Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir tells the Wall Street Journal that Israel would be receiving more support from the US if former president Donald Trump had been reelected.
“Instead of giving us his full backing, [US President Joe] Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel [to Gaza], which goes to Hamas,” says Ben Gvir, adding that “if Trump was in power, the US conduct would be completely different.”
Ben Gvir also tells the news outlet that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is at a crossroads,” and that he “has to choose in what direction he’ll go,” but the minister says he has no intention of pulling out of the current government, though he has repeatedly threatened to do so.
Yair Lapid, Israel’s opposition leader, has reacted to the interview of Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s National Security Minister, with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
Lapid said on X that Ben-Gvir’s criticism of US President Joe Biden’s handling of Israel’s war on Gaza in the interview was a direct attack on Israel’s international standing and the war effort.
Lapid said he would call on Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “restrain” Ben-Gvir, but added that the country’s leader “can’t control any of the extremists in his government”.
In the WSJ interview, Ben-Gvir said Biden had been “busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel” to Gaza rather than fully backing Israel’s war effort.
