Levy: We in Israel are all Ben Gvir policy

“Finally, we are all Itamar Ben Gvir.” This is how Gideon Levy began an article in which he attacked the prevailing political climate in Israel after the Gaza War (2023-2025), stressing that all Israeli leaders – whether in the government or the opposition – began to share the same extremist nationalist and military thought, and that fascism had become the general trend in Israel.

In his article in Haaretz newspaper, Levy confirms that extremism embodied by the far-right Minister of National Security, Ben Gvir, is no longer an exception, but rather has become the common rule among most Israeli politicians.

The writer believes that the differences between Netanyahu and his leading opponents, Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid, and Avigdor Lieberman, on the one hand, and between Ben Gvir are only differences in the degree of extremism, not in its essence.

The main points highlighted by Levy in his article can be summarized:

• Absence of real opposition:

Levy attacks the Israeli opposition, especially Lapid, who promised to support a law preventing those who do not serve in the army from voting, and describes this proposal as “even more fascist than ancient Sparta,” considering that Lapid is not an alternative but rather a continuation of Ben Gvir’s own approach.

• Demonizing Arabs and Bedouins:

Levy quotes Bennett as saying that “a Palestinian state is being established in the Negev,” in reference to the Bedouin citizens there, accusing him of treating these citizens as “internal Hamas,” in reference to the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement.

Levy criticizes this racist discourse, recalling that the Negev is their land, which they were deprived of after they were displaced and stripped of their property, stressing that the Negev is not a gift from the state to the Bedouins, but rather it is what remained for them after their land was stolen and their lives were destroyed.

• Liberal fascism:

The author believes that “centrist” politicians like Lapid and Bennett believe that rights are granted as a reward for “good behavior,” which Levy describes as “the essence of fascism.”

• The falsity of Israeli democracy:

Levy presents a bleak vision of contemporary Israel, highlighting that the conflict between the right and the opposition is an illusion and that Zionism itself has become synonymous with fascism, or perhaps it has been so since its beginning.

He concludes by stressing that there is no fundamental difference between extremists and moderates in Israel. Everyone shares the belief in the superiority of the Jews and the rejection of equality with the Arabs, and the result is that Israel in 2025 has become a completely fascist state, where it is governed by a military mentality, and everyone who does not participate in the war or does not adopt extremist Jewish nationalism is excluded.