Ben Gvir Keeps Giving Israel a Bad Name

Let me be clear from the start: I am not a leftist. I am not a bleeding heart. I know exactly what the flotilla activists came here to do, provoke, antagonize, and hand Israel's enemies a gift-wrapped propaganda victory. And yes, I'll admit there was a part of me, like many of you, that felt a certain grim satisfaction watching them brought ashore in handcuffs.

But then I watched the video National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir distributed himself. And my satisfaction curdled into something closer to dread.

Because here is what I kept thinking: Ben Gvir is not stupid. He is, in fact, very smart. Which means he knew exactly what he was doing when he stood over those handcuffed women with their faces to the floor, waved the Israeli flag, and then personally sent the footage to every media outlet in the country for free distribution. He knew what it would look like. He knew where it would end up. And he did it anyway, because there is an election coming, and he wants the votes.

That is what makes this so much worse than mere bad judgment. This is cynicism dressed up as patriotism.

I found myself wondering whether I wanted my children to open a news website and see an Israeli government minister, the man responsible for law enforcement in this country, publicly humiliating a group of detained women as if he were some teenage settler on a hilltop rather than a senior official of a democratic state. There is nothing in that image I want my children to absorb as normal. There is nothing in it that reflects the Israel I want them to grow up in.

Ben Gvir knows, because this is his area of responsibility, that Israel is already fighting a losing battle in the court of international opinion. He knows that footage of Israeli officials saying extreme things has circulated the world and contributed to a climate in which Jews everywhere are painted as bloodthirsty. He knows that the footage from Ashdod will not stay in Israel. It is already all over social media. It will be played in courtrooms. It will be used in UN speeches. It will fuel the people who already hate us and give fresh ammunition to those who were on the fence.

And he did it anyway.

The flotilla activists came here to provoke us. They succeeded, not because they got through the blockade, but because they got exactly the image they needed from a senior Israeli minister who handed it to them voluntarily. You don't have to search for a pretext to hate Israel this week. The Israeli government's own press office supplied one.

I will not pretend the flotilla was innocent humanitarian activism. It wasn't. But there is a vast distance between enforcing a legal naval blockade and a cabinet minister turning a detention facility into a personal campaign video. One is statecraft. The other is a performance, and a dangerous one, performed for a domestic audience at the expense of every Israeli and every Jew who will face the consequences of that footage long after the election is over.

Ben Gvir knows the difference. He just doesn't care, at least not until the ballots are counted.

That is the most troubling part of all.