Ben Gvir and the Anti-Zionists Need Each Other |
One of the most corrosive dynamics in the Israel-Palestine discourse is the increasingly symbiotic relationship between opposing extremes – each side becoming so ideologically dependent on the moral monstrosity of the other that exaggeration, distortion, and performative outrage begin to feel politically necessary.
And the tragedy is: they do not actually need to invent horrors. Reality is already devastating enough.
Having seen the footage of Itamar Ben Gvir with the detained flotilla activists, I am more convinced than ever that Ben Gvirism and global anti-Zionist activism exist in a deeply mutually reinforcing relationship – two antagonistic forces that increasingly sustain one another while pushing the actual Zionist project toward the abyss.
Ben Gvir’s ultranationalism depends on a world in which Israel is seen as permanently besieged, isolated, hated, and morally alone. His politics thrive when liberal restraint appears naive, when “the whole world is against us” feels emotionally true, and when criticism of Israeli policy can be collapsed into hostility toward Jewish sovereignty........