Itamar Ben-Gvir: The face of Israel’s hard right — or the face of Israel?

Key points

• In recent weeks, Israel’s Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has shown the world a version of “modern Israel” it had preferred not to see.
• From telling the press that he would “not allow” a United States ceasefire deal with Iran that was bad for Israel to his televised harassment of bound activists of the Global Sumud Flotilla, Ben-Gvir’s actions have drawn outrage on a global stage.
• It had been convenient to cast the far-right leader of the Jewish Power party as a political outlier within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition.
• This allowed domestic critics of the far-right factions in Israel to continue supporting the government, and companies and countries outside to continue trade despite growing condemnations of the Israeli government.
• After public rebukes of Ben-Gvir’s taunting of the predominantly European activists by the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada – and even Israel’s foremost allies in the US – Netanyahu understood...