Bezalel Smotrich: The face of Israel’s far right wants to ’abort’ Palestinian hope
And he thinks Netanyahu is a coward. Meet Knesset Member Bezalel Smotrich, who envisions a Greater Israel where the Palestinian Authority doesn’t exist and who believes Reform Jews and LGBT people are living a lie.
By Ravit Hecht Dec 01, 2016
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Bezalel Smotrich, a first-time Knesset member from the Bayit Hayehudi party, already has earned himself a reputation as one of the most brilliant and influential members of the house. He is proud to be the Knesset’s right-wing bellwether, and is perceived as radical even within the national-religious milieu from which he emerged – the settlement movement. In the brief year and a half since he was sworn in, Smotrich has succeeded in guiding the direction of his party (through his leadership of the struggle to prevent the dismantling of the Amona outpost in the West Bank, and to pass the so-called formalization bill), and even that of the government.
Smotrich has become the powerhouse behind a wave of proposed legislation to advance the cause of the settlements and of judicial reform. As opposed to many politicians who have emerged from the margins, Smotrich doesn’t hanker for legitimacy from the political mainstream. Rather, he views himself as being situated in the heart of the system and the establishment. “I don’t feel like a fifth wheel, or like a guest in the state,” says Smotrich, “and therefore it is completely legitimate for me to try to influence and mold it according to my belief system.”
Just about the only stipulation Smotrich and his media adviser laid down for the interview we conducted, one of a series of conversations and encounters I had with him during the past month, was that we not talk about the “community” (the LGBT community, that is). That surprised me, because, even though I myself am a “member of the community” – that was the last thing that interested me about the legislator from Habayit Hayehudi.