Far-Right National Security Minister MK Itamar Ben-Gvir endorsed former US president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in an interview with Bloomberg published on Wednesday.
“I believe that with Trump Israel will receive the backing to act against Iran,” Ben-Gvir said in the interview. “With Trump it will be clearer that enemies must be defeated,” he said.
Ben-Gvir’s comments came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to speak at the US Congress on Wednesday and meet US President Joe Biden and probable Democratic Party nominee Vice President Kamala Harris. On Friday he will meet with Trump.
Ben-Gvir accused the Biden administration of “preventing Israel from winning.”
“The US has always stood behind Israel in terms of armaments and weapons, yet this time the sense was that we were being reckoned with – that we were trying to be prevented from winning,” Ben-Gvir told Bloomberg.
“That happened on Biden’s watch and fed Hamas with lots of energy,” he added.
Ben-Gvir’s comments were contrary to those of most other Israeli politicians, including Netanyahu himself, who have preferred to remain neutral in the presidential race. “A cabinet minister is supposed to maintain neutrality, but that’s impossible to do after Biden,” Ben-Gvir said in the interview.
Calling for further action against Iran and Hezbollah
The national security minister also criticized Israel’s response to the Iranian missile and drone attack in April, saying that “Israel should respond to attacks on it in a determined, pain-inflicting manner,” and also called for an attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon, “the sooner the better.”
The timing of the interview’s publication joins several other incendiary steps that Ben-Gvir has taken in Netanyahu’s absence. The national security minister created a storm after conditioning his party’s support for a bill – promoted by Shas MK Aryeh Deri, a key Netanyahu ally, – on him becoming part of a forum that sets policy and makes decisions regarding the ongoing war.
In addition, Ben-Gvir on Wednesday held a conference in the Knesset in which he announced that contrary to the status quo that has existed for decades, Jews are permitted to pray during visits to the Temple Mount.