A far-rightist lined up for a senior post in the next Israeli government sought on Monday to reassure the country's minorities and Left that he would safeguard them.
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Having won an election last week, Likud leader and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's most powerful likely coalition ally is Religious Zionist Party, which includes Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit faction.
Ben-Gvir, has received intense scrutiny in Israel and abroad due to past actions including affiliation with the outlawed group Kach. "I've grown up, I've moderated and I've come to understand that life is more complicated," Ben-Gvir, 46, said in a front-page article in the biggest-circulation nationwide paper, Israel Hayom, and in the English edition.
Asserting that he and liberals "agree on 90% of issues", he said he would not seek to impose religious law nor curb freedom of dissent, "and even if I'm not keen on the gay pride parade, I will ensure utmost protection for the men and women marching."
מילות ההרדמה "אחי בשמאל" שמגיעות מהגרועים שבמסיתים, סמוטריץ' ובן גביר, הם לא יותר מניסיון להרגיע את הרוחות לפני הפיכתה של ישראל להונגריה. ברגע שהם יגזלו מהמיעוט את זכותו לעמוד מול הממשלה יעניינו אותם רק המשאבים שמגיעים מאותם אחים שמאלנים כדי לממן את הפרוייקט שלהם: מדינת יהודה.
— Mickey Gitzin (@MickeyGitzin) November 7, 2022
The overture came a day after the Religious Zionist Party co-head drew Center-Left ire by suggesting the state had a hand in the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish zealot bent on stopping territorial handovers to Palestinians.
Rightists were correct to protest Rabin's policies, Bezalel Smotrich said at a memorial ceremony in parliament. He said security services had "used irresponsible manipulation, which to this day has not been fully exposed, to encourage the murderer," referring to an informant that was supposed to alert authorities on such a plot.
He appeared to be alluding to the Shin Bet security agency's running of an agent provocateur among far-rightists in the run-up to the assassination – a matter addressed by a state commission of inquiry and court trials.
חבריי הפוליטיקאים מהימין. תפסיקו להתרפס ולהתנצל בפני השמאל שעד אתמול ירק על כולנו וביטל את כולנו. רוצים למשול? לא למדתם? רק בגאווה ובעוצמה! לא במכתבים לאומה לא בראיונות מתחנפים לשמאל. זה מביך ממש
— טלי גוטליב (@TallyGotliv) November 7, 2022
The op-ed drew reactions from the Right and the Left. Mk Tally Gotliv from Likud said it was misguided because it showed weakness despite winning the election. She tweeted, "My friends on the Right, stop kowtowing and being apologists for the Left, which until several days ago kept spitting on us. Do you want to govern? Haven't you learned that this can only be done only through strength, not by writing letters to Israelis and by flattery to the Left."
Mickey Gitzin, from the left-wing NGO New Israel Fund, tweeted: "The words 'my brethren on the Left' have been uttered by the worst inciters, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, are just an attempt to calm everyone before Israel becomes Hungary. As soon as they usurp the rights of the minority to counter the government, they will focus only on resources they can take from those brethren, to fund their project: The State of Judea."
In his article, titled "A Letter to My Brethren on the Left" (which was to appear on Israel Hayom's English site on Monday). Ben-Gvir said nothing about US-sponsored Israeli talks on Palestinian statehood.
The Religious Zionist Party, like other Israeli parties on the right, opposes Palestinian statehood. Ben-Gvir has further called for dismantling the interim Palestinian Authority which governs in parts of the West Bank.
Focussing on internal issues, Ben-Gvir, who wants to become police minister, wrote that he would tackle crime-racking Israel's Arabs.
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