Ben-Gvir Is Turning Israel Into a Spectacle

There was a time when Israel understood something fundamental: power is not only measured by military strength, but by restraint. Not every provocation requires humiliation. Not every activist needs to be turned into an enemy. And not every political stunt deserves to become an international spectacle.

“Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles.” (Book of Proverbs 24:17)

There is a reason the Book of Proverbs warns us. Judaism understood long ago that power without restraint corrodes the soul of a nation. We are not commanded to love those who seek our destruction, nor are we expected to surrender our right to defend ourselves. But we are warned against something equally dangerous: allowing cruelty, mockery, and humiliation to become sources of national pleasure. The moment a state begins celebrating the degradation of detainees as entertainment or political theater, it has crossed from defending itself into diminishing itself.

The shameful spectacle orchestrated by Minister of Internal Security (and I use this term lightly), Itamar Ben Gvir today, was not a sign of Israeli strength. It was vulgarity masquerading as patriotism.

Let us be honest. Many Israelis, myself included, have little patience for these flotillas. They are less about humanitarian aid and more about theater. Many participants join these flotillas not to help Palestinians but to provoke Israel, generate headlines, and return home as heroes of the anti-Israel movement. Some openly traffic in rhetoric that crosses from criticism of Israel into outright demonization.

But here is the uncomfortable truth. When official Israel, and unfortunately Ben Gvir is the anchor of a demonic right-wing faction of the Israeli government, responds with humiliation, degradation, and chest-thumping cruelty, we become the main actors in our enemies script.

One only needs to see the video, shot by the Minister and his staff themselves, as they showed the detainees in degrading situations, mocking them and forcing them into propaganda-style photo opportunities with Israeli flags flying over their bowed heads and handcuffed hands, treated as trophies rather than detainees. Ben-Gvir himself reportedly boasted that the activists were being treated like “terror supporters” and said he was “proud” of the conditions they faced.

The tone coming from Israel’s leadership is unmistakable. Humiliation is not an unfortunate byproduct. It is the point.

And that should terrify every Israeli who still cares about our moral Jewish narrative.

A serious country does not need to degrade activists, European parliamentarians, journalists, or attention-seeking provocateurs to defend its borders. A confident nation intercepts the flotilla professionally, processes detainees lawfully, and sends them home without transforming them into martyrs for the global anti-Israel movement.

Instead, Ben-Gvir once again handed Israel’s enemies exactly what they wanted: imagery.

You can bet that the global conversation now and for the next few days will focus on how Israel humiliated these detainees.

This is the tragedy of Ben-Gvirism. He confuses revenge with deterrence and humiliation with sovereignty. He performs his form of nationalism like a reality television show, where every act of cruelty becomes a campaign advertisement and every international outrage becomes proof of ideological purity.

But nations are not built on humiliation. Democracies are not strengthened by public degradation. And Jews, of all people, should understand the danger of celebrating the humiliation of powerless detainees, even when those detainees despise us.

There is also something deeply exhausting about watching Israel continuously surrender its moral high ground to the worst instincts of its own politics. At a moment when the Jewish state desperately needs credibility in the world, when antisemitism is exploding globally, when Israel’s very legitimacy is under assault, our national security minister behaves like an online troll with police powers.

And then we wonder why the world hates Israel. Why younger Jews abroad feel alienated. What exactly are they supposed to feel?

Because defending Israel’s right to exist is one thing. Defending Hamas is obscene. But defending the deliberate humiliation of detainees for political theater? That is something else entirely.

Ben-Gvir and his supporters will call my criticism weak. They will call me a defeatist. They always do. They have built an entire political identity around the fantasy that cruelty equals strength. That the louder the humiliation, the stronger Israel appears.

But Jewish history teaches the opposite lesson.

Real strength is discipline. Real sovereignty is restraint. Real nationalism is not performative humiliation but moral confidence.

Israel had every right to stop the flotilla. It did not need to lose part of its soul in the process.