Itamar Ben Gvir, the radical star of the Israeli election campaign

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The star of the Israeli election campaign is neither of the two favorite and most charismatic candidates: the acting prime minister and former

presenter , the centrist Yair Lapid, and the conservative Benjamin Netanyahu who, at just 73 years old, travels everything the country in search of the vote to return to power.

This is Deputy Itamar Ben Gvir.

(doubling its number of seats) and on social networks, which began with the violent riots and attacks between Arabs and Jews in several cities in May 2021 and increased with the Palestinian attacks in 2022.

The leader of the far-right party

("Jewish Might")

, despised by the vast majority of Israelis, who knew how to attract media attention thanks to his calculated provocations.

Driven by the fear and indignation of many citizens at what they

insecurity -feelings that any good populist appreciates- and armed not only with his pistol but with the message of a strong hand as the only solution, Ben Gvir aspires to be an influential minister .

For this,

since 2019.

If the leader of Likud, boycotted by the center-left for his corruption trial, depends today on Ben Gvir to govern, in the 2021 elections, it was he who needed Netanyahu.

How?

Pressuring Ben Gvir and the ultranationalist leader Bezalel Smotrish to unite in an electoral platform that they repeat now also thanks to his management.

Otherwise, their separate lists would have risked not having parliamentary representation.

In order not to waste a single vote,

.

Ben Gvir was an enthusiastic militant of the Jewish extremist Kaj party.

In the 1980s, Likud MPs boycotted their leader Meir Kahane's speeches in the Knesset in which he launched his racist proposals.

No one, including religious Zionists and the ultra-Orthodox, considered him legitimate.

40 years later, the Likud leader accepts that one of his disciples be a minister in his government.

Perhaps because

that includes the left and an Arab party, and disappointed with the "pragmatist" Netanyahu.

His center-left rivals warn with his arrival to awaken the vote, but if a politician is quoted a lot, as a rule, he ends up being very quoted for better and for worse.

"Ben Gvir should pay the left because they campaigned for him for free," a Likud leader jokes about a guy who

selfies

.

Ben Gvir was born in 1976 in Jerusalem.

In the 1990s, the first Intifada pushed him into ultranationalist movements and the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians and the attacks made him a well-known activist against Prime Minister Isaac Rabin, whom he called a "traitor."

In a scene that continues to haunt him and that he today says he regrets, the young extremist shows the emblem of Rabin's Cadillac and warns the cameras: "As we reach this symbol, we can reach Rabin."

Ben Gvir assures that he never supported the assassination nor did he support Baruj Goldstein who murdered 29 Palestinians in Hebron in 1994, although only in 2020 did he remove his portrait from the wall of his house in this city.

Following Kaj's outlawing for racism, Ben Gvir joined the "National Jewish Front",

.

In 2007, he was convicted of "supporting terrorism" and "inciting racism" after holding the banners "drive out the Arab enemy" and "Arab MPs are the fifth column."

From being in court for so long, he ended up studying law and practicing as a lawyer, basically with adolescents arrested for attacking Palestinians or Israeli activists.

Beyond his communication skills,

.

"If we are in government, we will change the opening fire protocols and protect our soldiers who have their hands tied against terrorists," he promises.

Ben Gvir and the Minister of Defense and former head of the Army, Benny Gantz,

, which causes discomfort in the latter's party since the former gives him security lessons without even having served in the Army when he is rejected. because of its troubled history.

"As in the whole world, political instability causes radicalization.

. It is a radical government in which the racist Ben Gvir is a minister or one who unifies Gantz," says the centrist deputy Yael Ron Ben Moshe to EL MUNDO.

In the past, Ben Gvir has demonstrated against the Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem.

Today he says that if one of his six children revealed to him that he is gay, he would accept and hug him.

"He has moderated himself", comments one of his assistants while his rivals warn that

.

"Whoever supports terrorist attacks must be expelled and I don't care if he is an Arab or a Jew," he says before defining the Arab deputies with two words: "Terrorists and enemies."

Ben Gvir and the accidental relationship with Zara

Itamar Ben Gvir's success in the polls can be explained by the support of young people, both religious and secular, who are voting for the first time and who hesitate between two options as different as that of his far-right party and the center.

A sign that he is no longer the exclusive referent of marginality is

.

The decision of the Israeli-Canadian businessman Joey Schwebel to host a political meeting of his party in his home reflects the social penetration of this deputy and provoked a boycott campaign, especially in the Arab sector, against the Spanish company, which is very popular throughout the world. country.

A prominent religious official of the Palestinian National Authority issued a

to call for a general boycott of Zara.

Schwebel's spokesman responds that they do not deal with "private family matters", while Ben Gvir tweeted:

.

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