Piers Morgan is having a field day. It’s his wildest fantasy come true.
He is so tickled, I heard he may even send a check to Israel’s Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, for giving him so much extra fuel for his obsessive mantra criticizing Israel in general and Ben Gvir and his ideological boogeyman twin, Bezalel Smotrich, in particular.
Piers Morgan chants, “Ben Gvir and Smotrich, Ben Gvir and Smotrich” in his British accent, like a broken record.
Piers loves conflating these two as representatives of Israel and everything bad about Israel. And of course, with Ben Gvir and Smotrich in his crosshairs, there’s “evidence” of genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid, even if it’s not true. But with “Ben Gvir and Smotrich” mantra, facts don’t matter. It’s good for the click-hungry Piers Morgan show.
It also doesn’t matter that, according to most polls in Israel, Smotrich and his party will not even pass the minimum threshold to enter the next Knesset. This is the true demonstration of how much he represents, or in fact does not represent, Israel. Piers does not care about facts.
In the 24 hours since Ben Gvir released a video of himself taunting people detained from the latest flotilla seeking to violate Israel’s security and embarrass Israel in succession, one flotilla at a time, what’s become the lead news story after Iran is how most of Israel abhors what Ben Gvir did. Israelis in every media, cafes, and other venues are decrying Ben Gvir’s antics.
He’s being described as foolish, amateurish, and having damaged Israel’s credibility.
Piers won’t pay attention to this reality, just how he can use Ben Gvir to boost his ratings and blacken Israel’s eye.
I had some other observations. One is as much as I agree with the chorus of criticism, one thing that was unabashedly stupid was that he chanted slogans in Hebrew, so nobody among the detainees had any idea what he was saying. That said, the question arises, if the detainees didn’t understand, who was he campaigning to and who did he make the video for? And why?
As Israel approached national elections in the fall, the immediate answer is that he’s campaigning for votes from his base. In that context, he should be fired as Minister for damaging Israel’s interests. If Ben Gvir is playing politics, being fired will be good for him and his base, but also distance him from the Prime Minister, who has his own political interests.
Of course, from a simple management perspective, he should be fired by his boss, the Prime Minister. From a practical perspective, it doesn’t matter if that brings down the government now anyway, as the government is now voting on dissolving itself and national elections are coming up in October.
Anyway, we’re entering the political season where parties and politicians will begin to break from coalition partners to carve out their own political identity in order to capture votes. It’s a form of political cannibalism that will happen anyway, with parties in the same government backstabbing and competing among one another to get the most votes and garner the most influence.
Five months in Israeli political life is a very long time. Whether it would be a good thing or a bad thing for Netanyahu to fire Ben Gvir at this point hardly seems relevant, nor would it preclude the same parties from forming the same coalition again. In short, it doesn’t matter if Ben Gvir is fired. The parties may even desire that for their own political calculations.
Firing Ben Gvir would be the right thing to do, and certainly enable Israeli commentators on Piers Morgan‘s three-ring circus to point to the fact that he was fired. But the damage has been done and the images of Ben Gvir chanting in Hebrew while standing above dozens of participants in the flotilla have already traversed the world faster than a speeding bullet.
For clarity, Israel has every right to intercept and detain the flotilla frauds. It is all a show to embarrass Israel. They claim they are bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza, but the last flotilla that was detained was loaded with weapons and condoms.
For anti-Israel pundits like Piers Morgan, facts don’t matter. Truth is about as abundant as humanitarian supplies on the flotilla. One man’s stupid stunt is enough fuel in the tank for months of him droning on about “Ben Gvir and Smotrich.”
In a different context, more than a week before Ben Gvir’s stunt, a friend told me he doesn’t consider Ben Gvir a Zionist. A Zionist should advocate for a strong Israel. Ben Gvir does damage to Israel’s security. I asked if he thought that Ben Gvir was doing it deliberately or naïvely and ignorantly. My friend said it didn’t matter. And my friend is not a leftist by any stretch.
Yes, indeed, he’s done tremendous damage and yes, indeed, he continues to spike his ideological ball in the end zone. It’s not a good look, and other than winning some votes for himself, it does nothing positive.
As much as what he did was immature and damaging, I have another concern that I have not yet heard anyone else address. Whether he’s qualified or not or appropriate or not, the man is a government minister. I would expect even in the worst-case scenario that a government minister would have some kind of broader perspective about his actions. But even not, and even if he thinks that what he did was entirely appropriate, my question is, does he, as a government minister, not have better things to do than to go and harass people who have been detained? What on earth is the benefit of that to the state or in carrying out his ministerial duties? Is Israel safer as a result? Is crime down?
I have heard people defend his actions because those detained from the flotilla have violated the law. Indeed, this is and should be how terrorists and their supporters are treated. Simply by virtue of detaining and handcuffing terrorists, or forcing them to kneel face down to prevent any security threat is not necessarily a bad thing. But I do not see any benefit whatsoever to film it, much less to stand over them and yell in a language that they don’t understand that “we are in charge.” At best, that’s redundant. And foolish, and amateurish.
As polarizing as he is, Itamar Ben Gvir remains one of the most charismatic Israeli politicians. For many, he is an anathema, and his latest antics just pushed him away further. For some, he is a bold leader, not afraid to stand up for what he thinks is right, whether he is right or wrong. He and other politicians, parties, and policies, and who Israelis are considering voting for this year, will be explored in the upcoming Inspiration from Zion webinar.
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