ITAMAR BEN-GVIR -- What The Western Press Probably Hasn't Told You

Itamar Ben Gvir.  Source: Wikimedia Commons

Let me cut to the chase, and state my central point:

Itamar Ben-Gvir, besides being racist, and, of course, nationalist and supremacist, is a more cruel, ruthless, and heartless individual than you think.

He is therefore extremely dangerous.

I am writing this short post to inform concerned Western readers, interested in current events, and in particular, in events unfolding in the Middle East between the State of Israel and the people of Palestine, about something of which, or to the extent of which, they may not be aware. 

Now, why would I think this warning needs to be published at this particular time, with my sources and supporting evidence?  Wouldn't this, if true, be obvious?

Not so much.  The only sources for the information I have found in English are Arab or Palestinian, and are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. By a twisted logic that is the child of years and years of an Israeli influence upon Western media that until recently was virtually indistinguishable from complete control, such pro-Palestinian sympathies mean, at best, that they 'cannot be trusted,' and, at worst, that they are 'pro-Hamas,' are 'terrorist sympathizers,' or are the terrorists themselves.  Because terrorists have so much time to blog, says my dear friend @Corporanon.

Colonel Wilkerson on Ben Gvir, via email, used with permission.

Indeed.  So if this is obvious, it is mostly obvious to Israelis.  And they are not letting on.  Hebrew search results provide cover for his stomach-curdling bloodthirstiness in the same way, familiar to anyone who has followed the political situation in the region, that the Western press will, for instance, soften and mitigate Palestinian 'deaths,' but emphasize and emotionalize 'murdered' Israelis, and so forth.  

(In the same way the press always covers for that about which it must needs cultivate denial, that for which denial is enacted by editorial, by corporate, decree, by socio-political consensus.)

As Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to secretary of state Colin Powell said to me, via email: "Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Israeli Minister of National Security, is an almost exact reincarnation of Reinhard Heydrich, who was called by Adolph Hitler "the man with the iron heart", and who was one of the main architects of the Holocaust.  Ben-Gvir is as assuredly going into the history books as one of the main architects of the genocide in Gaza.  And in that regard he is as despicable a human being as was Heydrich."

I trust that the excerpts, below, will provide enough basis to prevent anyone from attributing any shred of humanitarian impulse, or respect for international law, to this man.

Which I fear this could lead to someone believing Ben-Gvir when he insists that the Israeli prisons are not overcrowded, that in fact they are up to snuff and ready and able to take on as many Palestinian prisoners as there may be. 

If that's what he says, what he means is, overcrowding is not relevant, because these are Palestinians.  He has said as much, openly and plainly, as anyone can see.

If it were up to Itamar Ben-Gvir, he would torture, then execute them all.

 

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What follows are excerpts from the documents attached below, which I append for download*** singly or in archive form.

The dispute between me and the General Security Service is not whether there is room in prison or no room in prison… And I say: it won't rise and won't be. While we have bread-hungry kidnappers in Gaza, the terrorists will not enjoy the conditions of de-lux. The [summer] camps have stopped....Since the outbreak of the war, we have let thousands of terrorists into prisons, but there are no [summer] camps, and their improved conditions have been stopped.

--from the English translation of Ben-Gvir's tweets

 

Releasing the director of [Al-]Shifa Hospital in Gaza along with dozens of other terrorists is a security breach. It's time for the prime minister to stop [Yoav] Gallant and the head of the GSS from conducting an independent policy that is contrary to the position of the cabinet and the government.

-- from the English translation of Ben-Gvir's Facebook page

 

As part of the operation "Good Neighborhood conducted by the southern district director of the police israel led by the district commander General Amir Cohen against the perpetrators of crime and illegal possession of AML, the forces raided house complexes in the settlements of Aruar Tel Sheva and Bir Hadaj - arrested suspects involved in trading and possession of illegal AML....At the end of the investigation, a prosecutor's statement was given against 4 suspects in preparation for filing an indictment and their arrest was continued until the end of procedures....A lot of work still ahead of us, my policy for the police israel is clear - a hard hand and zero tolerance against lawless people in the Arab sector.

-- from the English translation of Ben-Gvir's Facebook page

The insane immunity that the military prosecutor's office grants to Gazan murderers from extermination, is a serious moral confusion. A direct continuation to the distorted practices of the state prosecutor's office and headed by the government's legal counsel....Those who ignore explicit calls to murder the Prime Minister, and calls for refusal in time of war, while providing protection to the murderers, do not deserve to stay one more day in office!...I intend to fight for the promotion of the proposal I submitted last week to split the role of the attorney general. It's time to put order in the state's attorney's office.

-- from the English translation of Ben-Gvir's Facebook page

The MLA's offer to release terrorists from the IDF prison facilities back to Gaza is an unhappy and intolerable idea. I call on the Prime Minister not to approve her. It's unbelievable that while our kidnappers are being abused and our sisters are raped, the state of israel will release terrorists from the IDF prison facilities, just because "the conditions are less good".

-- from the English translation of Ben-Gvir's tweets

*140,000 gun licenses since I started the job....

* Dramatic change in policy in prison service. Such as:

1. Terrorist conditions worsening to the highest level compared to the 5 star hotel they had there before I took the job.

2. Transferring female guards from providing services to terrorists. And in the IDF station recruits guards to protect terrorists.

* Demolition of thousands of illegal houses in dozens of places mainly in the Negev. A hundred percent more than what was before me....

*I prevented surrender to Hamas more than once....

* We strengthened governance and security in the Negev by appointing hundreds of police officers and by an unrelenting war against the criminals.

* The police under my guidance have made arrests to thousands of ISIS from the authority who migrated and worked without permits.

* War and uncompromising struggle of incitement in networks and in the field and making arrests of hundreds of inciters.

-- from the English translation of Ben-Gvir's Facebook page

Update:  There seems to be more awareness now, but I'm going to post this anyway.  It is always good to have primary sources.

Recommended Reading:

בן גביר חושף את האמת מאחורי "מצוקת הכליאה"

השר לביטחון לאומי, איתמר בן גביר, חושף בפוסט ארוך בחשבון הפייסבוק שלו את האמת המלאה מאחורי שחרורי המחבלים מהכלא, ואת ליבת המחלוקת שלו עם ראש השב"כ רונן בר • פוסט נוקב

Ben Gvir reveals the truth behind the "plight of imprisonment"

"The Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, reveals in a long post on his Facebook account the full truth behind the release of the terrorists from prison, and the core of his dispute with Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar • A poignant post"

IDF releases 50 security prisoners, including chief of Shifa Hospital

"Only in a hostage deal, not like this," said the father of IDF lookout Cpl. Noa Marciano, who was murdered in Gaza, of Muhammad Abu Salmiya's release.

Jewish News Syndicate

Downloads:

Archive of all downloads

Text of Twitter/X Feed (Hebrew)

Text of Twitter/X Feed (English)

Text of FB/Meta (Hebrew)

Text of FB/Meta (English)

text of FB/Meta(webarchive)

Source of Twitter/X Page 1 (Hebrew/English)(no login)

Source of Twitter/X Page 2(Hebrew/English)(no login)

Source of Twitter/X Page 3(Hebrew/English)(no login)

Source of FB/Meta Page (Hebrew)

Source of FB/Meta (login required)

Search Results for "Gvir - in the Head" (English)

Search Results for "Gvir - 'in the head'" (Hebrew) 

Be seeing you.

Iran Attack HOAX: Israeli Bases Not Destroyed, Soldiers Not Killed; Ben-Gvir Not Quoted

There's a particularly virulent piece of fake news that just surfaced, at a time when it can do maximum damage, so I thought I would thoroughly debunk.  

Screenshot redacted for my privacy.  I saved a copy of the original.

"Globe Eye News," which apparently publishes primarily via X.com (formerly Twitter) and Tiktok, has tweeted "Israeli Minister Ben-Gvir: The Iranian attack destroyed two Israeli military bases and killed many soldiers."  (I do not link to their tweet directly here, but to the archive of it, which was also, I should note, difficult to generate, something I have not previously encountered with other tweets.)  The rare actually useful note was appended by X.com, formerly Twitter, and a rating was solicited from me.  

A screenshot of that popup I reproduce, above. 

Now, the as-yet-unanswered question of the effect my rating would have on the official truth or falsehood of the matter led me to want to verify this for myself, and, since there were several somewhat daunting obstacles that had to be overcome to do this, & since I was reasonably successful, I thought I would make my work public.

In the hopes that this benefits and supports an adult, levelheaded, restrained, sane response to this potentially very dangerous -- unprecedented -- situation.

Methods:  

Simply cutting and pasting only translates Ben-Gvir's tweets each by each.  In other words, the URL for his page on X.com, formerly Twitter, entered into the appropriate Google Translate textbox, does not enable the translation of the whole page into English.  In fact, Google Translate considers the page to already be in English, since the background frames and menus were.  The content of the tweets is ignored.

The content, however, is not graphical -- it is text, and the Hebrew it contains is (mostly) also text.  But select-all-->copy-->paste is as useless as the URL.

So what to do?  

I went to the source of the page -- not the static source you get with "view-->Developer-->View-Source"), but the HTML source as it is generated after the webpage is fully loaded.  To do this (in desktop Chrome) I used "control-click-->Inspect."  I located the div enclosing Ben-Gvir's tweetstream which I had already scrolled back to the end of February 2024.  Then a simple "control-click-edit-as-HTML" and a "control-click-->select-all-->copy" pasted the source with all the Hebrew intact to my clipboard.

Then a little judicious grep and I had all the Hebrew of that page numbered; I submitted that to Google Translate & made a handy table for you all, below.  After screenshots of the page from which the Hebrew is extracted -- which were difficult to obtain as well, grr. (I finally succeeded when I fiddled with viewport sizes til I hit the allowed maximum length and, in order to preserve that scale and placement, took non-full-length screenshots. Did you want to know that?)  

Right-click to view full size.  My apologies if layout is wonky.

So you can see: there is no mention either of Israeli bases being destroyed or of Israeli soldiers being killed after Iran's retaliation for Israel's unprecedented attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, which according to a New York Times report, "killed seven Iranian officers, three of them generals."

 

1 איתמר בן גביר 2 פניתי במכתב לשר הביטחון גלנט בדרישה שיורה לרמטכ  ל לבטל את ההערה המבישה שניתנה לתא  ל ברק חירם  ברק חירם שייך בדיוק לזן המפקדים שצה  ל זקוק להם  חותרים למגע  פועלים להשמדת האויב  ומקבלים החלטות אמיצות בזמן אמת  מפקדים כאלו צריכים לקבל צל  ש 3 איתמר בן גביר 4 בישוב לקייה פתחו אמש את חודש הרמדאן בצרורות ירי בלתי פוסקות  בניגוד לרמדאנים הקודמים המשטרה נכנסה עם כוחות גדולים ועצרו במהירות את  החגיגה  יש עוד מה לשפר  אבל ללא ספק פעילות המשטרה אמש חשובה ותורמת רבות במאבק להחזרת המשילות  משבח את ממ  ז דרום ניצב אמיר כהן שפעל יחד עם שוטרי 5 איתמר בן גביר 6 גלצ 7   השר בן גביר בתגובה על פרסומו של כתבנו  תא  ל ברק חירם הוא גיבור ומפקד שצריך עוד כמוהו בצה  ל  החלטתו של הרמטכ  ל לתת לו הערה פיקודית בזמן שחירם מסכן את חייו בעזה היא החלטה מקוממת  הגיע הזמן שהפיקוד הצבאי שלנו לא יבהל ולא ירתע מלחץ בינלאומי 8 גלצ 9 בהוראת הרמטכ  ל  הערה פיקודית נרשמה לתא  ל ברק חירם בשל פקודה שנתן במהלך התמרון הקרקעי שלא בסמכות  לפרסום של כתבנו הצבאי  ב 10 בוקר  טוב  ישראל 11 איתמר בן גביר 12 משבח את ממ  ז מרכז ניצב אבי ביטון על יישום המדיניות החד משמעית ונחושה  בכך שהנחה לפתוח בחקירה נגד אוהדי סכנין שקיללו את קפטן הפועל חדרה מנשה זלקה שחזר למגרש היישר משירות המילואים  זלקה הוא גיבור ישראל  שוחחתי איתו הבוקר והבעתי בפניו את הערכתי ותמיכתי  אותם אוהדים מחבלים שביזו 13 איתמר בן גביר 14 שירות בצה  ל הוא זכות עצומה של יהודי שמגן על עצמו בארצו  ומצווה גדולה  בצבא דוד המלך היו תלמידי חכמים  אנחנו לא מאמינים בכפיה על ציבור חרדי להתגייס והדברים צריכים להיות מתוך הבנה ואהבה  אפשר לפתור הרבה מהמחלוקת דרך גיוס מותאם למשטרה ולמשמר הלאומי  לעולם לא נעזוב את ארצנו הקדושה 15 איתמר בן גביר 16 גיבור ישראל עמישר בן דוד הי  ד  עמישר הוא החלל ה  ממכינת הקדם צבאית בעלי שנפלו מפרוץ המלחמה  כאב לא נתפס  שולח תנחומים וחיבוק ענק למשפחתו ולבן דודו חברי השר בצלאל סמוטריץ  יהי זכרו ברוך  💔 17   🕯️ 18 איתמר בן גביר 19 שלחתי הערב מכתב לרה  מ בנימין נתניהו  בו התרעתי בפניו על החשש מאי היכולת להתמודד עם הצפיפות והעומס בהר הבית בחודש הראמדן  ועל הפערים המשמעותיים ביכולת לממש את החלטת רה  מ שלא להגביל את כמות המתפללים בהר מבלי לסכן חיי אדם  בעקבות כך אני מניף דגל אדום בוהק ומבקש לכנס שוב את הקבינט 20 איתמר בן גביר 21 הכנסת הסיוע לרצועה זה דלק לחמאס  וכעת עוד מוסיפים חטא על פשע במערכת הביטחון ורוצים לתת נשק לעזתים  לצערי יש כאלה שלא הפנימו כלום מה 22 הקונספציה שהביאה עלינו את האסון הנורא עדיין קיימת אצל חלק מראשי ואנשי מערכת הביטחון  אנו צריכים להפנים כי אין פרטנר בצד השני  את ביטחון 23 איתמר בן גביר 24 ראש השב  כ לשעבר  נדב ארגמן עדיין שבוי למרבה הצער בקונספציה אותה טיפח במו ידיו  הרשות הפלסטינית מתגמלת משפחות מחבלים רוצחי יהודים  תומכת ברוצחים  מחנכת במוסדות הלימוד שלה לרצח יהודים  ומסיתה בכלי התקשורת שלה כנגד ישראל  האמירה כביכול הרשות איננה מעודדת טרור  היא המשך הניתוק 25 שירית אביטן כהן 26 פנינת היום  ראש השב  כ לשעבר נדב ארגמן בכנס של ה 27 הרש  פ איננה  איננה  גוף שמעודד טרור  הרש  פ רואה את עצמה חיה לצדנו  זה הגורם שאיתו נצטרך ללמוד לחיות ואנחנו צריכים לעשות הכל שהוא יתפוס את הרסן ברצועת עזה 28 איתמר בן גביר 29 ביקרתי יחד עם מ  מ הנציב  גונדר קובי יעקובי ביחידת העילית של שב  ס  מצדה  אשר תפקידה לתת מענה לאירועי קיצון בבתי הכלא  שוחחתי עם הלוחמים התרשמתי מהיכולות המיוחדות שלהם  שב  ס חזק זה ביטחון חזק למדינת ישראל 30 🇮🇱 31 איתמר בן גביר 32 יצחק וסרלאוף 33 אני רוצה להודות לשר לביטחון לאומי  איתמר בן גביר על הבשורה החשובה לתושבי קריית שמונה  הוכח מעל לכל ספק כי מדיניותו של השר בן גביר מצילה חיים  בשורה זו מחזקת את ביטחון התושבים אל מול האתגרים הרבים בהם הם עומדים בימים אלו 34   איתמר בן גביר 35 איתמר בן גביר 36 חגיגות חמאס בהר הבית ≠ ניצחון מוחלט

1 Itamar Ben Gabir 2 I wrote a letter to Minister of Defense Galant demanding that he fire the Chief of Staff To cancel the shameful comment given to the cell To Barak Hiram Barak Hiram belongs exactly to the breed of commanders that fly l need them Rowing for touch working to destroy the enemy and make brave decisions in real time Such commanders should be given shade That 3 Itamar Ben Gabir 4 In the village of Lakiya, they opened the month of Ramadan last night with incessant bursts of gunfire Unlike the previous Ramadans, the police came in with large forces and quickly arrested you the celebration There is more to improve But without a doubt the police activity last night is important and contributes a lot in the fight for the return of governance Praise Mm G. South Superintendent Amir Cohen who acted together with policemen 5 Itamar Ben Gabir 6 Glatz 7 Minister Ben Gabir in response to the publication of our article cell Le Barak Hiram is a hero and a commander who needs more like him in the army To The decision of the Chief of Staff To give him a commanding comment while Hiram is risking his life in Gaza is an outrageous decision The time has come for our military command to neither panic nor shy away from international pressure 8 Glatz 9 by order of the General Staff To A command note was entered into the cell To Barak Hiram due to an order he gave during the ground maneuver without authority for the publication of our military correspondent B 10 in the morning Good Israel 11 Itamar Ben Gabir 12 praises Mm G Center director Avi Biton for the implementation of the unequivocal and determined policy By ordering an investigation to be opened against Sakhnin fans who cursed Hapoel Hadera captain Menashe Zalka who returned to the field straight from the reserve service Zalka is a hero of Israel I spoke with him this morning and expressed my appreciation and support Those terrorist fans who despised 13 Itamar Ben Gabir 14 Batza service L is a huge right of a Jew who defends himself in his country And a great commandment There were scholars in King David's army We do not believe in forcing the ultra-Orthodox public to enlist and things should be done out of understanding and love Much of the controversy can be resolved through appropriate recruitment for the police and the National Guard We will never leave our holy land 15 Itamar Ben Gabir 16 Hero of Israel Amisher son of David hi d Amisher is the space From the pre-military preparatory school, my husband who died at the outbreak of the war Unperceived pain Sending condolences and a huge hug to his family and his cousin, Minister Bezalel Smotritz Of blessed memory 💔 17 🕯️ 18 Itamar Ben Gabir 19 I sent a letter to Ra this evening From Benjamin Netanyahu In it I warned him about the fear of not being able to deal with the crowding and congestion on the Temple Mount in the month of Ramadan and on the significant gaps in the ability to implement the decision of Re not to limit the number of worshipers on the mountain without endangering human life Following this, I wave a bright red flag and ask to reconvene the cabinet 20 Itamar Ben Gabir 21 The introduction of aid to the Gaza Strip is fuel for Hamas And now they are adding sin to crime in the security system and want to give weapons to the Gazans Unfortunately, there are those who have not internalized anything 22 The conception that brought us the terrible disaster still exists among some of the leaders and members of the security establishment We need to understand that there is no partner on the other side you security 23 Itamar Ben Gabir 24 Rosh HaShev as former Nadav Argaman is unfortunately still captive to the concept he cultivated with his own hands The Palestinian Authority rewards families of terrorists who kill Jews supports murderers Educates in her educational institutions to kill Jews and inciting in its media against Israel The so-called saying that the PA does not encourage terrorism She is the continuation of the disconnection 25 Shirit Avitan Cohen 26 The pearl of the day The head returned As former Nadav Argman at the conference of the 27 Hersh P is gone is gone A body that encourages terrorism Hersh P sees herself living beside us This is the factor with which we will have to learn to live and we have to do everything to get him to take the reins in the Gaza Strip 28 Itamar Ben Gabir 29 I visited together with M from the commissioner Gonder Kobi Yacovi in the elite unit of Shev S Masada whose role is to respond to incidents of extremism in prisons I talked to the fighters and was impressed by their special abilities sit down Strong S is strong security for the State of Israel 30 🇮🇱 31 Itamar Ben Gabir 32 Isaac Wasserlauf 33 I want to thank the Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir on the important news for the residents of Kiryat Shmona It has been proven beyond any doubt that Minister Ben Gabir's policy saves lives This news strengthens the residents' confidence in the face of the many challenges they face these days 34 Itamar Ben Gabir 35 Itamar Ben Gabir 36 Hamas celebrations on the Temple Mount ≠ total victory

Be seeing you.