A premeditated act of anti-Israel political terrorism

Netanyahu needs to fire Ben Gvir after his flotilla provocation, but of course he won’t

PM once recognized the damage the far-right Jewish supremacist would cause as a minister. But he gave him a key job nonetheless and Israel is now being predictably shamed, harmed and weakened

Back in ancient Israeli political history, in the run-up to elections in March 2021, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked in a TV interview whether the far-right Otzma Yehudit party leader Itamar Ben Gvir would be given a ministerial role in the coalition he was hoping to form after the vote.

Netanyahu, who had brokered a deal under which Ben Gvir and fellow far-right party leader Bezalel Smotrich would run on a joint slate to ensure both of their parties cleared the electoral threshold and made it into the Knesset, replied that he certainly wanted Ben Gvir in his coalition but would not be appointing him as a minister.

Pressed on why, he told his Channel 12 interviewer that Ben Gvir — who has multiple convictions for incitement to racism and support for the outlawed Kach terrorist organization — was “not fit” to sit in his cabinet. Asked if he considered Ben Gvir a racist, Netanyahu allowed, “His positions are not mine.”

Netanyahu lost those elections, so the matter was temporarily moot. But he won the next race in November 2022 after again brokering a temporary deal to ensure both Ben Gvir and Smotrich’s parties safely cleared the electoral threshold.

Dependent on their support for his majority, the returning prime minister then gave each of the far-right lawmakers key ministerial posts. He appointed the theocratic, anti-Arab racist Smotrich to the central position of finance minister, and also gave him a powerful ministerial role in the Defense Ministry with sweeping authorities over West Bank policy. And he named Ben Gvir as the minister of national security.

This was not the metaphorical equivalent of placing a pyromaniac in charge of the Fire Department. It was, rather, the literal appointment of a pyromaniac to head the Fire Department. And of the Border Police combat force. And the Prison Service. And the Israel Police.

The harm Ben Gvir has done in this powerhouse position to Israel — its security, its reputation and its internal well-being — is incalculable. He has politicized the police force, corroded its values, promoted sycophantic officers and blocked the promotions of more qualified personnel. He has encouraged aggressive policing of anti-government demonstrations. He has presided over a staggering rise in deadly crime in the Arab sector and an ongoing rise in youth criminality.

He has flagrantly, frequently and delightedly breached the so-called status quo on the hyper-combustible Temple Mount, which forbids Jewish prayer at the disputed site, last week holding aloft an Israeli flag there. He was posing alongside an MK from his own party who, after the day’s visit, declared in a Facebook post: “The time has come to get rid of all the mosques and work to construct the Temple.”

And then on Wednesday, Ben Gvir, escorted by officers in his house-trained police force, visited the installation where Israel has detained, pending deportation, several hundred international activists from the latest Gaza-bound flotilla. Brandishing our national flag, he taunted the bound, kneeling men and women, one of whom was forced to the floor and roughly moved aside to clear his triumphalist path.

Related: Ben Gvir posts video of himself taunting bound and detained Gaza flotilla activists, sparks global outcry

Israel has repeatedly denounced the flotillas as anti-Israel, Hamas-abetting publicity stunts, as indeed they are. It has also sought to minimize the frictions involved in thwarting their efforts to break the blockade Israel imposes on what is still — almost three years after Hamas invaded southern Israel, massacred 1,200 people, and abducted 251 — a substantially Hamas-run Gaza.

Many lessons were evidently learned from the 2010 Mavi Marmara confrontation, when Israeli Naval commandos boarding that flotilla vessel were attacked by thugs with clubs and bars, and opened fire with their personal weapons, killing 10. On Monday, Netanyahu praised the Israeli Navy commandos who oversaw the latest, relatively smooth interceptions. “You are doing this with great success, and I must say also, quietly, and certainly with less publicity than our enemies expected,” Netanyahu said.

Then, on Wednesday, came Ben Gvir’s deliberately incendiary performance, video of which he himself posted with the message, “This is how we receive the supporters of terrorism. Welcome to Israel.”

A premeditated act of anti-Israel political terrorism, this, for Ben Gvir, was a routine provocation — a characteristic act of Jewish supremacism, also designed to bolster his support among the growing ranks of Jewish extremists ahead of elections set for this fall.

For Israel, it was a hugely damaging spectacle, predictably igniting a global firestorm, with real consequences for Israel’s already dire international reputation, practical potential legal consequences for Israeli soldiers abroad, and the potential to still further raise hostility to all Israelis, Jews and those who identify with Israel.

As this writer and so many others who care for Israel have stressed repeatedly, Netanyahu should never have legitimized Ben Gvir, much less partnered with him in a coalition, and least of all granted him an acutely sensitive role in the governance of the country.

Netanyahu managed a mild condemnation of Ben Gvir’s performance: “The way that Minister Ben Gvir dealt with the flotilla activists is not in line with Israel’s values and norms,” the prime minister said. But appointed by Netanyahu, Ben Gvir has been assiduously corrupting Israel’s values and norms for the past three-and-a-half years.

Ben Gvir is “not fit” to serve as a minister, Netanyahu correctly stated in 2021. He should, of course, never have shifted from that position. He should, of course, have fired Ben Gvir long ago. And he should, of course, fire Ben Gvir now.

But although Ben Gvir is exactly the same racist thug he always was, Netanyahu is not the Netanyahu of 2021, who was sometimes still capable of prioritizing Israel’s well-being over his own political needs.