The Ben-Gvir effect exposes the West’s discomfort with Jewish power - opinion

The article argues that the intense global criticism of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stems not only from his political positions but from a deeper Western discomfort with assertive Jewish sovereignty. It frames the backlash as revealing an ancient anxiety: the West tolerates a subjugated Jew but fears a powerful one, conflating criticism of Ben-Gvir with Judaism itself.

The opinion piece argues that the intense global criticism of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stems not only from his political positions—death penalty for terrorists, voluntary emigration of Gazans, expansion of Jewish settlement, opposition to Palestinian statehood—but from a deeper Western discomfort with assertive Jewish sovereignty. The author, Deborah Danino Harkham, identifies a 'Ben-Gvir effect' where criticism shifts from policy to personal attack, at times evoking antisemitic caricatures. She cites U2's Bono comparing Ben-Gvir's remarks to Heinrich Himmler's rhetoric as an example of conflating a politician with Judaism itself. The article frames Ben-Gvir as representing a new generation of national-religious Jews who reject European sensibilities and universalist vocabulary, instead embracing a native Jewish character rooted in sovereignty and land. This figure, the author argues, is the antithesis of the 'court Jew' and the secular 'New Hebrew', and his visibility forces questions about God, transcendence, and meaning that modern secular culture has relegated to the private sphere. The piece concludes that the disproportionate rage surrounding Ben-Gvir reveals the global difficulty of accommodating a Jew who claims spiritual attachment, possesses raw political power, and refuses to apologize.