There is a madness to his method
Posted on September 1, 2026 at 07:57:44 PM by onb
He wants Israel to be isolated, so purposely does these sort of outrageous things (it isnt just performative; he was/is a Kahanist, which the US and Israel both have classified as a terrorist organization. That has eroded in Israel, as the Netanyahu govt pulls further Right.) Ben-Gvir believes Israel will be able to more completely ignore the world - which he considers to be anti-Semitic to the core - if Israel isnt dependent on anyone else.
The extent to which Netanyahu has tolerated ben Gvir (and a few other almost as awful) to stay in power (and needs Ben Gvir's small party to do so) vs agreeing with some/most of main themes if (definitely) not the theatrics, is debated in Israel.
By the way, just under 2/3 of Israelis disapprove of Ben Gvir, (similar numbers for Smotrich and a few other far-right radicals). That's encouragingly low or discouragingly high in the same way as Trump's level of support here.
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