Now that Israel has resumed bombing Gaza, Itamar Ben-Gvir is back in the Netanyahu government

Israel has renewed its pummeling of Gaza, having killed well over 400 Palestinians in a matter of hours. 

This marks a definitive end to a ceasefire which Israel had kept violating. Israel had closed off all of Gaza two weeks ago in violation of the ceasefire agreement, ostensibly because Hamas refused to accept Israel’s unilateral changes to the agreement. Israel’s demands would have delayed its withdrawal from Gaza and postponed the cessation of hostilities, or possible long-term truce. 

Hamas initially refused the altering of terms altogether, and yet later showed signs of being open to them. But Benjamin Netanyahu was poised to resume the Gaza genocide in high gear. This was partly because it is what his ruling coalition was demanding.

Far right-wing politician Itamar Ben-Gvir of the Jewish Power party, who until the onset of the ceasefire was Minister of National Security, resigned over the ceasefire in January, saying it was a “reckless deal.” He said he would only be ready to return when “fighting” resumed.

Ben-Gvir tried to convince his government partner Bezalel Smotrich of Religious Zionism to do the same, but Smotrich stayed. The Jewish Power exit reduced the government coalition majority from a sound 68 seats to a less-secure 63 – had Smotrich left too, the government would have fallen. Thus, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir applied pressure on Netanyahu from two directions: Ben-Gvir would be back if the fighting resumed, Smotrich would soon leave if it didn’t.

In recent months Ben-Gvir has been making other various demands in order to return to the government, included enacting Trump’s ethnic cleansing plan in Gaza and denying any humanitarian aid to the besieged strip. 

Now that Israeli bombs are raining on Gaza once again, it has been music to Ben-Gvir’s ears. “As we have said for months since we withdrew: Israel must return to fighting in Gaza,” his party said in a statement. “This is the right, moral and justified step. To destroy Hamas and bring our hostages home, we cannot allow the terror group to exist — it must be eliminated.”

And now that Ben-Gvir’s central demand has been fulfilled Israeli media is reporting that he is set to return to government. But there’s more to it, and this is where Netanyahu’s and Ben-Gvir’s interests dovetail further. 

Israel has seen a political implosion in recent days over Netanyahu’s threat to fire Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, who wanted to continue investigating government failures leading to the October 7 attack. Netanyahu said he wanted to fire Bar over a lack of trust, which would have been unprecedented in Israeli history. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said Netanyahu could not fire him on the basis of mere personal distrust, and that it would require proof of Bar’s professional incompetence. Netanyahu then threatened to fire her too. 

These moves would not have only helped Netanyahu by alleviating any criticisms of how his government handled October 7, but would shore up the right-wing flank of his coalition. Both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich welcomed the move on Bar, with Ben-Gvir emphasizing that “the right must learn from President Trump to eradicate the ‘Deep State’.” Ben-Gvir has also been calling for Baharav-Miara’s dismissal for the past year over her attempts to investigate his genocidal incitement, as well as her recommendation to have Ben-Gvir himself removed from duty due to misconduct. 

This chain of events has the potential to generate mass protests in Israel similar to those we saw before October 7, where the focus was against Netanyahu and for supposed “democracy.” The leader of the left-Zionist Democrats, Yair Golan, said Israel’s recent Gaza escalation was actually meant to distract from this political firestorm, saying “Netanyahu is sacrificing hostages and soldiers’ lives because he fears protests over the Shin Bet chief’s dismissal — the public must rise up.”  

But Netanyahu’s goal is precisely to strengthen his governmental coalition at this point — particularly to retrieve the more fascist parts of it — so as to continue his rule towards the complete destruction of Palestine. And this is exactly what Ben-Gvir wants. His vision is of a “Greater Israel” without Palestinians, a Kahanist through and through. What is happening now is a step in his desired direction. The lesser the restraints on this goal, the better for him — hence his aversion to those who might want to slow them down, like Baharav-Miara and Bar.

Ben-Gvir and Netanyahu both share the hope of realizing their goal of establishing “greater Israel” goal, their only differences are how fast they are willing to move and with how few democratic trappings. For them, Trump represents a model of uninhibited power, where things like international law have very little significance, if any. Trump is now providing them with cover for their next assault on Palestinians, and as a bonus, they also get to eradicate those who seek to put the last breaks on fully embracing a fascist Israel, where genocide is no longer a crime, but a necessity.