Ben-Gvir Endorses Trump, Says He’s More Likely to Back War on Iran

The Israeli security minister, who leads the far-right Jewish Power party, accused the Biden administration of thwarting Israel's victory against Hamas.

by Brett Wilkins Posted on

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir endorsed former U.S. President Donald Trump – the 2024 Republican nominee – for the White House in an interview published Wednesday in which he accused the Biden administration of preventing Israel from winning its war on Gaza.

“I believe that with Trump, Israel will receive the backing to act against Iran,” Ben-Gvir, who heads the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, told Bloomberg. “With Trump, it will be clearer that enemies must be defeated.”

“A cabinet minister is supposed to maintain neutrality,” the 48-year-old minister conceded, “but that’s impossible to do after [U.S. President Joe] Biden.”

“The U.S. 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. That happened on Biden’s watch and fed Hamas with lots of energy,” added Ben-Gvir, who was convicted in 2007 of incitement to racism after he advocated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

While Biden, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and other administration officials have decried Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of Gaza and high civilian casualties – at least 140,000 Palestinians killed, injured, or missing, according to local and international agencies – the U.S. has approved billions of dollars in new military aid and more than 100 arms sales to Israel since October.

During his White House tenure, Trump – who boasted that he “fought for Israel like no president ever before” – moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and brokered the Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab nations Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates.

Trump has said that Israel should “get the job done” in Gaza, while criticizing the Israel Defense Forces for posting videos showing its obliteration of the embattled Palestinian enclave.

“I don’t know why they released wartime shots like that. I guess it makes them look tough. But to me, it doesn’t make them look tough,” Trump said in April. “They’re losing the PR war. They’re losing it big. But they’ve got to finish what they started, and they’ve got to finish it fast, and we have to get on with life.”

While Trump says he wants a deal with Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons, as president he unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – also known as the Iran nuclear deal – and oversaw a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran featuring deadly economic sanctions.

On the advice of Iran hawks in his administration including then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump also ordered the January 2020 assassination of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qasem Soleimani in Iraq.

Ben-Gvir’s interview was published as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to address a joint meeting of U.S. Congress Wednesday in Washington, D.C. A growing number of Democratic lawmakers have called for not only a cease-fire in Gaza but also a suspension of U.S. military aid to Israel, whose conduct in the war is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont have signaled they will skip Netanyahu’s speech. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also the Senate president, said she will not preside over Wednesday’s session. Harris, who is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in the wake of Biden’s withdrawal from the race on Sunday, said she will meet privately with Netanyahu on Thursday.

Echoing calls from groups including CodePink and the Council on American Islamic Relations, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said this week that the prime minister should be arrested for war crimes and genocide.

Karim Khan, the International Criminal Court prosecutor, has applied for arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes including extermination committed on and after October 7.

Brett Wilkins is is staff writer for Common Dreams. Based in San Francisco, his work covers issues of social justice, human rights and war and peace. This originally appeared at CommonDreams and is reprinted with the author’s permission.

33 thoughts on “Ben-Gvir Endorses Trump, Says He’s More Likely to Back War on Iran”

  2. No difference between Harris and Trump, when it comes to sanctioning, helping Zionist commit Genocide. Both are complicit in WAR CRIMES and neither are qualified to be President. Americans should have been waiting with Handcuffs to greet the Murderer Netanyahu, instead he was greeted by Traitors to America.

    1. To be honest, they will differ on Israel. However, I can’t say who would be better. The debate is over whether or not to expel them, and Trump is correct that Israel looks bad. Israel needs to stop the war, start feeding and caring for Palestinians, and “finish things” generally. Hamas obviously could never be defeated…, not in this manner anyway.

      1. I don't think it matters, the decisions are made in Tel Aviv and Trump as well as Harris will jump when told to jump. Trump knows and so does Harris.

        1. No, it matters; however, not even Netanyahu could say for certain how it matters. They will differ on policy, but it’s nigh impossible to say how they will differ.

          Often we think of elites as these all knowing masters who run things, but they’re just making it up as they go with Israel right now. Israel is doing horrible things just out of a lack of discipline. It’s a sign of weakness really.

          1. I understand your point. They are Zionists and have the same goal but might differ on how to get there.
            I see the power the elites have rests on the money they have and they never get enough. That motivates them. They are morally and intellectually bankrupt people, and they do horrible things and horde more.

      2. The only difference will be that Trump won't say to Israel "Don't do this or that". Harris will. Both of them will continue to aid and abet Israel's war crimes by funding its government, military and economy.

  4. Really Netanyahu takes over the presidency and applause from the useful idiots in Congress the house of the American people.

    Next the Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir endorsed candidate Trump for president.

    Tel Aviv is running the show, they are in charge, what next?

    Maybe Trump has already committed and sold the USA/NATO to go to war against Iran for Israeli interests, selling the US like Zelensky sold Ukraine and Scholz Germany.
    Can it get crazier?

  5. Trump has no sense of morals, the IDF is losing the PR war by publishing wartime shots, no thought about any moral right or wrong, genocide, the brutal killing of women and children means nothing to him. The nation's elite upper class consists of morally corrupt moral scum bags.

    1. Well, he still sanctioned, still droned people (more than his predecessor), armed Ukraine, threatened to bomb Russia, assassinated a foreign leader who was on a peace mission (thus RISKING war), sold munitions to the Saudis for massacring Yemenis, started a trade war with China (thinking it would hurt THEM), gave the Israelis everything they could want, got us out of the INS Treaty. His rhetoric (and his opponents') makes little actual difference in actuality.

      1. Sorry, but you are wrong. Obama was far worse when you have 20/20 vision without partisan glasses.

        MARCH 27, 2015 Obama Administration Scandal Bracketology

        President Barack Obama’s administration has been one rife with scandals. Some pertain directly to himself and his own actions–like the recent immigration executive order that some say unconstitutionally side-stepped Congress–and some to members of his administration, like the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS and the Secret Service’s series of embarrassments.

        https://legalinsurrection.com/2015/03/obama-administration-scandal-bracketology/

        https://c2.legalinsurrection.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Obama-Scandal-Bracket-Close-Up-e1427434680314.png

        1. Sure, if by “far worse” you mean “business as usual compared to both his predecessors and his successors.” Any other conclusion requires them there partisan glasses you refer to.

          1. I am an equal distributor of criticism with actual evidence, and fact’s which by the way you did not refute one. Have a great weekend!

  8. Well, he's right. Trump will start a war with Iran. BUT as I've said all along, he will only do so once he can figure out how to BLAME IRAN for starting the war – like all Presidents do. In his case, he'll probably let Israel start it, then blame Iran for starting it so the US can "come to Israel's aid."

    Look, Trump is just as much a "front man" for the real PTB as the current moron and the upcoming female moron. He's not going to do anything different – only his tweets will be worse.

    1. He does some things differently. Hillary might not have armed Ukraine. Trump is a bit of chaos, for better or worse.

  9. Revolver News just ran some article on how UBI is bad.

    Conservatives just need to be obliterated until they learn to do the opposite of what they do now. They won’t learn until they lose everything and face utter despair.

    Then, they’ll sober up, embrace their newfound poverty and insecurity, and finally do the opposite of what they do now.

    1. Assuming complete or nearly complete automation of production, the two worst things about UBI would be:

      1) That it wouldn’t be universal — disfavored groups would start getting barred from it immediately; and

      2) That the threat of getting barred from it would be used to ensure meaningful dissent doesn’t happen.

      1. Syrian Girl once said the same. However, I like UBI assuming it is evenly distributed.

        I dislike the current laws that punish a person for working too much or earning too much. I met a legitimately disabled man who is on disability. He told me he mayn’t work longer than 20 hrs lest he lose it. I assume then that’s the law, but I’ve never actually looked it up. I’ve never needed to.

        1. ” I like UBI assuming it is evenly distributed.”

          Then you don’t like UBI, because there’s zero chance of it being evenly distributed. Disfavored groups will get cut off and favored groups will get add-ons.

  11. Is Itamar Ben-Gvir even US citizen? Americans would not accept that from Putin or Chinese politicians. Israel on many occasions lectured US politicians to mind their own business and not to interfere in Israeli political process.

    1. That's irrelevant to the US Government, they get money from Israel and AIPAC.
      The Politicians may say the Golden Calf was idolatrous but they treat Israel as a sacred cow.

  12. Pingback: Ben-Gvir Endorses Trump, Says He's More Likely to Back War on Iran - Anime Headline News

  15. Ya know, maybe we should have The Trumpster again! Lolo.ololololololololololololol…………………………………..
    Jackass!

  16. My friends in Iran can kick some ass! Anyone care to take such a bet?!
    On second thought, everyone should have some second thoughts!
    Iran has been totally kewl! Thus far. They know full well what is at risk!

  17. Trump can lick the sweat off a dead man’s balls!
    I feel certain Iran will have some interesting things to say to Mr. “T”
    and I am willing to give them directions!

  18. It really is time for dear baby Israel, to find the light of father, mother and son and the US can foot that bill, as well!
    A BIG Hello to A FREE PALESTINE!

Comments are closed.

viewpoint highlights
breaking news
© 2024 Antiwar.com. All rights reserved.
Antiwar.com Blog Stock Photos provided by our partner Depositphotos