{"id":729,"date":"2026-05-20T21:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T18:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/e4ellis.com\/?p=729"},"modified":"2026-05-20T21:20:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T18:20:00","slug":"our-awful-security-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/e4ellis.com\/?p=729","title":{"rendered":"Our Awful Security Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Itamar<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As the Times of Israel reports here<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir posted a video<\/a> on Wednesday in which he is seen taunting activists from a Gaza flotilla intercepted by Israel, immediately sparking an international outcry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dozens of activists can be seen in the clip forced to kneel on the ground, with their hands tied, at an Ashdod port facility where they were being processed ahead of their likely deportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those aboard the flotilla intercepted by Israel earlier this week included Italian and Spanish nationals, whose governments said they would summon the respective Israeli ambassadors in their countries for a reprimand over Ben Gvir\u2019s behavior. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a rare rebuke of the far-right cabinet member he appointed, insisting that the national security minister\u2019s conduct was not in line with Israel\u2019s values.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The detained activists are criminals because they tried to break a legal blockade<\/a>. I have no sympathy for them. If their conditions are not Hilton-level hospitality, that’s tough. But what Ben Gvir did was stupid and unnecessary. It achieved no good. (Well, I’ll come back to that.) It certainly caused Israel harm. The man is a racist, a buffoon, and a disgrace to the country. I despise him. I wish he were gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bibi’s to Blame<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

That brings me to the next point. As much as Ben Gvir did the harm, Bibi enabled it by appointing him to the government. Bibi knew what Ben Gvir was, but Bibi’s personal needs \u2014 staying in power \u2014 were more important to him than the needs of the country. In a responsible democracy not only would Ben Gvir resign, but so would Bibi. Of course, neither will, which says everything about the lack of principles and professionalism in our blasted government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben Gvir’s Motivation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The second point is to explain why Ben Gvir acted like this. He knows it’s wrong. However, his voters love it. They very much enjoy seeing Israel’s enemies not only beaten, but humiliated. (The same principle drives his death penalty obsession.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If an Israeli and an Arab fight, for example, a judo contest and the Israeli wins, what should he do? He should shake hands with his opponent. He should be gracious in victory (and defeat)<\/em><\/strong>. If his Arab opponent refuses to shake hands, that’s on him. The world looking on will form an opinion. If the judo fighter were Ben Gvir, he wouldn’t offer to shake hands. He would laugh, gesticulate, and do his level best to humiliate the losing opponent. Guess what? The world looking on will form an opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democracy’s Imperfection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The final point about this tawdry episode is that it also highlights that a universal suffrage democracy is not a perfect system. Everybody gets one vote, but not all votes are cast by principled thinkers. Some of the population are like Ben Gvir. They like to lord it over beaten enemies. So, they vote for Ben Gvir. And, so the circle continues, that’s why Ben Gvir acts the way he does. I don’t offer this observation as a precursor to damning democracy, but instead to remind us all that it has its advantages and disadvantages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suspect, but this is pure speculation, Israel would benefit from moving away from a countrywide proportional representation system to one with constituents. That should dilute the Ben Gvir rabble enough to enable better quality candidates. And, yes, I recognize this is not an objective observation; it’s purely subjective and prone to bias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flotilla Punishment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I thought about how to punish the flotilla criminals. I posted this on X<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As for a suitable punishment for the flotilla members, I suggest they be sentenced to 21 days hard labor working to help deliver aid to Gaza. Let them schlep crates and sacks for three weeks and actually deliver aid!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If you have any better ideas, do share them!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Times of Israel reports here: National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir posted a video on Wednesday in which he is seen taunting activists from a Gaza flotilla intercepted by Israel, immediately sparking an international outcry. Dozens of activists can be … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[74,26,75],"class_list":["post-729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-israel","tag-ben-gvir","tag-bibi","tag-democracy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/e4ellis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/e4ellis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/e4ellis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e4ellis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e4ellis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=729"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/e4ellis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":731,"href":"https:\/\/e4ellis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions\/731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e4ellis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e4ellis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e4ellis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}