“I have been following these guys for months, the settlers from Yitzhar, and at a certain point I thought they could hurt Bibi [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu], too, if he makes a crucial decision. After all, they’re godless.” So says presidential candidate and Knesset member Binyamin Ben-Eliezer in an interview with Al-Monitor, in reaction to the growing violence and hate crimes in recent days on the part of settlers and right-wing extremists.
The Jewish violence in Arab communities, dubbed “price tag” by the right wing, as well as the equanimity with which a resident of the settlement of Yitzhar said she had no problem with killing an Israeli soldier, take Ben-Eliezer back to the month prior to the 1995 Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin assassination, when he understood that right-wing incitement was spiraling out of control and tried to warn that someone would pay with their life. Ben-Eliezer, formerly minister of defense and chairman of the Labor Party, claims Israeli society is in a true state of emergency. He says determined action can still stop the snowball but believes that someone in the Israeli leadership has stalled dealing with this phenomenon.