The Blogs: Hear, O Israel: Choose Healing over Hate

Ben Gvir and Smotrich must be ousted for this recovery to start.

Where were you on September 11, 2001, or October 7, 2023? These are commonly asked questions, but do you remember where you were on November 2, 2022? This was the day after the last Israeli Knesset Elections, when we found out that the country had fallen, and extremist right-wing fanatics such as Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich would be in the government.

I was in Park Ra’anana with my children and met some fresh-faced Anglos who had just made aliyah. They asked me why I looked so gloomy. I told them that “This election result was the worst thing that could happen to this country.”

Little did I know just how bad it would get. I had no idea the country would be torn apart by a controversial legal reform, the ensuing protests and police crackdown, the massive security failure of the October 7th massacre, and the resulting two-year hostage crisis.

Today the talk of the town is all Netanyahu and anti-Netanyahu, but don’t lose focus — the most important issue of this election is how the Israeli public can remove Ben Gvir, Smotrich, and the dangerous extremists from the Knesset. This will not be an easy task as they have become accustomed to power.

Ben Gvir became Minister of National Security, presiding over border police (where were they on October 7?) and immediately made moves to create his own national guard force (recently reported to be operating without clear guidelines).

Smotrich became Minister of Finance and has annually approved budgets that greatly favour settlers and religious Zionist policies such as building expansion in the West Bank.

All of this disruption and power, and they only got a fraction of the votes. In 2022, the Religious Zionist and Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) parties together won 14 seats, around 10% of the vote. Although a record win for them, it’s a relatively small slice of the cake (Netanyahu’s Likud won 32 seats and Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid won 24 seats). A desperate Netanyahu effectively handed the extremists the keys to the palace.

The Case Against Ben Gvir

Al Aqsa: Immediately after becoming an MK, Ben Gvir provoked the Arab world by parading around the Temple Mount (Al-Aqsa Mosque compound). He has since done this every year to mark Jerusalem Day and Yom Kippur, and attracted more unnecessary hatred toward Israel from Muslims around the world, including from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and others. Incidentally, Hamas called their horrific October 7 attack the Al-Aqsa Flood.
Police brutality: Following the government’s proposed legal reforms to limit the powers of the Supreme Court, outlined by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, there were mass protests on Israel’s streets calling for ‘Democracy’. In response, Ben Gvir openly called for the police to crack down on the protesters, and Israel witnessed police brutality like it had never seen before.
Death penalty: Ben Gvir campaigned for the death penalty for convicted Palestinian terrorists and, in March 2026, celebrated with champagne, drawing wide condemnation from around the world.
Flotilla PR disaster: In May 2026, Ben Gvir made the headlines again for taunting foreign activists detained in Israel and posted it as a publicity stunt. Once again, showing Israel as a country that abuses human rights.
Betraying the hostages: In January 2025, Ben Gvir quit the government over the hostage deal that he opposed. He then returned in March when bombing in Gaza resumed. Throughout the war, he called for the fighting to continue and opposed any hostage deal, which goes against the IDF’s ‘leave no one behind’ policy. Yet, when the remaining hostages were released in October 2025 (due to US pressure), Ben Gvir was in the Knesset applauding Donald Trump. But let’s not forget that out of the 251 hostages, 85 returned dead. Perhaps more could have been saved if they had agreed to ‘Bring them Home’ earlier. As released hostage Eli Sharabi said, “Hostages aren’t a political issue. It’s not Left or Right, it’s straight.”

The Case Against Smotrich

Hamas as an ‘asset’: In 2015, Smotrich said in an interview, “The Palestinian Authority is a burden, and Hamas is an asset.” After October 7, this quote resurfaced as it highlights the worst failure in Israeli strategy in its short history: choosing to fund and support Hamas instead of pursuing diplomacy by any means.

Huwara: Two days before October 7, two commando units of the IDF who were supposed to be patrolling the Gaza border were diverted to the town of Huwara in the West Bank due to settlers rioting. In March 2023, Smotrich said Huwara should be “wiped out,” and the settler rampages in the area increased.
Biased budgets: During the war, government ministries such as education faced sweeping spending cuts, yet the 2026 budget allocated billions to Haredi and national-religious institutions.
Arab violence: In the past few years, the murder rate in Arab towns within Israel has risen considerably. When pressed on this in the Knesset by an Arab MK, Smotrich shouted back, “Educate your public to stop murdering.” Although education is a problem (which he, as Finance Minister, can also help tackle), it is Israel’s duty to protect all civilians, including Arabs, within its borders.
E1 Project: And the icing on the cake is Smotrich’s plans to build over 3,000 homes in the West Bank as part of the E1 Plan, as he said, to “bury the idea of a Palestinian state.” Not surprisingly, this was globally condemned.

The Pariah problem
The problem is that people inside Israel know that Ben Gvir and Smotrich represent a minority. But outside, unfortunately, they represent the state of Israel. Due to their loud mouths and soundbites, Ben Gvir and Smotrich are arguably the best-known Israelis after Netanyahu and NBA superstar Deni Avdija.

The backlash they get for their hate speech feeds into their narrative of ‘the world hates us’, or ‘Europe hates us’ (which is not completely true). They love being called a ‘pariah state’, as it supports their rhetoric of alienation: everyone hates us, so we’ll do davka (deliberately out of spite). Ben Gvir and Smotrich clearly get a kick out of shocking what they call the liberal ‘left’.

Yet, wiser leaders have always known that Israel exists and depends on its outside partners. Ben Gurion knew that Israel needed unilateral US support; how else could a tiny nation defend itself in such a hostile region? The same is true today: Israel needs good diplomatic relations and strong alliances with its neighbours in the region, whether they be Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, or even the PA. Diplomacy is not weakness; it is strength.

Chance for change?
The upcoming election is a chance to get rid of these ‘monster ministers’ who incite hatred every day with every speech they make.

Many find it unbelievable that Bibi, Ben Gvir, and Smotrich are even running. Indeed, Smotrich considered resigning after October 7 but concluded himself that he did nothing wrong! Today, their campaign rhetoric (apparently the extremists are big on TikTok) spreads fear that the left will sell out the country to the Arabs.

Yet, we have a brief precedent for this. The government from June 2021 to December 2022, led by Bennett and briefly Lapid, was the first to include the United Arab List and was, on the whole, a more stable government than the current one. This coalition showed that Jewish and Arab parties could collaborate.

The next Israeli government needs to dismantle the damage done by this extremist coalition. They’ll need to rip up the E1 plans, arrest leaders of both settler and Arab gang violence, introduce more women in the Knesset, and much more. This is not radical change; this is just going back to where we were four years ago.

Here’s a domestic to-do list:

Unite behind Gadi Eisenkot (as he is the best hope of beating Bibi).
Form a coalition with Bennett, Lapid, Golan, Gantz (and maybe Lieberman).
Start the healing and rebuilding of communities.
Investigate what happened on and before October 7.
Invest in even more robust defence systems and border security.
Implement the largest program of rejuvenation Israel has ever seen in the Gaza Envelope and northern communities affected by the war.
Limit undemocratic powers, overturn the judicial haul, abolish the death penalty, and impose a cap on the number of prime minister terms.
Prioritize education to improve schools and encourage quality teachers.
Bring back tourism as a driver of the country’s economy.
Tackle Israel’s traffic problems and protect its beautiful natural spaces.

This is just a ‘tikun’ (fix), or a reset. There’s much more to do regarding defense and dealing with Israel’s threats. And I’m not blaming everything that happened in the past few years on Ben Gvir and Smotrich. Of course, there are plenty of despicable villains in this saga: Netanyahu, Sinwar, Hamas, Hezbollah, Assad, Qatar, the Ayatollahs, and more.

But internally, these radicals are leading Israel to hell when it needs healing. The much-needed reset for Israelis and Jews around the world can only start if the extremists are expelled.