Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> can allow it.<\/p>\nNetanyahu cannot control everything Ben-Gvir says or does. But he can condemn it, distance his government from it, and make clear that this is not the face Israel wishes to present to the world. Instead, for nearly four years, he has allowed Ben-Gvir to remain a public relations train wreck, careening from one damaging spectacle to another without being called to account.<\/p>\n
Remember the last flotilla, which Israel successfully stopped, only to face widespread condemnation after Ben-Gvir taunted the bound detainees. Israel gained nothing , and lost a great deal , from that stunt. The same is true of the gallows video.<\/p>\n
Yet Netanyahu stays quiet, letting Ben-Gvir rant and rave and then blaming Israel\u2019s plummeting popularity on Qatari, Russian, and Chinese bots.<\/p>\n
The bots don\u2019t help. But neither does Ben-Gvir.<\/p>\n
Instead, he sullies Israel\u2019s reputation as an enlightened country in an especially harsh neighborhood, determined to retain its humanity even while endlessly fighting enemies who have lost theirs.<\/p>\n
Huckabee warns against giving critics ammunition<\/p>\n
The danger of handing Israel\u2019s enemies ammunition extends beyond Ben-Gvir.<\/p>\n
Jewish extremists harming and harassing Palestinians in Judea and Samaria also chip away at Israel\u2019s image.<\/p>\n
That point was made clear this week by US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, one of Israel\u2019s strongest friends and a man whose support for the country is beyond question.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Kan 11 on Tuesday, Huckabee again described the actions of Jewish criminals in Judea and Samaria as terrorism.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomewhere in the hearts and lives of these thugs who are carrying these things out, they think they\u2019re helping Israel, and they think they\u2019re helping the Jewish people,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are hurting Israel. They\u2019re hurting its reputation, and they are hurting the Jewish people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what Israel could do to shore up its standing among the American public, Huckabee, while acknowledging that those who are antisemitic and hate Israel will not be persuaded, recommended three steps.<\/p>\n
The first, he said, is to have people come and see Israel for themselves. The second is to develop a \u201cfight-back\u201d messaging and communications strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the third thing, and I think maybe this is, you know, a very important one, is that Israelis have to be careful not to give ammunition to their critics,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy would you help your enemies hate you more?\u201d<\/p>\n
That question applies directly to Ben-Gvir.<\/p>\n
His antics give ammunition to those seeking to harm, delegitimize, blacken, and demonize Israel. He is not responsible for the hatred of Israel, but he repeatedly hands Israel\u2019s enemies material they can use to spread it.<\/p>\n
True, the country is in the midst of an election campaign. But that does not excuse Ben-Gvir\u2019s excesses, nor does it excuse Netanyahu\u2019s refusal to speak out against them.<\/p>\n
The election will come and go. But the images of Ben-Gvir marketing the gallows to voters will remain. So will the impression of Israel they leave behind.<\/p>\n
And that is a danger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Election campaigns do not bring out the better angels of our nature. Just look at National Security Minister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[17850,37,16706,8750,12760,545],"class_list":["post-256460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-death-penalty","tag-israel","tag-israel-elections","tag-itamar-ben-gvir","tag-mike-huckabee","tag-terrorism"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117123330071973139","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}