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Chaos Follows Itamar Ben-Gvir On His First Official Visit To The US

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by blueapples
Wednesday, Apr 23, 2025 - 11:00

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Just one year after widespread protests against the State Of Israel swept across college campuses nationwide in the spring of 2024, the political climate enveloping dissent against the war in Gaza has shifted dramatically. Since the second Trump administration has taken office, it has made combating antisemitism one of its chief aims, superseding many of the priorities promised on the campaign trail before the 2024 Presidential Election. Perhaps the greatest pillar of that policy has been the administration's efforts to suppress free speech and assembly aimed at protesting against Israel. This has manifest in the politically-motivated persecution of pro-Palestinian activists, going so far as to target and deport those on student visas, signifying a political alignment with Israel that has increased its already profound influence over US policy making.

The mettle of the Trump administration's crackdown on dissent against Israel is set to meet its toughest test yet following the arrival of one of Israel's most controversial and reviled political figures: Minister Of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir. The far-right Zionist whose political ideology is deeply rooted in Jewish supremacy landed in the United States earlier this week, embarking on a nationwide tour where he will make stops in Washington DC, New York City, Florida, and the campus of Yale University to meet with different Jewish organizations.

Protests have returned to the Yale campus to condemn his arrival, highlighting the chaos that has followed him to the US on his first official visit as Minister Of National Security and the dangers that his influence on Israeli politics presents to US diplomacy and foreign policy. These protests set the stage for a response to the first demonstrations aimed against the State of Israel at a major university since the Trump administration announced its mission to combat antisemitism on college campuses.

During his trip to Yale, Ben-Gvir is scheduled to be hosted by Shabtai, a Jewish organization based at the university whose founders include Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey. Shabtai will host a meeting between Israel's Minister Of National Security alongside select Yale students and faculty. Ben-Gvir will follow up that meeting on Yale's campus with another Shabtai-hosted event on the afternoon of April 24th. These dates are of significant importance to world Jewry as they fall on Yom HaShoah, the day commemorating the Holocaust officially designated by the State Of Israel in 1959.

Twenty years following the Knesset officially recognizing Yom HaShoah, the United States passed a law observing the Days Of Remembrance Of The Victims Of The Holocaust, an eight-day period beginning on the Sunday before Yom HaShoah continuing until the following Sunday coinciding with the date of Israel's observance. According to invitations for the New York City meeting with Ben-Gvir held by Shabtai, the talks will use this occasion to focus on bolstering US-Israel security agreements. Federal judges, bankers, prominent professors from New York University and Columbia University, as well as other influential figures in the New York City will be in attendance according to the director of the Jewish organization.

While Yale and a contingent of its own students and faculty are willing to welcome Ben-Gvir with open arms, their sentiment is not shared by a representative population of its student population due to their opposition to the Israeli minister's radical Zionist platform. Ben-Gvir, a devout Kahanist, believes in a radical version of Zionism that promotes Israel being ruled as a Jewish theocracy where non-jews have few to no rights such as the right to vote.

The Kahanist movement was founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane, for which is bears his name. Kahane, the childhood friend of the son of Revisionist Zionism founder Ze'ev Jabotinsky, founded the Kach Party to promote his ideology of Jewish supremacism in 1971. Following his 62nd arrest in Israel in 1980 for planning violent attacks on Palestinians, the Kach Party ran for seats in the Knesset for the last time before being banned ahead of the 1984 Israel Central Elections, a ban that was overturned by the Supreme Court Of Israel. The decision of the Supreme Court Of Israel was subsequently superseded when the Knesset amended Israel's Basic Laws to prohibit the registration of any political parties that explicitly incited racism.

Despite Israel banning political parties that incite racism, Ben-Gvir has carried the baton advancing the mission of the Kach Party by becoming the modern iteration of Kahane. In addition to being the Minister Of National Security of Israel, Ben-Gvir is also the leader of Otzma Yehudit, which translates as Jewish Power, a Kahanist political party rooted built on a platform of Jewish supremacy that presently holds six seats in the Knesset. Since the onset of the war in Gaza, Ben-Gvir has used his political standing to advocate for the genocide of Palestinians as vocally as anyone in Israel. His steadfast position on the eradication of Palestine led to him stepping down as Minister Of National Security following his objections to the Netayahu regime's adoption of a ceasefire before being reappointed to the position less than three months later.

Given Ben-Gvir's extreme ideology, the disdain many hold for him has followed him to the United States upon arriving for his stateside visit for the first time in his official capacity as Israel's Minister Of National Security. The ramifications of the outrage against him led to the cancellation of an event he was scheduled to attend following his engagements with Shabtai. Ben-Gvir had been slated to meet with a branch of the Haredi Jewish movement Chabad-Lubavitch, a sect of Hasidic Ultra Orthodox Judaism that Jared Kushner, son-in-law and former special advisor to Donald Trump, is a member of. Ben-Gvir was scheduled to be the keynote speaker of an open panel discussion as part of a fundraiser for Chabad Of Hebron, a branch of the Hasidic movement located in the West Bank. However, the organization canceled the event following a report by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. While the controversy surrounding Ben-Gvir's visit is speculated to be the cause for the cancellation, organizers for the event attributed it to unforeseen changes in the minister’s schedule.

Although the controversy miring Ben-Gvir's visit to the US was seemingly enough for Chabad to cancel its event, Shabtai remains unmoved by the outcry against him. When asked about the events Ben-Gvir is scheduled to participate in during Yom HaShoah, Rabbi Shmully Hecht, a co-founder of Shabtai and its rabbinical director stated “I admire Ben-Gvir, Itamar promotes what he believes is best for his people that democratically elected him.” He remained undeterred in the face of criticism for facilitating the meetings, continuing to wax poetic about the Jewish Power leader, saying  “Ben Gvir, like Meir Kahane, warned Israelis, the Jewish people, and the West of the dangers of Radical Islam and the Jihadists,” before continuing “Sadly, they have been rejected by naive liberals who delusionally presume Westerners can make peace with the likes of ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian Mullahs. Oct. 7th must be the last war of Israel. Only bold, resolute leaders like Ben Gvir can assure [the] same.”

Although Shabtai has no reticence about hosting Ben-Gvir, the Trump administration apparently does not share that same lack of any apprehension. Before arriving in Miami on the first leg of his US tour, a spokesman for Ben-Gvir stated he had accepted an invitation to meet with his US counterpart, Department Of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The announcement of that meeting was reported by Israeli outlet Ma'ariv, a daily newspaper formerly owned by Ofer Nimrodi, who happens to be a relative of Ben-Gvir's wife Ayala.

Despite the report, no such meeting was ever confirmed and remains absent from his itinerary. Given his connections to Ma'ariv, it is possible the report that Ben-Gvir and Noem were scheduled to meet published by the outlet was little more than a political maneuver intent on manipulating Trump administration officials to hold court with Israel's Minister Of National Security. Although he has sought an audience with senior US officials like Noem, Ben-Gvir's attempt be offered one has been to no avail as he seems to have been kept at arm's length by the Trump administration.

In 2022, Biden administration officials considered banning Ben-Gvir from entering the United States due to the political tension surrounding his extremism. While it did not follow through on proposed sanctions against him directly, it did sanction settler groups expanding illegal settlements in the West Bank supported by Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's Minister Of Finance and noted advocate for the establishment of Greater Israel. Following the inauguration of President Trump for a second term, the sanctions on those settler groups were promptly lifted. The easement of those sanctions was the first signal of the coming tide of numerous measures taken to further solidify relations between the United States and Israel.

As the trajectory of the US-Israel relationship being reshaped by President Trump marks a shift back toward all but unconditional support of the Jewish state, the presence of Itamar Ben-Gvir in the US alone demonstrates the perilous path forward that may lie ahead as a result of that foreign policy prerogative. Ben-Gvir represents a sentiment within the political landscape of Israel which illustrates the depraved depths of Jewish supremacy that are ultimately emboldened by the United States' steadfast support for Netanyahu and his government. If those interests continue to be empowered, they may take the US and the world writ large down a dark path far past the point of no return.

Contributor posts published on Zero Hedge do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Zero Hedge, and are not selected, edited or screened by Zero Hedge editors.
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