National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir's lack of experience in running a government ministry and in security matters was on full display on Thursday and Friday, making him an increasingly political liability for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The embarrassing chain of events began on Thursday evening, when a few hundred protestors breached a police barrier, burned a tire and blocked streets in Jerusalem. Before the events had ended, Ben-Gvir put out a statement that he was summoning OC Israel Police Jerusalem District, Doron Turgeman, for a "clarification" over his "lack of enforcement against" the protestors, who he called "anarchists".
Police commissioner Yaakov (Kobi) Shabtai responded with a statement of his own, praising Turgeman for his conduct during the protest, and adding that it was "unfortunate that the clarification was being done publicly while the police forces are still operating on the ground, and not via a professional operational debrief that occurs at the end of every such event."
Ben-Gvir responded on Friday morning by leaking to the press that he was forming a three-person advisory team "to assist the police commissioner," who had "lost control over the situation."
The public spat worsened a few hours later. Ben-Gvir and Shabtai were caught on camera in a heated argument at the scene of the terror ramming attack at the Ramot Junction. The national security minister later wrote on Twitter that his response would be to legislate a death penalty for terrorists, to put roadblocks around the terrorist's east Jerusalem neighborhood and check every car. Sometime later, he then said that he had ordered the police to prepare on Sunday for an "Operation Defensive Shield 2" in east Jerusalem.
This drew ridicule. Operation Defensive Shield was a large-scale military operation that was planned for months. The gaffe exposed Ben-Gvir's lack of knowledge of basic decision-making on matters of security, as well as his lack of familiarity with basic timelines for preparing for large-scale security ops.
A "senior government figure" drily said that "these decisions are not made at bus stops following a terror attack." Opposition leader Yair Lapid called Ben-Gvir the "minister of TikTok and pita bread" and that "if it wasn't dangerous it would be ridiculous. Just like him." Retired senior police officials and many others also ridiculed the statement throughout the weekend.
What can we learn from all this?
Mainly, Ben-Gvir has a lot to learn both as a leader and manager, and as the person responsible for Israel's internal security. He would be wise to stop displaying his inexperience publicly.
On Netanyahu's part, Ben-Gvir is becoming a growing liability – both politically and in terms of security, as rash decisions made by the national security minister lead to a deterioration in the security situation.
However, Netanyahu depends on Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party's six Knesset seats, as without them, he loses his majority in the Knesset. He therefore will need to play a balancing act in which he distances himself enough from Ben-Gvir in order not to be seen as a close ally, but does not push Ben-Gvir too far away so that he does not lose his party.
In any case, the future of the government may not be totally in Netanyahu's hands. Ben-Gvir is a loose cannon who does not care very much for political discipline or avoiding controversy. A growing assessment both within the Likud and amongst political commentators is that Ben-Gvir at some point will jump ship in order to head into an election campaign from the opposition and avoid some of the backlashes, assuming that the government will not win the war against Palestinian terror in the near future.
The incidents since Thursday may suggest that Ben-Gvir will leave the coalition sooner than expected in order not to lose his base due to the failure to stop terror, and in order not to lose his reputation.