SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
We've spent much of this program talking about the big issues weighing on the minds of people in Wisconsin and across the country ahead of the midterm elections this fall. But on the other side of the globe, there's another hotly contested election coming up in just a few days. On Tuesday, voters in Israel will determine if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will stay in power for another term. The race is razor-thin, and if he wins, he's promising to share power with Israel's most extremist political figure. NPR's Daniel Estrin reports from Tel Aviv.
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DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Itamar Ben-Gvir takes the stage at a campaign stop in Tel Aviv and exclaims, the people of Israel live.
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ITAMAR BEN-GVIR: (Speaking Hebrew).
ESTRIN: He's Israel's national security minister. At this event for English-speaking immigrants, he's brought a simultaneous translator. He outlines what he's done these past few years of war. He drastically limited the food fed to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
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BEN-GVIR: (Through interpreter) They used to come in skinny and come out fat.
ESTRIN: But now...
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BEN-GVIR: (Through interpreter) They come in fat, and they come out skinny.
ESTRIN: He tells the crowd about one meeting when officials were trying to comply with a nutritional requirement to provide prisoners with fruit. One official suggested a lemon. Ben-Gvir said no because lemon juice would make prisoners' food taste better.
NOA SATTATH: During a time of war, he's busy with the lemon.
ESTRIN: Noa Sattath of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel - the group argued in court that prisoners were being starved and tortured. The Supreme Court overturned the policy.
SATTATH: And so this is, like, the level of brutality and cruelty that Ben-Gvir has been exemplifying all along.
ESTRIN: Ben-Gvir wears a lapel pin in the shape of a noose to celebrate his victory legislating the death penalty by hanging for Palestinians convicted of attacking Israelis. He also relaxed gun laws, doubling the number of gun licenses for Israeli civilians. One man in the crowd who gives his first name, Zion, says he's grateful to be able to have a gun to protect himself after the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023.
ZION: I didn't finish the army, OK? I couldn't have a weapon permit. Recently, Ben-Gvir made it possible for me to have a permit for a weapon. Told myself, who did something for you that you can say, oh, he did it for me? It's Ben-Gvir. That's it.
ESTRIN: Ben-Gvir used to be on the margins of Israeli politics. He was convicted two decades ago for supporting an Israeli party outlawed for being too extremist.
YOSSI MEKELBERG: Ben-Gvir was supposed to be an anecdote in Israeli politics. No one took him seriously.
ESTRIN: Yossi Mekelberg of the Chatham House think tank says Netanyahu relied on Ben-Gvir to form a coalition because so many other politicians refused to share power with Netanyahu because he's on trial for corruption.
MEKELBERG: By sheer accident of history of Netanyahu's corruption trial, he became one of the most powerful politicians.
ESTRIN: He believes Ben-Gvir helped dictate Israel's hard-line policies these past few years, prolonging the Gaza War and emboldening extremist Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
MEKELBERG: So he became, in many ways, the face of Israel in much of the international media. It's not a very pretty face.
ESTRIN: This spring, Ben-Gvir posted videos of himself taunting international activists who were arrested while sailing toward Gaza.
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BEN-GVIR: (Speaking Hebrew).
ESTRIN: Italy and France objected, and Netanyahu said Ben-Gvir wasn't acting in line with Israel's values. But now Netanyahu is trying to appease far-right voters. He says he'll give Ben-Gvir a senior position in his government if he wins elections next week. Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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