The Two Extremists Driving Israel’s Policy

They are the leading extremists in the most right-wing government in Israel’s history: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir are both West Bank settlers. They ran together on the same ticket in Israel’s most recent election, gaining more votes than ever before for the far right. They both want Israel to reoccupy all of Gaza, to renew Israeli settlement there, and to “encourage” Palestinians to emigrate. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dependence on their support to stay in power is a key reason, possibly the main reason, that the war in Gaza continues. They are also rivals, evidence that extremism comes in more than one form.

A case in point: The Israeli army’s new offensive, Smotrich declared in a May 19 video clip, “is destroying everything left in [the Gaza] Strip, simply because it is one big city of terror.” The population, he said, would not only be concentrated in the southern end of Gaza, but would continue on, “with God’s help, to third countries”; meanwhile, the army was “eliminating ministers, officials,” and other members of the Hamas administration. Smotrich presented all of this as proof that the government had at last adopted his approach to conducting the war. He ended with a slang term translatable roughly as “We’re kicking the enemy’s face in,” and a verse from the Bible.