Israel Needs To Rid Itself of Enemies From Within

Extremism never leads to a stable life, but containing it can. Israel must act now before the hoodlums in its government trigger a regional war with unpredictable and devastating consequences.

In less than two years, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the provocateur who clashed with police officers, beat up Palestinians, and assaulted fellow Jews because they belonged to left-leaning parties became Israel’s national security minister, to whom the police force answers. Yes, it is the same police force whose members Ben-Gvir insulted and who are now his subordinates. What a mess! I don’t believe this can happen anywhere in the world except in Israel.

Ben-Gvir was the young extreme right-wing agitator who got close enough to the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s car to steal its Cadillac emblem, saying: “We got to his car, and we will get to him.” A few weeks later, Rabin was assassinated. His tragic assassination has since derailed the peace process to where it stands today: neither peace nor process.

Had a Palestinian done and said what Ben-Gvir did and said, he would still be behind Israeli bars, hoping Hamas would add his name to the list of prisoners it wants to exchange with the Israeli captives in Gaza.

Why is that? Because a Palestinian who thinks of assassinating an Israeli prime minister becomes the supreme enemy of the state. I understand this very well. What I cannot understand, though, is how Israel’s Shin Bet, allegedly one of the most well-trained and experienced internal security organizations in the world, allowed such a big fiasco to grow under its nose, doing nothing until the demagogue turned into a real headache to more than 75% of the Israeli public. Some even see Ben-Gvir as a source of clear and present danger.

Five Jerusalem rabbis rightly condemned Ben-Gvir and his entourage when they stormed Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem last Tuesday, marking Tisha B’Av, the anniversary of the destruction of the First and Second Temples. These rabbis translated their statement into Arabic and circulated it among Arabs in Israel to send a clear message that Ben-Gvir “is not one of us” and that what he did contradicted the teachings of Judaism and the halacha (Jewish religious law).

Such repeated provocative tours of Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest shrine in Islam, are tantamount to a declaration of a religious war against the Islamic world, especially when they are accompanied by ruthless attacks on Arab merchants in Jerusalem’s Old City launched by hoodlums joining Ben-Gvir’s entourage. At the same time, police and border guards on site do nothing to stop or arrest them.

Who on earth wants to declare a religious war on behalf of 18 million Jews worldwide against close to 2 billion Muslims? Can you name a single sane person who would chase such a dark scenario that brings only blood, tears, and pain to all those involved, be they Palestinians, Israelis, Arabs, or foreigners?

Some extreme right—or left-wing—zealots believe that only when things get bad does the desired change start to emerge. This is not necessarily true or false. It depends on the circumstances and the given period for such a development.

We are all sitting on a powder keg. A single unfortunate incident can blow up the region at a time when everyone is trying to contain the war in Gaza and prevent its expansion into a regional war. Suppose such a war breaks out, God forbid. In that case, it is likely to involve some superpowers, given the close ties between Iran, Russia, and China on the one hand and, on the other hand, the full support and backing that Israel enjoys from the US and probably some other NATO member states.

Efforts are far-reaching to end the war in Gaza and bring some relief to Palestinians and Israelis. The Israelis will be relieved to receive the captives returning home safe and sound and pay tribute to the bodies of those killed during or after they were abducted on October 7. Likewise, the Palestinians will be happy to receive their sons after so many years behind Israeli bars. All wars are harsh and bitter. All wars leave behind defeated people without winners. No victory can make a bereaved family forget the members it lost. No tears can ever bring back any loved ones who shall never return.

Frankly, the regional war seems closer than we ever expected. If incinerating moves like the ones of Ben-Gvir and his supporters continue, they will only speed up Israel’s fall into the abyss. What has made matters worse was a statement attributed to Ben-Gvir by the Israeli press in which he said that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was aware ahead of time of last week’s plan to storm Al Aqsa Mosque. Incriminating the prime minister in such a move is also dangerous as it confirms the perception that Israel is governed by a ruthless, extreme right-wing government whose only agenda is to perpetuate rather than solve the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Israel has consistently complained about being surrounded by Arab “enemies” without thinking about why the Arab world was so antagonized by Israel when it only accepted half of UN Resolution 181 to partition Palestine in 1947. Since then, the UN Security Council has issued over 80 resolutions on the question of Palestine. None have been implemented. The UN failed to enforce the implementation of those resolutions, although none of the permanent council members opposed them. Some may have abstained, but none vetoed those resolutions.

In similar cases elsewhere, the UN has served as a cover for international coalitions that the US created against regimes that were not to Washington’s liking. Such alliances intervened in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Bosnia, among many other countries. Implementing the UN resolutions could have ended the decadeslong “animosity” toward Israel. Had Israel agreed to end its occupation that started in 1967, it could have found itself in a different geopolitical situation today, enjoying normal and friendly ties throughout the region and the Arab world.

However, no UN resolution can save Israel from its internal enemies. Their emergence over the last 15 years since Netanyahu’s 2009 return to the Prime Minister’s Office threatens to lacerate Israel’s public into warring tribes over the state founders’ democratic values and expansionist occupiers’ vision of Greater Israel. This internal conflict risks destroying today’s Israel.

True, both Palestinians and Israelis have their enemies from within, who, one way or another, help each other. The time has come for the emergence of a new alliance between supporters of a new life of genuine peace and honest neighborly ties to beat warmongers on both sides.