The Netanyahu-Ben-Gvir Love Story Is One of the Greatest Disasters Facing Israel - Opinion - Haaretz.com
This week, police in Jerusalem arrested two civilians for questioning. They were suspected of painting a road leading to the Supreme Court pink, as part of a protest campaign against the attempted judicial coup. One of the detainees, Ido Bruno, a former director of the Israel Museum and a senior lecturer at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, had already been detained for questioning a year ago in this matter.
This week there was also footage of a policeman knocking a fan of the Maccabi Haifa soccer club to the ground, then viciously kicking him in the face, and a report of policemen detaining for no reason a demonstrator, Amir Haskel (71, a reserve brigade general and Holocaust researcher), and then strip-searching him.
All this, and much more, is happening as the launchers of naval flares in Caesarea have been detained for more than a month with the status of security prisoners, after it was decided to define their act as one of terrorism, with Sara Netanyahu recognized by the police as a victim in that incident.
This running amok is a direct result of the demolition of the police and the lifting of all restraints by the national security minister, in the service of the prime minister who appointed him. The objective was to sow chaos, to impose terror in the streets and to turn the police into a private militia serving the government. This objective has been achieved.
Thus, any statements about a deflation of Itamar Ben-Gvir's status in the coalition, or about a "crisis" between him and Netanyahu, or the possibility that he will be fired for voting against the budget, are all wishful thinking.
When Ben-Gvir was asked this week if Netanyahu had called him in for a dressing-down, he denied it, saying that at the end of their meeting Netanyahu had embraced him and told him, "I love you," and that he had responded with the same words. All that was missing were candles and violins. I believe Ben-Gvir. This love story is one of the greatest disasters facing Israel and one of Netanyahu's worst crimes.
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A reminder: Netanyahu was the one who insisted and demanded and threatened and flattered until he attained the desired union between Bezalel Smotrich and Ben-Gvir (later also finding room for Avi Maoz from the anti-LGBTQ Noam faction). He also brought Rabbi Zvi Thau, an alleged sex offender, into the Knesset. Netanyahu had previously already brought the spirit of Jewish supremacist Meir Kahane into the Knesset. He has laundered Kahanism, making it an inseparable part of the Bibi-ist movement.
When he formed a government, he put Ben-Gvir in charge of the police and the Israel Prison Service. A deranged move. The police are the inner sanctum of a law-abiding democracy. In routine days and for most citizens in their daily life, their police force is more important than the army.
Ben-Gvir is destroying the police and corrupting the Prison Service, at the behest and on behalf of Netanyahu. The two share a common predicament (as suspects, as people who have been indicted) and obvious common interests: the survival of the "dream" coalition of Bibi-ism, Kahanism and the ultra-national religious camp; the dismantling of the protest movement and the breaking up of the police's investigations department so it can no longer deal with the corruption of lawless politicians like them.
The symbiosis between Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir is total. Even their first-born sons have adopted similar behavior patterns, such as toxic activity on social media and, lately, hedonistic outings in Miami.
Stickers at the memorial reading "Kahane was right" on Tuesday.Credit: Olivier Fitoussi
Their wives also make sure to express a vociferous involvement in their husbands' political careers. However, the overlap also exists in their ideology and ideas. Netanyahu long ago sold his soul to the devil of Jewish racism and ultranationalism. He is riding on the back of that wild tiger. This is true with regard to a permanent presence in the Gaza Strip to maintain Israel in a perennial state of war, and, obviously, to the record numbers of murders in Arab communities.
This is a result of deliberate policies, not of incompetence. This applies to the brutal police oppression of Palestinian citizens who dare express their support for residents of Gaza, with the filmed humiliation ceremonies they are subjected to. In practice, Netanyahu is already a Kahanist. He would dismiss even his attorney Amit Hadad before daring to think of parting from his loyal, beloved accomplice.