The success of the Israeli right rests on two faces: the world-famous one of Benjamin Netanyahu, former and future prime minister, and the face of Itamar Ben-Gvir, a figure known only in Israel until recently.

His party has now become the third largest power in the Knesset.

The rise of the convicted right-wing extremist, who was imprisoned several times for inciting hatred and incitement to terror, to the kingmaker in Israeli politics and most likely to the most important minister in Netanyahu's future cabinet, sounds like the plot of a political thriller.

In fact, Ben-Gvir embodies the transformation that Israeli society has undergone in recent decades.

Israel's society today is more divided than ever: between the liberal-secular camp (which is getting smaller and smaller) and the nationalist-religious camp (which is growing in strength).

The polarization is embodied by the two large Israeli cities, which, if one follows the Israeli discourse, could not be more different: here the hedonistic, cosmopolitan, western, queer Tel-Aviv - there the Jewish-nationalistic and religious-orthodox Jerusalem.

Consequently, the right in Israel berates the left as “Tel Aviv State”.

With his rise, Ben-Gvir now knocks him out

Radical positions, radical reactions

As early as 1995, Ben-Gvir was able to attract the attention of the Israeli public for the first time with his hate speech against the then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

After Rabin signed the Oslo Peace Accords and courageously promoted the peace process with the Palestinians, he was exposed to hate speech and hostility from Jewish nationalists.

On the right, Itamar Ben-Gvir, then eighteen, was particularly loud and radical.

I remember well how he walked up to Rabin's official car, ripped the Cadillac ornament off the hood, held it up to the rolling cameras and said, "If the prime minister does radical things, he must expect radical reactions."

Ben-Gvir's message was unmistakable: We'll get you too.

A few weeks later, another Jewish right-wing radical shot Rabin after a peace demonstration in Tel-Aviv.

Tomorrow, November 4th, will be the 27th anniversary of Rabin's murder - according to the logic of the political thriller, it would only be logical if Ben-Gvir now completes the project that he once started with the hate speech against Rabin.

If the founding fathers of Zionism envisioned Israel as a modern, democratic, and Jewish state, Ben-Gvir (along with Netanyahu) now envisions a very different vision of Israel, one in which the "Jewish" is clearly placed before the "democratic."

I have had some personal encounters with Itamar Ben-Gvir.

A year after Rabin's murder, I was stationed in Hebron as a young soldier.

Ben-Gvir, who was born the same year as me, had been decommissioned because of his right-wing extremist activities and lived in a Jewish settlement within the Arab city.

Sometimes he and his friends threw tiles from the roof at the Arab passers-by, sometimes he harassed the street vendors and caused a commotion in the market.

We soldiers could hardly stop the provocateur while he called us "Nazis" and "traitors" and spat on us.

Over time he has refined his working methods.

He studied law, became a lawyer and represented his like-minded friends when they were tried for terror against Arabs.

Ben-Gvir has also updated his rhetoric.

"Death to the Arabs" he cried then in Hebron.

Today he says, somewhat more relatably: "Death to the terrorists".

He likes to pull his pistol out of his pocket to intimidate opponents and show off his masculinity, but reportedly only does it in "self-defense."

Essentially, Ben-Gvir doesn't seem to have changed.

Rather, Israeli society has changed: just a generation ago he was scolded as a right-wing extremist pariah, but today he is a welcome guest on talk shows and a legitimate coalition partner.

Ben-Gvir is celebrated as a hero on the streets, in malls and even in schools.

Children beg for selfies with the friendly Arab Hater.