The most accurate Knesset member is Itamar Ben Gvir. He may also be the most racist, the provocateur, the most prominent, the agitating, the burning, the interesting, the annoying and the annoying – but most of all, he is accurate.
It was his week. On average, once a month he has his week. His media profile is high, very high. The ascent to the Temple Mount, with a flag, on Jerusalem Day, a year after the guard of the walls, calling on the police to restore order – this is an act that is bingo. Bull in a pony. Just as Roldan took over Hanukkah, Gad dairies for weeks, Ben Gvir became an Israeli day for the liberation of Jerusalem for Itamar’s flagship holiday.
The establishment of a bureau in Sheikh Jarrah against the background of a real estate-legal dispute, while convincing all those around to call the neighborhood Shimon the Righteous, is a flashback. One does not have to agree with him to admit that he is the most effective public relations enterprise that has ever existed in Israeli politics.
The most exemplary example is from 2011, when he drove Sudanese infiltrators from south Tel Aviv to the pompous Gordon Pool, took care of them in swimsuits, put them in the pool and shouted at them: “Guys, swims swims, have fun”, against the background of the tongue swimmers of the regular swimmers. He insisted: they have human rights. They also want to swim here. Exciting creativity meets a remarkably effective media action – hard not to admire.
- A cheesecake with a spoiled taste that you will never guess is low in calories
Itamar Ben Gvir has it huge. He has a burning ideology that comes in the right cover, almost cool. The public knows what he thinks on a variety of issues in the Israeli public, more than the opinion of Yair Lapid, for example. Moreover, one can guess what he will think of future events. Ben Gvir is clearer and more transparent than most of the politicians in the Mishkan, perhaps of all of them. It is impossible to suspect that his mouth and heart are not equal.
It combines a burning right-wing agenda with a healthy ability to stay entertained and even funny. Oren Hazan also had an agenda, even quite similar, but unlike Ben Gvir, his defiant actions were interpreted as clownish. The dose for him was in favor of the idiots, he was a reality refugee even before he entered the “Big Brother” house. Compared to Hazan, the ideological far right suffers from disrespect and a lack of sense of humor, from veterans like Geula Cohen and Elyakim Hatzni to young people like Bezalel Smutrich or Simcha Rotman, who is only 41 years old, but transmits grayness and fatigue.
They all always look serious, older even when they are young, tiring even when talking passionately, it is difficult to connect with them, with them the ideology comes at the expense of accessibility to the persona.
Ben Gvir is in a good place in the middle, he combines a nationalist backbone, with a vital hint of playfulness. It’s easy to like. Anyone who gets stuck with the car in the middle of the night and needs cables to start a battery will prefer to meet Ben Gvir and ask him for help than Nitzan Horowitz, for example. At least according to his media image, Horowitz will not bother to stop the vehicle. Ben Gvir will become his best friend, and will invite everyone who gets stuck to the fire in his house.
Even the apparent hatred of the Arabs, in which he is publicly accused, is more concrete than racist at home. Like it or not, Ben Gvir himself is of Arab descent. His father’s parents are from Iraq. His mother’s family from Kurdistan. His original last name is “Khanan”, meaning Gvir, in Arabic. His father passed him by.
He also knows how to correct mistakes in real time. As long as Baruch Goldstein’s picture hung in his living room, he knew it had more to do with his image than it had helped. He removed it. He has the most important trait for a politician – he knows how to choose his wars. When the Bar Association tried to prevent him from accessing a law internship, he fought it and won.
ABG’s race to the top is fueled, unknowingly, even by the left, which strategically mistakenly marks him as “scary,” “demonic,” “dangerous,” who should be wary of any of his actions. “Vote Bibi, you will get Ben Gvir.” It’s a spur, instead of shying away from it, it magnifies it.
His messages are simple, his actions are original. He seems to be physically everywhere explosive. Whenever there is a rift, controversy or gaping hole, he settles down in seconds with a white cap, buttoned blue, square glasses, a bastard smile and a voice that already in his second sentence shrinks and jumps to a justified platitude. No matter when and how they are held – Ben Gvir is the most anticipated surprise of the next election.