– It will be different with Trump

If Trump had been in power over the past few months, the situation in Gaza would have been very different.

This is what the right-wing Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir claimed in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

At the same time, he is doing his best to criticize Joe Biden's handling of the war.

Named after Trump

When Trump was president, he was a close ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

This was evident, among other things, by Trump's controversial choice to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the US embassy here.

Netanyahu also chose to name a new Israeli settlement in the Golan Heights after Trump, as a result of his decision to recognize the land as Israeli. Israel occupied Syrian territory during the Six-Day War in 1967, but the annexation was not internationally recognized.

Ben Gvir is one of two ministers in the current Israeli government who belong to the Religious Zionist Party. This party is an extremist nationalist and opposes any transfer of land to the Palestinians.

On the contrary, they want Israel to take more lands from the Palestinians.

The newspaper wrote that he spoke in an interview with the Israeli Kan radio channel last January about the possibility of a mass exodus of Palestinians from Gaza in order to rebuild the Israeli settlements there. Haaretz.

He explains to the Wall Street Journal how: He proposes encouraging residents of the Gaza Strip to migrate to places “around the world,” without specifying the location. Preferably in exchange for financial compensation.

They storm the hospital disguised as doctors

– He goes to Hamas

Ben Gvir also belongs to the part that believes Israel should ensure that no food, water, electricity or fuel enters Gaza, believing that would pressure Hamas to surrender.

Under pressure from the United States, among other countries, Israel was forced to ensure that emergency aid was allowed into the Strip, even though the United Nations strongly expressed that what was allowed in was not enough.

Instead of offering us his full support, Biden is busy providing emergency humanitarian aid and fuel to Gaza that goes to Hamas, as Ben Gvir told the newspaper.

– If Trump had power, he would have dealt with it completely differently, he continues.

This is not the first time that the minister has made clear criticism of the United States during the ongoing war.

When the United States earlier this year responded, among other things, to Ben Gvir's proposal to expel Palestinians from Gaza by calling it “provocative” and “irresponsible,” Ben Gvir responded as follows:

– I appreciate the United States of America, but with all due respect, Israel is not a star on the American flag.

Netanyahu's inner circle

They are the residents themselves

Gvir has a background in Kahanism, a religious Zionist ideology. The political party that stems from this ideology, Kach, has been banned in Israel and has been designated a terrorist organization by both Israel and the United States.

Juffair himself is a resident of the city of Hebron in the West Bank, and is the leader of the settlement movement here. He has been convicted several times, including on charges of supporting the Kakh Party terrorist organization and inciting racism.

A few days ago, Biden issued a presidential order targeting Israeli settlers who attack Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli media: She had a secret plan

This completely contradicts Ben Gvir's wishes.

Shortly after October 7, he launched a campaign to arm as many civilians as possible and called for a full military attack on the West Bank.

The interview with Ben Gvir draws attention because it contains unusually harsh and direct criticism of the current US president. This is because the United States is Israel's largest financial and military supporter.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid is tough and says that Ben Gvir's statements harm Israel's international standing. He also writes that he is asking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to control his minister Haaretz.

During the opening of the Knesset this week, Netanyahu stated that he did not need Ben Gvir's help in figuring out how to manage Israel's relationship with the United States and the international community, Haaretz wrote.

The relationship became strained

It is not yet certain whether the extremist Ben Gvir will be completely satisfied with Trump. In the period after Trump stepped down as president, relations with Prime Minister Netanyahu became tense.

It began with Netanyahu congratulating Trump's successor, Joe Biden, on his victory in the 2020 elections, at a time when Trump was still trying to overturn the result.

It attacked 36 goals

Trump later claimed that Netanyahu had let the United States down ahead of the 2020 airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Netanyahu's office responded to these accusations by saying that it was shameful that a former president of the United States would be “engaged in propaganda and spreading stories that harm Israel's fighters and its citizens.”

Even after the terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7, Trump took a tough stance against Netanyahu.

– He wasn't ready. He was not ready, and Israel was not ready.

At the same time, he expressed his belief that Israel “would not have needed” to prepare for a Hamas attack, had he been president.