Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s endorsement of a Donald Trump presidency in his “exclusive” interview with the Wall Street Journal published Feb. 4—"Instead of giving us his full backing, Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel [to Gaza], which goes to Hamas, if Trump was in power, the U.S. conduct would be completely different”—is making the headlines. His dismissal of President Biden was enough to send other Israeli ministers scrambling to counter his attack. War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz wrote on X that Ben-Gvir’s attacks on Biden “harm the strategic relations of the State of Israel, the security of the state and the current war effort.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu merely told his cabinet he does “not need help knowing how to navigate our relations with the United States and the international community,” according to the Journal.
Ben-Gvir is not merely an ardent proponent, but also a key organizer of ethnic cleansing and settler violence against Palestinians as the force necessary to establish a racially-pure “Greater Israel” from the river to the sea. The Wall Street Journal chose to use its interview, “The Israeli Firebrand Driving Netanyahu Further to the Right,” to build up this man as a power in Israel, the man allegedly representing the ideas which many Israelis support, and a possible future Prime Minister. It concludes its story on the interview with a wink and a nod:
“Ben-Gvir said he is in no rush to pull the rug out from Netanyahu. He said the likely result would be that a center-left government would take over—and that his own career was just getting started. `God willing, I’ll go far,’ said Ben-Gvir, a grin spreading across his face.”
