Why I loathe Itamar Ben Gvir and wish he would go away

Most people in Israel love to hate National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Even most people who follow Israeli politics from outside the country.

It's not hard to see why. Ben Gvir makes provocative or inflammatory statements every day, it seems, including those which at least toy with open bigotry if not beyond. He is almost always in the headlines causing the Prime Minister headaches, even forcing him to come from his sick bed to vote on a crucial bill.

But that's not why I loathe him and why many others on the right loathe him. Israel has had and will continue to have provocative politicians and grandstanders. It's part of the national culture and has been so as far back as the state itself.

Nor is it Ben Gvir's hawkishness on national security. Aside from the idea of expelling Gazans from the Strip to Egypt, there is precious little daylight between him and many a Likud MK on the need to utterly crush Hamas underfoot.

No, my problem with Ben Gvir is that he's utterly worthless as a minister or member of parliament. He doesn't actually get anything done outside of, well, headlines. He is the Matt Gaetz of Israeli politicians, stirring the pot simply because he can and because it's fun.

It's worth remembering that Ben Gvir was elected because of a massive spike in crime, especially among Israeli Arabs, as well as a decline in a sense of personal security among normal Israelis. Ben Gvir promised to clean up the country and crack down on the rampant anarchy.

A few years later, crime is as bad or worse as it was, and the minister can point to no real accomplishments in his entire tenure of office, aside perhaps for some loosening of gun ownership.

In a country where the left controls or cows all permanent, unelected institutions, people like Ben Gvir, who waste precious time, resources, and political capital for self-promotion are a luxury we simply cannot afford.

Ben Gvir doesn't need to go because of his bark. Ben Gvir needs to go because that's all he ever does, at the expense of those with actual bite.