Ben Gvir and Netanyahu Meet and Agree to Coordinate Strategies
On Wednesday, Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right MK of the Religious Zionism-Otzma Yehudit, and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu had a meeting.
The two leaders agreed to coordinate on media and campaign strategy for the upcoming elections in November.
The report said that the two politicians had talked about the areas they would focus on in their campaigns, along with media coordination.
The concerns
According to the report, Netanyahu was hoping that Ben Gvir would keep his efforts focused on those who had not voted in the previous elections and on his traditional voter base.
He was hoping that the MK would not try to attract people from the Likud voter base. He is reportedly worried that Ben Gvir could take away votes of Likud in the upcoming elections.
Ben Gvir was also equally hoping that Netanyahu would focus on his own voter base and not try to attract the voters from his party.
The report further revealed that the two politicians are now meeting every week, but there have been no photographs shared of these consultations.
No formal confirmation or announcement of the meeting was made.
The background
Ben Gvir heads the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, which is running in the November 1st elections with the Religious Zionism party of MK Bezalel Smotrich.
It was at the urging of Netanyahu that the two parties had come to the decision of running together. Last month, a senior member of the Likud party said that they would do everything to prevent extremist Ben Gvir from being part of the next government.
The controversial far-right politician had been defended by an ally of Netanyahu, Miki Zohar. He is currently on the 10th spot on the electoral slate for Likud.
He stated that the politician had been speaking out of Jewish pride.
Ben Gvir
Meir Kahane, the late racist rabbi, who became known for supporting the transfer of Arabs from Israel is one of the people that Ben Gvir admires.
In 2007, the rabbi had been convicted for inciting racism, as he had held a sign at a protest calling for expulsion of the Arabs.
Another individual that Ben Gvir admires is Baruch Goldstein and the politician had his picture on the wall of his home until it had begun to harm him politically.
Goldstein was responsible for killing 29 Palestinians in 1994 in Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs at prayer. Ben Gvir had recently stated that he did not consider him a ‘hero’ anymore.
The leader of the Otzma Yehudit party is known for stirring up friction frequently between Arab and Jewish Israelis.
As a matter of fact, last year in May, Ben Gvir had been accused of playing a role in the worst inter-communal violence in the recent history of Israel by the national police chief.
He has also joined some of the most extremist Jewish activists and movements in Israel, including the Jewish supremacist anti-miscegenation group, Lehava and Noam, which is homophobic.
