gvir was physically on the ground in Lod, Ramle, Acre, and other centers of unrest during the riots. He brought with him hundreds of activists from the far-right, Jewish supremacist Lehava organization, run by former Otzma Knesset candidate Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein, to conduct counter protests.
The inclusion of the Islamist Arab Ra’am party in the outgoing government may have been revolutionary, but it also gave Ben Gvir and others in the opposition ammunition to mercilessly attack the government for “relying on Arabs,” both in Ra’am and the left-wing Meretz party.
MK Itamar Ben-Gvir reacts during a press statement of United Arab List party MK Mansour Abbas, at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, May 11, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Members of Ra’am and Meretz opposed the government’s attempt to renew the so-called citizenship law, which prevents Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens from gaining residency or citizenship in Israel. The MKs also helped block the renewal of a law guaranteeing Israeli civil rights for settlers in the West Bank, giving Ben Gvir the opportunity to claim that he had been correct about locking Arab parties out of the political process.
In addition, Ben Gvir has been able to denounce right-wing parties such as Yamina and New Hope for having cooperated with Arab MKs, likely attracting some of their former voters.
Aryeh Eldad, the former head of the defunct far-right Otzma LeYisrael party, Otzma Yehudit’s predecessor, conjectured that right-wing voters who voted for Yamina and New Hope felt betrayed and are seeking to vote for a party that they know will never cooperate with Arab factions.
Likud has attempted to hide its own dalliance with Ra’am — Netanyahu tried to woo the party after the 2021 election — but Eldad said voters would remember, and some Likud supporters could switch to Religious Zionism because of it.
Thanks, Netanyahu
Just as Netanyahu’s talks with Ra’am normalized allying with the party, allowing Bennett and Prime Minister Yair Lapid to court the Islamists, the former prime minister may have also paved the way for Ben Gvir’s rise.In 2019, ahead of the first of the recent spate of five elections, Netanyahu worked tirelessly to bring the established religious-Zionist parties into a political union with Otzma, who even those hard-right parties had previously shunned. Netanyahu feared that right-wing voters would cast ballots for Ben Gvir, but because he stood little chance of crossing the threshold to enter the Knesset, those votes would end up in the wastebasket instead of bolstering the political right.
At the time, Netanyahu promised the Jewish Home party two ministerial positions and reserved a spot on its electoral slate for a Jewish Home candidate.
“Netanyahu made Ben Gvir mainstream, he gave him legitimacy, this was a very important step,” said Hellinger.
He also drew harsh criticism, including from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which called the merger “reprehensible.”
Netanyahu made the same kind of intervention in subsequent elections and according to Hebrew media reports, has of late reprised his role as matchmaker between Smotrich and Ben Gvir amid tensions between the two.
In February 2021, after his latest intervention on behalf of Otzma, Netanyahu insisted that although he would have him in his coalition, Ben Gvir was “not fit” to be a minister.
But with a potential 13 seats to Ben Gvir’s name, voters in the upcoming election may disagree.
Lord Osmund de Ixabert
I X A B E R T.com
I think the fake country of Ukraine is going to replace the fake country of Israel as your 'greatest ally' in the foreseeable future. The relationship will likely be more ephemerous than the latter was, but it will be a thing for some time.
Petr
Administrator
Israeli Arabs, too, have their problem with passive-minded "normies" who just cannot be bothered to do some of the simplest actions to defend their interests:
thearabweekly.com
In what is expected to be a close election this time, a low Arab turnout could produce victory for Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads a list that includes many far-right voices and his Arab-baiting ally, Itamar Ben-Gvir, head of the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party.
Friday 16/09/2022
Arab Israeli citizens and activists lift placards at a rally in the mostly-Arab northern city of Umm al-Fahm on September 9, 2022, to denounce crime and violence. (AFP)
While legislation defines Israel as more of a Jewish ethnic state than a democracy, on election day, Arab citizens’ ballots are equal to those of Jews in a one-person, one-vote system. But this year, the Arab electorate is in danger of squandering this electoral equity.
Despite the potential for anti-Arab extremists to be voted into office on November 1, polling suggests that Israel’s Arab citizens, who comprise 20 percent of the country’s population, may avoid the ballot box rather than defend their interests. A recent survey posted on Israel’s i24 website found that if elections were held now, only 39 percent of eligible Arab voters would exercise their right, which would be the lowest figure ever.
By contrast, Arab turnout was 64.8 percent in 2020, according to official figures. Numbers were also low in 2021, at 45 percent, largely because of the fracturing of the major Arab grouping, the Joint List. In most other elections in recent decades, the percentage of Arab voter turnout has been in the 50s and 60s.
In what is expected to be a close election this time, a low Arab turnout could produce victory for Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads a list that includes many far-right voices and his Arab-baiting ally, Itamar Ben-Gvir, head of the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party.
If this sounds like self-destructive behaviour on the part of Israel’s Arab citizens, that is exactly what it is.
There are legitimate reasons for the apathy: dissatisfaction with fractious Arab political parties and their feuding leaders; a sense that traditional marginalisation was not attenuated despite the ouster of Netanyahu last year and the formation of a coalition including the Arab Ra'am party and non-inclusive messaging from the campaign of centrist Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
But avoiding the polls altogether could spell disaster.
Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir “will bring about the end of Israeli democracy,” Zouheir Bahloul, a former Labour party Knesset member, told me in a recent interview. “It's the beginning of the darkness. They don't believe in the right of Arabs to live here.”
A popular sportscaster before he made a foray into politics to improve Jewish-Arab relations, Bahloul said he is holding out hope that the Arab electorate may still “wake up at the last minute” and vote.
To be sure, it has good reason to mobilise. Netanyahu, who would likely use a win to try and overturn alleged corruption proceedings, has been proffering unprecedented legitimacy to Ben-Gvir, best known among Arabs for his provocative visits to the compound of Al Aqsa mosque, which Jews revere as the site of biblical temples. Convicted 15 years ago for supporting a terrorist organisation and inciting racism, Ben-Gvir has stressed during his campaign that he would deport people “disloyal” to the state, a designation that could include Arab citizens and Jewish left-wing activists.
Gadi Gvaryahu, head of the left-wing Tag Meir organisation, which condemns Jewish violence against Arabs, calls Ben-Gvir “the ultimate representative of Jewish supremacy and Jewish terrorism,” adding that if he was to become, say, the minister of interior, “we are talking about a very, very, very dangerous situation, the likes of which we have never seen before.”
In Gvaryahu’s view, the relative lack of Arab interest in the campaign is illogical. “It’s hard to understand this apathy,” he said, adding: “I hope it changes. They are shooting themselves in the foot.”
But Raja Zaatary, a Hadash party activist, said Arabs’ hesitation to vote is based on a belief that government policies are stacked against them, no matter what party holds power. “Right-wing policies continued even without Netanyahu,” Zaatary told me. “The problem is that people don’t see a difference between governments … [and] concluded that even if an Arab party is in the government, it can’t change big things.”
A central concern for Arab citizens is a recent surge in gang violence, which has made their areas unsafe. Many voters believe that Netanyahu did not do enough to stop it when he was in power.
Fortunately, not all is lost. There is still time to dispel the apathy. “I expect a positive surprise,” Eran Nissan, the head of Mehazkim, a left-wing activist group, said. “Arab voters will defeat expectations.”
Zaatary said Arabs must do just that, or live with the consequences. “I'm not saying [Prime Minister] Lapid is so good, but there is still a big difference between Meretz”, the left-wing party whose leader, Zehava Galon, has traditionally opposed discrimination and the occupation in the West Bank, “and Ben-Gvir.”
But much will depend on Lapid’s approach in the final weeks of election campaigning. “He needs to differentiate himself from Netanyahu and take an inclusive approach,” Nissan said. “He has to tell Arab citizens, ‘I’m your prime minister also, you deserve to be treated as equal citizens.’”
If the message is not delivered, or heard, all bets are off. Historians could one day be researching the rise of the extreme right in Israel, with all that implies and conclude that the 2022 election was the turning point.
Ben Lynfield is the former Middle East affairs correspondent at the Jerusalem Post.
Only Arab voters can curb rise of Israel’s extreme right | Ben Lynfield | AW
Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir “will bring about the end of Israeli democracy,” Zouheir Bahloul, a former Labour party Knesset member, told me in a recent interview. “It's the beginning of the darkness.
Only Arab voters can curb rise of Israel’s extreme right
In what is expected to be a close election this time, a low Arab turnout could produce victory for Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads a list that includes many far-right voices and his Arab-baiting ally, Itamar Ben-Gvir, head of the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party.
Friday 16/09/2022
Arab Israeli citizens and activists lift placards at a rally in the mostly-Arab northern city of Umm al-Fahm on September 9, 2022, to denounce crime and violence. (AFP)
While legislation defines Israel as more of a Jewish ethnic state than a democracy, on election day, Arab citizens’ ballots are equal to those of Jews in a one-person, one-vote system. But this year, the Arab electorate is in danger of squandering this electoral equity.
Despite the potential for anti-Arab extremists to be voted into office on November 1, polling suggests that Israel’s Arab citizens, who comprise 20 percent of the country’s population, may avoid the ballot box rather than defend their interests. A recent survey posted on Israel’s i24 website found that if elections were held now, only 39 percent of eligible Arab voters would exercise their right, which would be the lowest figure ever.
By contrast, Arab turnout was 64.8 percent in 2020, according to official figures. Numbers were also low in 2021, at 45 percent, largely because of the fracturing of the major Arab grouping, the Joint List. In most other elections in recent decades, the percentage of Arab voter turnout has been in the 50s and 60s.
In what is expected to be a close election this time, a low Arab turnout could produce victory for Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads a list that includes many far-right voices and his Arab-baiting ally, Itamar Ben-Gvir, head of the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party.
If this sounds like self-destructive behaviour on the part of Israel’s Arab citizens, that is exactly what it is.
There are legitimate reasons for the apathy: dissatisfaction with fractious Arab political parties and their feuding leaders; a sense that traditional marginalisation was not attenuated despite the ouster of Netanyahu last year and the formation of a coalition including the Arab Ra'am party and non-inclusive messaging from the campaign of centrist Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
But avoiding the polls altogether could spell disaster.
Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir “will bring about the end of Israeli democracy,” Zouheir Bahloul, a former Labour party Knesset member, told me in a recent interview. “It's the beginning of the darkness. They don't believe in the right of Arabs to live here.”
A popular sportscaster before he made a foray into politics to improve Jewish-Arab relations, Bahloul said he is holding out hope that the Arab electorate may still “wake up at the last minute” and vote.
To be sure, it has good reason to mobilise. Netanyahu, who would likely use a win to try and overturn alleged corruption proceedings, has been proffering unprecedented legitimacy to Ben-Gvir, best known among Arabs for his provocative visits to the compound of Al Aqsa mosque, which Jews revere as the site of biblical temples. Convicted 15 years ago for supporting a terrorist organisation and inciting racism, Ben-Gvir has stressed during his campaign that he would deport people “disloyal” to the state, a designation that could include Arab citizens and Jewish left-wing activists.
Gadi Gvaryahu, head of the left-wing Tag Meir organisation, which condemns Jewish violence against Arabs, calls Ben-Gvir “the ultimate representative of Jewish supremacy and Jewish terrorism,” adding that if he was to become, say, the minister of interior, “we are talking about a very, very, very dangerous situation, the likes of which we have never seen before.”
In Gvaryahu’s view, the relative lack of Arab interest in the campaign is illogical. “It’s hard to understand this apathy,” he said, adding: “I hope it changes. They are shooting themselves in the foot.”
But Raja Zaatary, a Hadash party activist, said Arabs’ hesitation to vote is based on a belief that government policies are stacked against them, no matter what party holds power. “Right-wing policies continued even without Netanyahu,” Zaatary told me. “The problem is that people don’t see a difference between governments … [and] concluded that even if an Arab party is in the government, it can’t change big things.”
A central concern for Arab citizens is a recent surge in gang violence, which has made their areas unsafe. Many voters believe that Netanyahu did not do enough to stop it when he was in power.
Fortunately, not all is lost. There is still time to dispel the apathy. “I expect a positive surprise,” Eran Nissan, the head of Mehazkim, a left-wing activist group, said. “Arab voters will defeat expectations.”
Zaatary said Arabs must do just that, or live with the consequences. “I'm not saying [Prime Minister] Lapid is so good, but there is still a big difference between Meretz”, the left-wing party whose leader, Zehava Galon, has traditionally opposed discrimination and the occupation in the West Bank, “and Ben-Gvir.”
But much will depend on Lapid’s approach in the final weeks of election campaigning. “He needs to differentiate himself from Netanyahu and take an inclusive approach,” Nissan said. “He has to tell Arab citizens, ‘I’m your prime minister also, you deserve to be treated as equal citizens.’”
If the message is not delivered, or heard, all bets are off. Historians could one day be researching the rise of the extreme right in Israel, with all that implies and conclude that the 2022 election was the turning point.
Ben Lynfield is the former Middle East affairs correspondent at the Jerusalem Post.
Petr
Administrator
In pre-modern times, Jews liked to play these kind of games with gentiles - like hiding offensive Talmudic statements about Jesus Christ from goy authorities, acting innocent when challenged about the hatred of non-Jews contained in their rabbinical teachings.
Now they are playing the same game with other Jews:
www.timesofisrael.com
By MICHAEL HOROVITZ
Today, 2:01 am
Religious Zionism candidate Almog Cohen caught on hidden camera speaking to supporters. (Channel 13 screenshot; used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)
A Knesset candidate for the far-right Otzma Yehudit party has been caught on hidden camera saying his party’s recent moderation of its extremist positions is a “trick” in order to enter the Knesset, implying members actually hold far more extreme ideologies.
Otzma Yehudit is running with Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism in the November 1 elections, polling at some 12 projected seats.
In a Channel 13 report, Almog Cohen, number seven on the joint slate, was seen assuring supporters that Otzma Yehudit chair Itamar Ben Gvir’s somewhat toned-down positions on Arabs were a “trojan horse” meant to get him into parliament while preventing the High Court of Justice from disqualifying party members.
Ben Gvir has in recent months sought to frame his party as having no quarrel with Arabs in general, only those he deems disloyal to the state. In one video that made headlines over the summer, Ben Gvir was seen reprimanding a supporter who chanted the well-worn extremist right refrain “Death to Arabs,” telling him he must only say “Death to terrorists.”
Last month, ultranationalist activist Baruch Marzel complained that the party no longer met its “ideological need.”
Under Article 7A of the Basic Law: The Knesset, “incitement to racism” is one of three actions that can disqualify a candidate from running for the Knesset.
Cohen complained that Marzel’s past public comments were a possible liability to Ben Gvir, after the High Court disqualified Marzel from running in the September 2019 Knesset elections.
“When [Marzel] stands next to Itamar and says ‘We should transfer all the Arabs,’ then he disqualifies Itamar,” Cohen explained to an activist, adding: “Whoever doesn’t use tricks, loses,” implying Ben Gvir had not truly reformed.
“Itamar is smart, he has already changed, look at the peak today. Before today, who would think we would bring 100-150 people here?” Cohen said, referencing a nearby gathering of supporters.
In response to the Channel 13 report, Cohen said: “I understand that the extreme left and media is under pressure, but this will not help them. In the next government, we will implement real right-wing policies, and care for the residents of the south.”
Ben Gvir has experienced a surge of popularity since entering the Knesset in 2021, after years of sitting on the fringe of the political scene. His joint slate with Religious Zionism is polling at 12 seats, and opinion polls had consistently predicted significantly greater success for Ben Gvir than for Religions Zionism head Bezalel Smotrich if they were to have run separately.
An ardent admirer of extremist rabbi Meir Kahane, who advocated transferring Israel’s Arabs out of the country, he has recently tried to downplay his views, declaring in a recent Channel 13 interview: “I am not Rabbi Kahana, I swear. I wouldn’t put forward bills for separate beaches, and I am not for generalizing all Arabs.”
Kahane’s Kach party was declared a terrorist organization by both the Israeli government and the US State Department a few years after the rabbi’s assassination in 1990, after which it disbanded.
Ben Gvir has claimed he isn’t in favor of expelling all Arabs — only terrorists. However, analysts have pointed out that he regularly refers to many Arab public figures with no history of terror-related activities, including elected lawmakers and party leaders, as “terrorists.”
The far-right lawmaker also used to hang on the wall of his Hebron home a picture of Baruch Goldstein, who in 1994 massacred 29 Palestinians at prayer in Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs. He removed the picture once it became clear it harmed him politically. During a visit this month to a high school in the central city of Ramat Gan, Ben Gvir said he no longer considers Goldstein a “hero.”
Now they are playing the same game with other Jews:
Ben Gvir party members caught admitting moderated extremism is a pre-election feint
Almog Cohen says Otzma Yehudit chair's change in tone has aided faction's recent successes, compares his strategy to 'a trojan horse' with which to enter parliament
www.timesofisrael.com
Ben Gvir party members caught admitting moderated extremism is a pre-election feint
Almog Cohen says Otzma Yehudit chair’s change in tone has aided faction’s recent successes, compares his strategy to ‘a trojan horse’ with which to enter parliament
By MICHAEL HOROVITZ
Today, 2:01 am
Religious Zionism candidate Almog Cohen caught on hidden camera speaking to supporters. (Channel 13 screenshot; used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)
A Knesset candidate for the far-right Otzma Yehudit party has been caught on hidden camera saying his party’s recent moderation of its extremist positions is a “trick” in order to enter the Knesset, implying members actually hold far more extreme ideologies.
Otzma Yehudit is running with Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism in the November 1 elections, polling at some 12 projected seats.
In a Channel 13 report, Almog Cohen, number seven on the joint slate, was seen assuring supporters that Otzma Yehudit chair Itamar Ben Gvir’s somewhat toned-down positions on Arabs were a “trojan horse” meant to get him into parliament while preventing the High Court of Justice from disqualifying party members.
Ben Gvir has in recent months sought to frame his party as having no quarrel with Arabs in general, only those he deems disloyal to the state. In one video that made headlines over the summer, Ben Gvir was seen reprimanding a supporter who chanted the well-worn extremist right refrain “Death to Arabs,” telling him he must only say “Death to terrorists.”
Last month, ultranationalist activist Baruch Marzel complained that the party no longer met its “ideological need.”
Under Article 7A of the Basic Law: The Knesset, “incitement to racism” is one of three actions that can disqualify a candidate from running for the Knesset.
Cohen complained that Marzel’s past public comments were a possible liability to Ben Gvir, after the High Court disqualified Marzel from running in the September 2019 Knesset elections.
“When [Marzel] stands next to Itamar and says ‘We should transfer all the Arabs,’ then he disqualifies Itamar,” Cohen explained to an activist, adding: “Whoever doesn’t use tricks, loses,” implying Ben Gvir had not truly reformed.
“Itamar is smart, he has already changed, look at the peak today. Before today, who would think we would bring 100-150 people here?” Cohen said, referencing a nearby gathering of supporters.
In response to the Channel 13 report, Cohen said: “I understand that the extreme left and media is under pressure, but this will not help them. In the next government, we will implement real right-wing policies, and care for the residents of the south.”
Ben Gvir has experienced a surge of popularity since entering the Knesset in 2021, after years of sitting on the fringe of the political scene. His joint slate with Religious Zionism is polling at 12 seats, and opinion polls had consistently predicted significantly greater success for Ben Gvir than for Religions Zionism head Bezalel Smotrich if they were to have run separately.
An ardent admirer of extremist rabbi Meir Kahane, who advocated transferring Israel’s Arabs out of the country, he has recently tried to downplay his views, declaring in a recent Channel 13 interview: “I am not Rabbi Kahana, I swear. I wouldn’t put forward bills for separate beaches, and I am not for generalizing all Arabs.”
Kahane’s Kach party was declared a terrorist organization by both the Israeli government and the US State Department a few years after the rabbi’s assassination in 1990, after which it disbanded.
Ben Gvir has claimed he isn’t in favor of expelling all Arabs — only terrorists. However, analysts have pointed out that he regularly refers to many Arab public figures with no history of terror-related activities, including elected lawmakers and party leaders, as “terrorists.”
The far-right lawmaker also used to hang on the wall of his Hebron home a picture of Baruch Goldstein, who in 1994 massacred 29 Palestinians at prayer in Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs. He removed the picture once it became clear it harmed him politically. During a visit this month to a high school in the central city of Ramat Gan, Ben Gvir said he no longer considers Goldstein a “hero.”
Petr
Administrator
'Very concerned': Senior US official warns against appointing Ben-Gvir as minister
"It's like putting the Ku Klux Klan in government," says official in American-Jewish organization.
'Very concerned': Senior US official warns against appointing Ben-Gvir as minister
"It's like putting the Ku Klux Klan in government," says official in American-Jewish organization.
Israel National News
Sep 29, 2022, 9:07 AM
Are the Americans meddling in Israeli elections? According to a report in the Thursday edition of Israel Hayom, officials from within the Biden administration as well as Jewish organizations in the United States have expressed their concern at the possibility that the head of the right-wing Otzma Yehudit party, MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, will be appointed a minister in the next Israel government, if opposition leader MK Benjamin Netanyahu succeeds in forming a coalition following elections to be held in early November.
Recent polls have suggested the distinct possibility that the largest Israeli political party, the Likud, will manage to cobble together a coalition with at least the requisite 61 Knesset members. "The administration is monitoring developments with concern," one senior American official is quoted as saying, "and is very anxious regarding the possibility that the head of Otzma Yehudit will be appointed a minister in a future Israeli government."
He added that, "Of course we are following what's happening over there, but at the present stage it's too early to comment. However, if we reach the point where such things are under discussion, there's no doubt that the administration will clarify its position, and for us, that would be an immense problem."
The unnamed official further noted that opposition leader Netanyahu is well aware of the "problematic" aspects of appointing Ben-Gvir as a minister. "Anyone who has any sense realizes how problematic this is. Just look at this man's past history, the things he's done, the statements he's made. This isn't someone we want to see in government. Netanyahu is a wise and seasoned politician and he understands the ramifications of such a development. This has yet to be discussed with him since, as I said, it's still early days. But there's no doubt that he's aware of this."
Israel Hayom also quotes a senior official in an American-Jewish organization who was more explicit in his critique of Ben-Gvir, saying that incorporating him into a future government would create major problems for him and his colleagues. "Our efforts to defend Israel's interests are aimed at her being accorded the legitimacy to present her positions, and being given the benefit of the doubt even in cases where there may be concern that Israel erred in some way. However, if Ben-Gvir is appointed as a minister, this will strip us of our ability to defend Israel," the official, who is not considered to belong to the progressive wing of American Jewry, warned.
He added that, "In American terms, it would be like the Ku Klux Klan being part of the government. This just can't happen. We won't be able to stand up for Israel if it happens."
The Likud party has yet to respond to the reports. Meanwhile, Otzma Yehudit released a statement saying: "It appears that there's no limit to Foreign Minister Lapid's cynical exploitation of his position, now that we're seeing Lapid deciding to use lying briefings to drag the American administration into a place where they are intervening in the elections process in Israel. Lapid is destroying Israel's foreign relations and is giving up Israeli sovereignty in order to serve his own political ends."
Petr
Administrator
The Ben-Gvir Golem has turned on its creator, Netanyahu - analysis
The mishmash of incidents and conflicting statements are uncharacteristic for Netanyahu, whose campaigns are usually impeccable.
By ELIAV BREUER
Published: OCTOBER 20, 2022 23:06
A cartoon in Yediot Aharonot on Thursday depicted Otzma Yehudit head Itamar Ben-Gvir’s face as a carnivorous plant with tentacles. The Ben-Gvir plant is in the process of wrapping a tentacle around opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing him and half his size, while saying “FEED ME BIBI.” Religious Zionist Party (RZP) head Bezalel Smotrich is depicted as one of the smaller tentacles, and the flowerpot has a symbol of the Kahanist Kach movement on it.
The cartoon is accurate in that it reveals something that may be the most important part of this election campaign: RZP is beginning to reach monstrous proportions, thanks entirely to Ben-Gvir.
In a poll by KAN published earlier this week, Likud received 31 seats, the lowest number of seats yet among KAN’s pollster Dudi Hasid, while RZP received 14, its highest yet.
When Netanyahu acted in early August to get Smotrich and Ben-Gvir to run together, the assumption was that in the weeks leading up to the election, Bibi would “suck” votes away from the joint party by arguing it was necessary for the Likud to remain strong.
Some analysts wondered at the time whether the Likud leader might end up regretting it, and the picture that is unfolding is that the plan indeed seems to be backfiring. Ben-Gvir is sucking votes away from the Likud, and seems to be gaining momentum at the most critical time. Furthermore, Netanyahu, the master campaigner, is not displaying a clear strategy vis-à-vis Ben-Gvir, which more than anything else indicates that he was caught off guard.
No photos, please
The two met last week at the Waldorf Astoria in Jerusalem to coordinate their campaigns in the last two weeks before the election, and reportedly agreed that Ben-Gvir would focus on the voters in the South, who had relatively low voting percentages in the previous election and who do not seem overly eager to vote for the Likud. This seems like a generous gift from Netanyahu, as the South has overwhelmingly voted Likud in the past few elections.Netanyahu again insisted that there should be no picture of the meeting. The obvious reason for this is that while he so far has refrained from attacking Ben-Gvir and is helping him behind the scenes, he also does not want the two to appear too close, as this could push away moderate right-wing voters.
But then a bizarre incident occurred on Monday night, when Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir attended the same “Hakafot Shniyot” event in Kfar Habad. Netanyahu was so concerned to appear with Ben-Gvir that he refused to go on stage until Ben-Gvir had left it, and Ben-Gvir was physically removed from the stage, with all of this occurring on camera. A picture was also taken of Netanyahu waiting sour-faced for his turn to go onstage.
Even more bizarre, Ben-Gvir said after the incident in a video that he had been told by someone in the Likud that the reason Netanyahu did not want to be with him on stage was because it would block the former prime minister from forming a government with Benny Gantz.
Then, Smotrich said on Tuesday that he knew “for a fact” that Gantz wanted to form a government with Netanyahu and leave Ben-Gvir out.
If this is indeed the Likud’s secret plan, why would it have revealed it so openly to Ben-Gvir? And why did Netanyahu help their party to continue growing if in the end they will not be offered to join the coalition?
The answer is that Netanyahu’s plan all along was for the RZP to lose seats as the election approached. Had this happened, and Netanyahu not reached 61 seats within his bloc, the only remaining option would have been to bring Gantz on board – at the expense of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir.
When Netanyahu realized that the revelation about Gantz could harm him, as it could drive even more voters into Ben-Gvir’s hands, he quickly circulated a video on Tuesday explaining that Gantz had joined the Left, and would not sit with him. He reiterated this a number of times during the week. Gantz also said clearly that under no circumstances would he join Netanyahu.
The mishmash of incidents and conflicting statements are uncharacteristic for Netanyahu, whose campaigns are usually impeccable.
What is going on?
In short – there is a bug in the system. Ben-Gvir is gaining on behalf of Bibi, and the latter has not yet decided what to do about it. If he attacks Ben-Gvir, he risks being criticized in return, but if he does not, Ben-Gvir might keep gaining.
Ben-Gvir's subtle influence
Ben-Gvir is challenging Netanyahu in a way that no one else on the Right has done for a long time – he is using Netanyahu’s own tactics. Netanyahu used to be the undisputed master of using the media to his advantage. But Ben-Gvir is simply outperforming him, without even meaning to. He has not attacked Netanyahu at all, only spoken about himself and his party as the “true Right.”Ben-Gvir manages to make headlines nearly every day. He appears at sites of terrorist attacks soon after they occur, similar to what Netanyahu did in the 1990s. He fires up crowds, especially young people, and uses rhetoric that makes Netanyahu seem like a gentleman. He uses props in videos on social media, and fires off lawsuits on a weekly basis. He is charismatic, younger and more extreme.
The Golem has turned on its creator, and it’s not over yet.
Petr
Administrator
Here is the typical Talmudic attitude towards gentiles ("you barbarian animals"), but aimed at secular Jews in this case:
www.timesofisrael.com
2 November 2022, 9:25 am
United Torah Judaism MK Yitzhak Pindrus at a conference organized by the Srugim news website ahead of the Knesset elections, outside the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, October 30, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
As exit polls and partial results were predicting an election victory for the right-wing religious bloc led by opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, a likely member of Netanyahu’s coalition called his political opponents “animals,” in a message apparently meant to assuage the opposing bloc.
“We won’t treat you cruelly like you treated us,” MK Yitzhak Pindrus, of the Netanyahu-aligned ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, told the Ynet news site.
“We’re civilized people, not animals like you. In the government you stole… you trampled on us. You thought we were just rags. We’re human beings,” he said.
“We will treat you well, we won’t persecute you, we won’t harass you,” Pindrus added. “We’ll take care of our rights, but we won’t look for where we can harass you a little bit, where we can do you harm. We’re not like you. You have problems? Look in the mirror, not at us.”
He was apparently referring, among other things, to the taxes on sweetened drinks and on single-use plastic items that were imposed by the current government, which didn’t include the Haredi parties. The ultra-Orthodox community, which generally relies on those products more than the general population, saw the taxes as directed against it.
Haredi member of Netanyahu bloc tells political rivals: ‘We’re not animals like you’
In apparent attempt at conciliatory message, UTJ's Pindrus says current government treated ultra-Orthodox 'cruelly,' but 'we won’t harass you' if right-religious bloc regains power
www.timesofisrael.com
Haredi member of Netanyahu bloc tells political rivals: ‘We’re not animals like you’
In apparent attempt at conciliatory message, UTJ’s Pindrus says current government treated ultra-Orthodox ‘cruelly,’ but ‘we won’t harass you’ if right-religious bloc regains power
2 November 2022, 9:25 am
United Torah Judaism MK Yitzhak Pindrus at a conference organized by the Srugim news website ahead of the Knesset elections, outside the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, October 30, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
As exit polls and partial results were predicting an election victory for the right-wing religious bloc led by opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, a likely member of Netanyahu’s coalition called his political opponents “animals,” in a message apparently meant to assuage the opposing bloc.
“We won’t treat you cruelly like you treated us,” MK Yitzhak Pindrus, of the Netanyahu-aligned ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, told the Ynet news site.
“We’re civilized people, not animals like you. In the government you stole… you trampled on us. You thought we were just rags. We’re human beings,” he said.
“We will treat you well, we won’t persecute you, we won’t harass you,” Pindrus added. “We’ll take care of our rights, but we won’t look for where we can harass you a little bit, where we can do you harm. We’re not like you. You have problems? Look in the mirror, not at us.”
He was apparently referring, among other things, to the taxes on sweetened drinks and on single-use plastic items that were imposed by the current government, which didn’t include the Haredi parties. The ultra-Orthodox community, which generally relies on those products more than the general population, saw the taxes as directed against it.
Petr
Administrator
Report from the Kahanist meeting.
I have to say - objectively, with no admiration intended - that these people are like "the beating heart of Judaism," its militant hard core that prevents Jewry from disintegrating through assimilation and liberalization, and keeps producing new Talmudic Jews. The German Nazis would have understood what I am driving at here: they considered the NSDAP to be like the vanguard of the Aryan race, its best organized and most vital element, the sword and shield of the German people.
www.timesofisrael.com
By JEREMY SHARON and TOI STAFF
10 November 2022, 4:55 pm
Far-right leader MK Itamar Ben Gvir was booed by attendants at a commemoration event Thursday night for the late racist rabbi Meir Kahane after he expressed opposition to the most extreme and discriminatory ideas of his spiritual mentor.
Ben Gvir, of the Religious Zionism-Otzma Yehudit alliance, said that although he admired Kahane, he would not advance legislation to expel all Arabs from Israel and the West Bank or to create a regime of ethnic segregation — as Kahane advocated.
For this, he was roundly booed by the audience.
“It is no secret that today I am not Rabbi Kahane and I do not support the deportation of all Arabs, and I will not enact laws for separate beaches,” he said to loud jeers.
Remarks he made vowing to expel terrorists from the country were, however, cheered by the crowd.
The commemoration event is held every year in honor of Kahane, a one-time member of Knesset for the racist Kach party he founded and who was assassinated at a New York City hotel in November 1990 by an Egyptian-American jihadist.
Despite distancing himself from Kahane’s most overtly racist and discriminatory views, Ben Gvir, who is expected to be a key figure in Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s incoming government, extolled Kahane’s virtues and praised him for many of his activities.
Several hundred men and women attended a commemoration event for the late racist rabbi and Jewish supremacist Meir Kahane in Jerusalem, Thursday November 10, 2022. (Jeremy Sharon)
“Ultimately Rabbi Kahane was about love. Love for Israel without compromise, without any other consideration,” he said.
Also present at the event were incoming Otzma Yehudit MKs Yitzhak Vesselrov, Almog Cohen and Zvika Fogel; Jerusalem deputy mayor Arieh King; Otzma Yehudit founder Baruch Marzel; leader of the Jewish supremacist Lehava organization Bentzi Gopstein; and ultra-nationalist rabbi Dov Lior.
Marzel told The Times of Israel he did not vote for Otzma Yehudit in the recent election since Ben Gvir has said he does not follow Kahane’s path, and said he intends to establish a new far-right party to contest future elections.
Like Kahane, Marzel has been barred in the past from running for the Knesset by the Supreme Court for incitement to racism.
In his own speech at Thursday’s event, Marzel called for the expulsion of large swaths of Israel’s Arab minority to applause from attendees.
Marzel charged that Abu Ghosh, a Jerusalem-area village known for its hummus restaurants and friendly relations with the Jewish population, was not the symbol of coexistence it is made out to be, because most of its residents voted for Arab-majority parties Ra’am and Balad.
“It’s possible to find people in Abu Ghosh who aren’t enemies, but there are mostly enemies there, terror supporters, supporters of the destruction of the State of Israel, and we need to take it apart and deport them from the State of Israel,” he said.
“Nothing will stop unless we drain the swamp. This is Rabbi Kahane, and this is the truth. Everyone knows he is right,” Marzel added.
״We all know [Kahane] was right. We saw how many are afraid of him because they are afraid of the truth. But we will continue to say [‘Kahane was right’], and with the help of God… [we] will win and drive out the enemies,” he declared.
Radical hill-top settler youth activists were also prominent among the audience, including Meir Ettinger, a grandson of Kahane who has spent time in jail for extremist activities.
Ben Gvir arrived at the event shortly after he and the rest of his Otzma Yehudit party met with President Isaac Herzog for consultations on who should form the next government. On Wednesday, Herzog was overhead telling party representatives on a hot mic that “the entire world” was concerned about Ben Gvir’s extreme views.
Otzma Yehudit founder Baruch Marzel (second from left) and ultra-nationalist leader Rabbi Dov Lior in attendance at a commemoration event for Jewish supremacist leader Meir Kahane, Thursday November 10, 2022. (Jeremy Sharon)
The Otzma Yehudit chief released the memorial speech to the media ahead of the event after apparently accidentally posting it online earlier in the day.
In the speech, Ben Gvir credited Kahane, who was banned from the Knesset for racism, with establishing a yeshiva that helped turn him to return to religion, and where he studied the extremist rabbi’s teachings. He noted he’d never “had the merit” to meet Kahane.
“It is no secret that today I am not Rabbi Kahane and I do not support the deportation of all Arabs, and I will not enact laws for separate beaches, although it is certain that we will act and do everything to expel terrorists from the country for the sake of the Jewish character of Israel, for the settlements and its Jewish identity,” Ben Gvir said.
“It seems to me that ultimately Rabbi Kahane was about love. Love for Israel without compromise, without any other consideration,” he said.
Ben Gvir is a self-described disciple of Kahane, a former MK whose Kach party was banned and declared a terror group in the 1980s in both Israel and the US. Like the late Kahane, Ben Gvir was convicted in the past of supporting a terror organization, though he insists he has moderated in recent years.
Meir Kahane addresses a gathering at the Silver Springs Jewish Center in Maryland, Oct. 27, 1988 (AP Photo/Doug Mills)
Noting the weekly Torah portion, Ben Gvir said that when another Jew is in trouble, “we leave everything and go to help,” and cited this as his reason for entering politics.
“This is my role and the mission I took upon myself… To act with love of Israel for any Jew in trouble,” he said.
“If in Judea and Samaria,” he said, meaning the West Bank, “they throw rocks and Molotov cocktails at our soldiers and police officers, [the latter] must be allowed to respond. If a family is scared to walk to the Western Wall because it’s dangerous, that must end.”
“Love for Israel includes the duty to ensure we are a free people in our land, without fear, with pride and tremendous love,” he added.
Archival video footage of Kahane was shown during the commemoration, including one clip where he repeated his oft-declared goal of expelling all Arabs from Israel and the West Bank, comments which were greeted with cheers and applause by the audience.
And several stalls at the event sold far-right merchandise, including bumper stickers stating “Leftists are traitors,” “Coexistence with the enemy doesn’t exist,” and “Transfer for the enemy.”
Bumper stickers and informational material on offer at a commemoration event for the late Jewish supremacist leader Rabbi Meir Kahane. One sticker reads “Transfer the enemy” referencing Kahane’s policy of forcible transfer of Israel’s Arab population. (Jeremy Sharon)
Ben Gvir gained notoriety before the 1995 assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin when he proudly held up an ornament that he’d managed to rip off Rabin’s Cadillac during a TV interview and said “We’ll get to Rabin too.” For years, Ben Gvir had a picture of Baruch Goldstein — the Jewish terrorist who carried out a massacre at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron in 1994, killing 29 Palestinians — hanging on the wall of his Kiryat Arba home. He removed it in 2019 after it became heavily publicized in local media and began to harm him politically.
Going into last week’s elections, Ben Gvir campaigned on hardline policies such as enacting the death penalty for terrorists, expelling “disloyal” Arab Israeli citizens and changing the rules of engagement for Israeli security forces to allow them to more easily shoot-to-kill Palestinian suspects.
The proposals appeared to resonate with large swaths of the increasingly right-wing public, with the far-right Religious Zionism alliance that Ben Gvir ran as part of surging to 14 seats, the third most of any electoral slate.
On Monday Ben Gvir retweeted a photograph of Arab Israeli lawmaker Ahmad Tibi at Ben Gurion Airport holding a suitcase and added the remark “About time. May we merit to only have news like this and may he not come back here.”
Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit is a part of the Religious Zionism alliance of far-right parties that won 14 seats in last week’s elections for the Knesset and is set to be the second-largest party in the coalition that Netanyahu hopes to form, ousting Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
Netanyahu’s bloc of right-wing religious parties won 64 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.
Likud has taken much criticism for embracing far-right parties harboring extreme stances that go far beyond its own positions, including unequal treatment for Jews and Arabs, deportation for “disloyal” citizens and constraining LGBT rights.
I have to say - objectively, with no admiration intended - that these people are like "the beating heart of Judaism," its militant hard core that prevents Jewry from disintegrating through assimilation and liberalization, and keeps producing new Talmudic Jews. The German Nazis would have understood what I am driving at here: they considered the NSDAP to be like the vanguard of the Aryan race, its best organized and most vital element, the sword and shield of the German people.
Ben Gvir hails racist Kahane, is booed for saying he doesn’t want to expel all Arabs
At annual commemoration event, far-right leader pays tribute to slain Jewish supremacist, claiming he was 'ultimately about love,' is cheered after vowing to expel terrorists
www.timesofisrael.com
Ben Gvir hails racist Kahane, is booed for saying he doesn’t want to expel all Arabs
At annual commemoration event, far-right leader pays tribute to slain Jewish supremacist, claiming he was ‘ultimately about love,’ is cheered after vowing to expel terrorists
By JEREMY SHARON and TOI STAFF
10 November 2022, 4:55 pm
Far-right leader MK Itamar Ben Gvir was booed by attendants at a commemoration event Thursday night for the late racist rabbi Meir Kahane after he expressed opposition to the most extreme and discriminatory ideas of his spiritual mentor.
Ben Gvir, of the Religious Zionism-Otzma Yehudit alliance, said that although he admired Kahane, he would not advance legislation to expel all Arabs from Israel and the West Bank or to create a regime of ethnic segregation — as Kahane advocated.
For this, he was roundly booed by the audience.
“It is no secret that today I am not Rabbi Kahane and I do not support the deportation of all Arabs, and I will not enact laws for separate beaches,” he said to loud jeers.
Remarks he made vowing to expel terrorists from the country were, however, cheered by the crowd.
The commemoration event is held every year in honor of Kahane, a one-time member of Knesset for the racist Kach party he founded and who was assassinated at a New York City hotel in November 1990 by an Egyptian-American jihadist.
Despite distancing himself from Kahane’s most overtly racist and discriminatory views, Ben Gvir, who is expected to be a key figure in Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s incoming government, extolled Kahane’s virtues and praised him for many of his activities.
Several hundred men and women attended a commemoration event for the late racist rabbi and Jewish supremacist Meir Kahane in Jerusalem, Thursday November 10, 2022. (Jeremy Sharon)
“Ultimately Rabbi Kahane was about love. Love for Israel without compromise, without any other consideration,” he said.
Also present at the event were incoming Otzma Yehudit MKs Yitzhak Vesselrov, Almog Cohen and Zvika Fogel; Jerusalem deputy mayor Arieh King; Otzma Yehudit founder Baruch Marzel; leader of the Jewish supremacist Lehava organization Bentzi Gopstein; and ultra-nationalist rabbi Dov Lior.
Marzel told The Times of Israel he did not vote for Otzma Yehudit in the recent election since Ben Gvir has said he does not follow Kahane’s path, and said he intends to establish a new far-right party to contest future elections.
Like Kahane, Marzel has been barred in the past from running for the Knesset by the Supreme Court for incitement to racism.
In his own speech at Thursday’s event, Marzel called for the expulsion of large swaths of Israel’s Arab minority to applause from attendees.
Marzel charged that Abu Ghosh, a Jerusalem-area village known for its hummus restaurants and friendly relations with the Jewish population, was not the symbol of coexistence it is made out to be, because most of its residents voted for Arab-majority parties Ra’am and Balad.
“It’s possible to find people in Abu Ghosh who aren’t enemies, but there are mostly enemies there, terror supporters, supporters of the destruction of the State of Israel, and we need to take it apart and deport them from the State of Israel,” he said.
“Nothing will stop unless we drain the swamp. This is Rabbi Kahane, and this is the truth. Everyone knows he is right,” Marzel added.
״We all know [Kahane] was right. We saw how many are afraid of him because they are afraid of the truth. But we will continue to say [‘Kahane was right’], and with the help of God… [we] will win and drive out the enemies,” he declared.
Radical hill-top settler youth activists were also prominent among the audience, including Meir Ettinger, a grandson of Kahane who has spent time in jail for extremist activities.
Ben Gvir arrived at the event shortly after he and the rest of his Otzma Yehudit party met with President Isaac Herzog for consultations on who should form the next government. On Wednesday, Herzog was overhead telling party representatives on a hot mic that “the entire world” was concerned about Ben Gvir’s extreme views.
Otzma Yehudit founder Baruch Marzel (second from left) and ultra-nationalist leader Rabbi Dov Lior in attendance at a commemoration event for Jewish supremacist leader Meir Kahane, Thursday November 10, 2022. (Jeremy Sharon)
The Otzma Yehudit chief released the memorial speech to the media ahead of the event after apparently accidentally posting it online earlier in the day.
In the speech, Ben Gvir credited Kahane, who was banned from the Knesset for racism, with establishing a yeshiva that helped turn him to return to religion, and where he studied the extremist rabbi’s teachings. He noted he’d never “had the merit” to meet Kahane.
“It is no secret that today I am not Rabbi Kahane and I do not support the deportation of all Arabs, and I will not enact laws for separate beaches, although it is certain that we will act and do everything to expel terrorists from the country for the sake of the Jewish character of Israel, for the settlements and its Jewish identity,” Ben Gvir said.
“It seems to me that ultimately Rabbi Kahane was about love. Love for Israel without compromise, without any other consideration,” he said.
Ben Gvir is a self-described disciple of Kahane, a former MK whose Kach party was banned and declared a terror group in the 1980s in both Israel and the US. Like the late Kahane, Ben Gvir was convicted in the past of supporting a terror organization, though he insists he has moderated in recent years.
Meir Kahane addresses a gathering at the Silver Springs Jewish Center in Maryland, Oct. 27, 1988 (AP Photo/Doug Mills)
Noting the weekly Torah portion, Ben Gvir said that when another Jew is in trouble, “we leave everything and go to help,” and cited this as his reason for entering politics.
“This is my role and the mission I took upon myself… To act with love of Israel for any Jew in trouble,” he said.
“If in Judea and Samaria,” he said, meaning the West Bank, “they throw rocks and Molotov cocktails at our soldiers and police officers, [the latter] must be allowed to respond. If a family is scared to walk to the Western Wall because it’s dangerous, that must end.”
“Love for Israel includes the duty to ensure we are a free people in our land, without fear, with pride and tremendous love,” he added.
Archival video footage of Kahane was shown during the commemoration, including one clip where he repeated his oft-declared goal of expelling all Arabs from Israel and the West Bank, comments which were greeted with cheers and applause by the audience.
And several stalls at the event sold far-right merchandise, including bumper stickers stating “Leftists are traitors,” “Coexistence with the enemy doesn’t exist,” and “Transfer for the enemy.”
Bumper stickers and informational material on offer at a commemoration event for the late Jewish supremacist leader Rabbi Meir Kahane. One sticker reads “Transfer the enemy” referencing Kahane’s policy of forcible transfer of Israel’s Arab population. (Jeremy Sharon)
Ben Gvir gained notoriety before the 1995 assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin when he proudly held up an ornament that he’d managed to rip off Rabin’s Cadillac during a TV interview and said “We’ll get to Rabin too.” For years, Ben Gvir had a picture of Baruch Goldstein — the Jewish terrorist who carried out a massacre at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron in 1994, killing 29 Palestinians — hanging on the wall of his Kiryat Arba home. He removed it in 2019 after it became heavily publicized in local media and began to harm him politically.
Going into last week’s elections, Ben Gvir campaigned on hardline policies such as enacting the death penalty for terrorists, expelling “disloyal” Arab Israeli citizens and changing the rules of engagement for Israeli security forces to allow them to more easily shoot-to-kill Palestinian suspects.
The proposals appeared to resonate with large swaths of the increasingly right-wing public, with the far-right Religious Zionism alliance that Ben Gvir ran as part of surging to 14 seats, the third most of any electoral slate.
On Monday Ben Gvir retweeted a photograph of Arab Israeli lawmaker Ahmad Tibi at Ben Gurion Airport holding a suitcase and added the remark “About time. May we merit to only have news like this and may he not come back here.”
Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit is a part of the Religious Zionism alliance of far-right parties that won 14 seats in last week’s elections for the Knesset and is set to be the second-largest party in the coalition that Netanyahu hopes to form, ousting Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
Netanyahu’s bloc of right-wing religious parties won 64 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.
Likud has taken much criticism for embracing far-right parties harboring extreme stances that go far beyond its own positions, including unequal treatment for Jews and Arabs, deportation for “disloyal” citizens and constraining LGBT rights.
Petr
Administrator
Ben-Gvir Is Paving the Way for His Racist Friends
Haaretz Editorial
Dec 26, 2022
The coalition agreements between Likud and its natural partners reveal the program of the ultranationalist, xenophobic, minority-bashing, misogynistic, homophobic extreme right. These agreements are intended to ensure that the new government promotes the worldview and policies of its members. Because this is an extreme right-wing government, the parties have agreed to promote the required legislative changes to enshrine in law the foundations of this branch of the right: racism and discrimination.
And in fact, along with the legalization of discrimination, which would allow medical care or any other service to be withheld (“for reasons of religious faith”) from Arabs, foreign workers, members of the LGBT community and women, Likud and Otzma Yehudit have agreed to open the doors of the Knesset to Jews who incite racism. They will do this by changing a clause in the Basic Law on the Knesset that disqualifies a party slate or candidate who incites racism (Michael Hauser Tov, December 22).
The goal of National Security Minister-designate Itamar Ben-Gvir is to breach the constitutional wall that locks his friends from Otzma Yehudit – Michael Ben-Ari, Bentzi Gopstein and Baruch Marzel – out of the Knesset. The problem, from their point of view, is Clause 7a of the Basic Law on the Knesset, which was the Supreme Court’s basis for banning Gopstein and Marzel from running in the 2019 Knesset election. In the election for the previous Knesset, the candidacy of then-chairman of Otzma Yehudit, Michael Ben-Ari, was struck down due to racist incitement. The spiritual father of Ben-Gvir’s party, Rabbi Meir Kahane, and the movement in which he grew up, Kach, were also banned by the Supreme Court.
Well, those days are over. It is terrifying, but not surprising, that when Ben-Gvir is the public security minister and a key partner in the coalition, racism, incitement and discrimination will be legal for Jews, while Kahanism will undergo normalization and be granted a green light in the Knesset.
Like all the other agreements between Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu and his partners, we cannot know what their fate will be. Neither is it clear how the government’s and the Knesset’s legal advisers will be able to promote such an amendment, and it is difficult to imagine the Supreme Court legitimizing it. But because this is a government that intends to neuter the institution of attorney general, change the makeup of the Supreme Court and promote an override clause that would allow the Knesset to re-legislate laws that the High Court of Justice has struck down, anything is imaginable.
Beyond this, the fact that these demands are made aloud, signed in the framework of coalition agreements and openly discussed is itself a black flag flying over the coalition that Netanyahu is forming. If there are any right-wing liberals in Likud, they must protest this dangerous initiative.
Gawn Chippin
Arachnocronymic Metaphoron
An undercover reporter becomes Foreskinners' spitoon:
www.lifesitenews.com
Israeli investigative reporter spat on, harassed in Jerusalem while dressed as a Catholic priest - LifeSite
Amid cascading Jewish violence against Christians in Israel, a television journalist exposes the gravity of these crimes and law enforcement’s apparent complicity.
www.lifesitenews.com
