Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the country’s national security minister from the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, once again aired their dirty laundry in public this week ahead of the general election scheduled for October.
The two leaders hurled shots at each other on social media in a demonstration of widening cracks within the right-wing coalition, which has overseen Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and launched military attacks against six countries in the last few years.
Experts say the online fight reflects deep differences within the right-wing coalition, headed by Netanyahu, who is fighting for his political survival amid domestic crises and international isolation.
They interpret Ben-Gvir’s public hostility towards the prime minister as a move to show the Israeli public that he – and not Netanyahu – is the ideal representative of the far-right Israeli voters.
How the online fight unfolded
It is not the first time that Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir have fought publicly.
The national security minister has held public boycotts of cabinet meetings to pressure Netanyahu into taking even harsher positions on matters relating to Palestine.
He has repeatedly criticised Netanyahu for being “lax” on Gaza and has demanded a halt to the return of the bodies of deceased Palestinians accused of attacking Israel.
On the other hand, Netanyahu has accused Ben-Gvir of leaking national security secrets for personal benefit.
In response, Ben-Gvir’s party demanded that all cabinet members, especially Netanyahu, should be made to take lie detector tests, implying that the prime minister was himself behind the leaks.
But the latest public spat between the two leaders began on August 24 when Ben-Gvir surprised Netanyahu by announcing the discovery of the shipwreck of Altalena, an arms-carrying cargo ship sunk in June 1948 by Israeli forces.
Ben-Gvir’s gimmick prevented Netanyahu from taking credit for the discovered wreckage, which has a high symbolic value for the Israeli right wing.
Afterwards, Netanyahu held a separate press conference to mark the occasion, while refusing to be photographed alongside his cabinet colleague.
On August 27, Netanyahu posted a video on social media demanding that Ben-Gvir, along with Bezalel Smotrich of the Religious Zionist party, put aside their “personal issues” and form a joint front to consolidate the right-wing vote.
Gvir responded to Netanyahu, saying “Mr. Prime Minister, I did not understand your video”.
The national security minister accused the prime minister of artificially weakening far-right parties to enable Netanyahu to form a “broad national unity government” with Gadi Eisenkot, a former general and leader of the centrist Yashar party.
Why are they fighting?
There are many reasons for the differences between the two politicians, including over the upcoming October election strategy, unilateral publicity stunts by Ben-Gvir that downplay Netanyahu’s status as leader of the coalition, and extreme displays of bigotry against Palestinians causing international embarrassment.
Netanyahu has demanded that Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party merge with Smotrich's Religious Zionism party before the October election to consolidate the right-wing bloc of voters.
According to Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu's real objective is to form a national unity government with moderate rivals while sidelining far-right elements.
Ben-Gvir's publicity stunts to portray himself as Israel's leading representative have not sat well with Netanyahu.
For example, Ben-Gvir, along with Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, gathered the media recently to inform the country about recovering the remains of the arms ship Atalena from the depths of the Mediterranean without Netanyahu’s knowledge.
Just two months before the elections, analysts say the move is an electoral gimmick meant to overplay Ben-Gvir’s standing in Israeli politics.
“The (trick) was nothing less than brilliant, a maneuver that deserves to be studied by political science departments around the world,” said one commentator.
In his drive to establish his credentials as the most virulent and anti-Palestinian politician in Israel, Ben-Gvir has frequently resorted to acts of extreme bigotry, attracting unkind attention worldwide.
Some of these acts of desperation have been so bigoted that even Netanyahu – who is himself facing an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for war crimes – called out Ben-Gvir for violating “Israel’s values and norms”.
His bigotry was on full display when he turned the takeover of a UNRWA facility into a global spectacle by carrying out the eviction process wearing full tactical gear under media spotlight – an episode that received widespread condemnation around the world.
Reports said Netanyahu subsequently summoned Ben-Gvir and demanded that he keep a lower profile going forward.
In another episode of international embarrassment, Ben-Gvir posted a video in which he poked fun at kneeling pro-Palestinian activists captured from an intercepted Gaza aid flotilla.
The visuals drew worldwide criticism, leading to a rare public rebuke by Netanyahu, who criticised Ben-Gvir’s bullying of detained activists as “not in line with” Israel’s so-called values.
What does it mean for the October election?
Experts say the public spat between the two leaders of the Israeli government shows Ben-Gvir's rising power in national politics.
“(Ben-Gvir) has so much power that Netanyahu is begging him,” said one commentator, while referring to Netanyahu’s recent X post where the prime minister urged his national security minister to “make the right decision” and let go of “personal whims”.
For decades, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu built his political identity as a security hawk – a muscular image that has helped him win successive elections and made him the longest-serving prime minister of his country.
But the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas destroyed his security credentials, a fact that has become increasingly apparent ahead of the October elections.
Netanyahu is now desperate to survive politically. Pre-election polls show his bloc of parties is expected to win 48 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.
In contrast, the Eisenkot bloc, led by the Yashar party of Gadi Eisenkot, is projected to win 57 seats, with the unaligned parties slated to win the remaining 15 seats.
Netanyahu has reportedly said that his party is set to lose the upcoming elections “unless something changes”. He was also quoted as saying that his party’s standing among the Israeli electorate is “worse than polls show”.
Netanyahu warned Ben-Gvir that divisions on the right would result in an electoral loss the same way that former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s Labor party defeated a divided right in the 1992 election.
“In 1992, the right, like today, had more votes than the left, but because there were three parties, we didn’t cross the electoral threshold, we lost to the left,” Netanyahu said.
