Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot

There has been a ferocious debate playing out in the American Jewish community about the actions of the Israeli government. On one side stand the uncritical supporters of Israel. On the other side are Jews who have been horrified by Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank.

Whatever position has been taken, far less attention has been paid to why Israel has transformed into an illiberal country. When I was a younger person growing up in the 1970s, Israel had a stronger humanistic left rooted in the kibbutz movement, the Labor Party and socialist values. That tradition was far from flawless but liberal and secular values were prominent and many did believe in a genuine two-state solution.

Over time, that liberal tradition atrophied and it has been replaced by a combination of far-right forces who have formed the most extreme government in Israel’s history. The tenets of this extremism include belief in Jewish supremacy and a commitment to ethnic cleansing and annexation of Palestinian territory.

The story of this evolution can be told through the stories of two men, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. Both are leaders in the present Netanyahu government. Ben-Gvir is Minister of National Security and he oversees the police in Israel and the West Bank. Smotrich is the Finance Minister and he has broad authority over the Israeli governing body in the West Bank.

Ben-Gvir used to be a pariah. He is an ultranationalist settler leader who was previously on the fringe of Israeli politics. He was a follower of the racist rabbi, Meir Kahane, and Kahane’s fascist political party, Kach. Kahane was convicted of multiple acts of terrorism both in the U.S. and in Israel. Kahane advocated for a theocracy and complete segregation between Jews and Arabs. He wanted to criminalize sexual and romantic relationships between Jews and Palestinians.

Kach was originally outlawed in Israel for inciting racism and the party was banned but the party’s members remained active in new contexts. Ben-Gvir defended settler terrorists on the West Bank. For years he kept a picture in his living room of Baruch Goldstein, an American Israeli settler who massacred 29 Palestinians in Hebron in the 1990s.

Ben-Gvir has called for the deportation of all Arab citizens from Israel. He has no interest in creating a multi-party democracy and he opposes the concept of equality before the law. He is an unabashed supporter of the idea of Jewish supremacy and he is now the leader of the Jewish Power Party.

He wants to annex large parts of the West Bank, arm more Israeli Jewish settlers and expand Jewish settlements on the West Bank.

As for Bezalel Smotrich, he is a religious fundamentalist. He once described himself as a “fascist homophobe.” He is a leader of the National-Religious-Religious Zionist Party. He had previously been detained in 2005 for terrorist offenses connected to that Gaza disengagement. He has sought to prevent the development of Palestinian construction in the West Bank. He is also a West Bank settler.

As an ultra-Orthodox nationalist, Smotrich follows a narrow doctrinaire conception of Jewish law and he rejects values like feminism, anti-racism, liberalism and LGBTQ rights. He has his own Jewish version of A Handmaid’s Tale. Like the hardcore religious right, he has no use for liberal or secular Jews.

Among the internal divisions in Israel is a huge divide between religious fundamentalist Jews and secular Jews who comprise a large part of Israel’s population. They don’t want to be told how to live their lives by religious extremists. The fight last year over the Israeli Supreme Court was, in large part, about stopping the imposition of a theocratic tyranny on secular Jews.

Both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich reflect the ascendant far right in Israel. The far right in Israel has been calling for ethnic cleansing and the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza. When Donald Trump talks about creating a Gaza Riviera, it sounds unhinged from reality but it is consistent with the perspective of extremists in Israel. Since Oct. 7, these forces have actually gained momentum.

There remains a desire in the American Jewish community to see Israel as a liberal country but those days are long gone. It is wishful thinking on the part of American Jews to see Israel as its 1970s incarnation. 73% of Israeli youth identify as right-wing.

Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir have effectively used Tik Tok to build support for Jewish supremacy and extreme settler ideology. They have supported armed gang violence and aggression against Palestinian civilians living in the West Bank. There is no accountability for the Jewish perpetrators of this violence.

Because Netanyahu has needed Ben-Gvir and Smotrich to forge and maintain a government, they have leverage. First and foremost, Netanyahu has been committed to maintaining his own power, indefinitely. I think he has lengthened the Gaza War and failed to make a final hostage deal because it would not serve his goal of remaining in power.

Thousands of Palestinian children living in the Gaza Strip continue to face an increased threat of starvation but in absolutely unconscionable fashion Israel has blocked all humanitarian assistance since March 2.

AIPAC, ADL and mainstream Jewish organizations in America seem trapped in the past, seeing Israel not as it is but as they want it to be. Nothing has been more cynical than their use of the allegation of antisemitism to shut up opposition to Israel’s extremist slide. For anyone who cares about Israel, this is a truly tragic state of affairs.