Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumNetanyahu turns to extremist party that calls for expelling Arabs from Israel
Source: Washington Post
By Shira Rubin and Steve Hendrix
March 20, 2021 at 4:00 a.m. EDT
TEL AVIV Itamar Ben Gvir hails from a fringe of Israeli politics so extreme it was outlawed. A lawyer known for defending Jewish settlers accused of violence against Arabs, he has roots in the overtly racist Kach party, founded by radical American rabbi Meir Kahane and banned by Israel decades ago.
But now, Ben Gvir and thousands of new-generation Kahanists are on the verge of a political comeback, thanks to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus need for parliamentary seats in Tuesdays national election.
Backed by Netanyahu, Ben Gvirs Jewish Power party is poised to gain its first spot in Israels Knesset and possibly even a cabinet position in the next government, providing the ultranationalist group with a foothold in its bid for legitimacy.
That prospect has electrified thousands of modern-day Kahanists, who see Ben Gvir as the kind of polished leader who can make their ideology palatable to an increasingly right-wing electorate. He advocates expelling Arabs deemed disloyal from Israel and the occupied territories and calls for Israel to annex the entire West Bank, which is home to some 3 million Palestinians.
Itamar is this new generation, a generation that knows that the way to participate in public discourse is to talk positively not about hating Arabs, but about loving the Jewish nation, though the core ideology is the same, said Nati Smadar of the far-right advocacy group Lahava, whose members have been convicted of arson attacks on mixed Arab-Jewish schools and have protested at weddings between Jews and Arabs.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israel-election-netanyahu-ben-gvir/2021/03/19/c3992b7c-85c4-11eb-be4a-24b89f616f2c_story.html
and frankly, if this is the way they and Netanyahu are going I don't want us supporting them financially.
Israeli
(4,290 posts)and as you rid yourselves of Trump we may this week rid ourselves of Bibi .
If not .......
https://www.972mag.com/ben-gvir-netanyahu-israel-election/
mobeau69
(11,571 posts)Me.
(35,454 posts)Israeli
(4,290 posts)and I mean anything .
Few months ago he was chasing the arab vote , much to the amusment of everyone on the center and left of Israeli
politics .
See : https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-faces-protests-in-nazareth-as-he-continues-effort-to-court-arab-voters/
Now its the far right .
See : https://www.ynetnews.com/magazine/article/HkuGs6lN00
Israeli political analyst Shmuel Rosner told AFP that Netanyahu's tacit boosting of Ben-Gvir is further evidence he has "a great passion to rule and (is) willing to do a lot to remain in power."
"He's less interested in etiquette and what people will say or think and more focused on the simple arithmetics of how to retain power.
"If that means he has to push Ben-Gvir to parliament, that won't stop him," Rosner said.
In pursuing a seat in parliament, Ben-Gvir is seeking to follow another Kahane disciple Michael Ben-Ari, in parliament from 2009 to 2013, who was banned from the legislature by the Supreme Court over his racist and extremist views.
What about his trial?
Israeli
(4,290 posts)will it work this time ??
You will have to wait until Friday when all ballots cast are counted .
His trial ?
Which one ????
See : https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/bibis-trial-case-0001/
With cases 1000, 2000 and 4000 looming and case 3000 waiting in the wings, our Crime Minister will probably never face an incitement charge. This is why I am relegating this case from the thousands classification to a basic 0001. Its a long unresolved state of affairs that many Israelis still must come to terms with, especially now, in anticipation of the fourth election in two years. We must decide if the person in charge who keeps our house so bitterly divided at the height of a pandemic and would let it fall to keep himself out of prison is indeed fit to lead the country.