Sneak Peek: Amit Segal on why Ben Gvir is a disaster for Israel

**Dan Senor** (0:00)
Hi, it's Dan. Over the past couple of years, Call Me Back has grown into something much bigger than we ever expected. A place for clarity, context and honest conversations, at a time when those things can seem hard to find.
That's what Ark Media is all about, building a truly independent voice, which means no one shaping what we say or how we say it.
To help support our rapidly expanding operations, we created Inside Call Me Back, our members-only feed.
If Call Me Back has been meaningful to you, and you want to be part of what we're building, I hope you'll join us. Your contribution goes a long way in helping us show up when it matters most. You can subscribe at arkmedia.org or through the link in the show notes. And to our insiders, thank you.

**Amit Segal** (0:53)
You are listening to an Ark Media Podcast.

**Dan Senor** (1:04)
Welcome to Inside Call Me Back, our members-only edition where we open the door and let you shape the conversation. Thank you for subscribing to the show and supporting the Call Me Back Podcast. And everything we do here at Ark is very helpful to all of our work here. I want to encourage you to submit your questions at arkmedia.org. And the one thing we ask is please keep your questions short. It will increase the chance of your questions being featured on the show. Today in the hot seat addressing your questions and personal dilemmas is Ark Media contributor Amit Segal.
Amit, welcome back to the Inside.

**Amit Segal** (1:38)
Thanks for hosting me in the middle of August.

**Dan Senor** (1:40)
Well, you know, politics in Israel are crazy. Politics in the United States are crazy. It's not exactly a sleepy August.

**Amit Segal** (1:48)
Absolutely. I miss those days when from Thursday to Sunday nothing happened on the news. I think it's been a decade since then.

**Dan Senor** (1:56)
You know, I completely agree.
Okay, let's jump into our insider's questions here. Libby from Jerusalem writes, oh, we're cutting right to it. All right, Libby writes, last week Amit Segal published a column arguing that Ben Gvir is a disaster for Israel. However, a year ago, I heard him say multiple times on Call Me Back that he thinks that Smotrich and Ben Gvir's impact is overstated. What has changed?

**Amit Segal** (2:21)
Okay. So first of all, I think the insiders knew in advance about my opinion because I think our last meeting here dealt with my lessons from October 7th. And the number one lesson was that I no longer believe in the full right-wing coalition. And I meant specifically for Ben Gvir. Now I want to emphasize the difference between the alleged twins Smotrich and Ben Gvir. So they are paired together because they ran together and because they are around the same age, coming from the settlements and promoting a very, very hawkish right-wing policy. Now here's the difference. I would like to explain it. I do not speak about Ben Gvir's influence. I speak about Ben Gvir's damage, the reputational arson. I'll explain exactly the difference.
I think, for one, that a Palestinian statehood will endanger the very existence of the state of Israel. Because I do not think that between the river and the sea, Israel can allow itself to have a hostile, armed Palestinian state overlooking Tel Aviv, Netanya and just five minutes' walk from Jerusalem. And that's why I'm willing to pay each and every price in international currency when it comes to blocking the option, because the alternative is not to exist.
On the other hand, I'm not willing to pay a single dime for merely PR campaign of Ben Gvir himself. So I'm for deeds and not for bad publicity.

**Dan Senor** (3:46)
But you're not saying, because I think people could listen to what you're saying and take away from what you're saying, you don't have a problem with Ben Gvir's policies, you have a problem with Ben Gvir's style of politics.

**Amit Segal** (3:56)
My main problem with Ben Gvir is that he doesn't have any policy whatsoever. When you take a look at the facts on the ground, Ben Gvir did almost nothing.
Yes, he did change the conditions of terrorists in Israeli prisons. And I think it was a very important reform. Before the October 7th, they enjoyed free phone calls, for instance. They held cell phones in the prisons, etc. But he did nothing to help, for instance, building more Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, unlike Smotrich. All he did, the reason he's an international celebrity, is not because of his deeds, which are equal to zero, because he cares nothing about facts, only about the PR. I have a problem with the noose pin his party members were, and he himself.