As Israel systematically destroys buildings and lives across the Gaza Strip, some members of its government are speaking more loudly and more brazenly about how they’d like to “encourage emigration” from the territory. The U.S. has condemned the rhetoric and demanded that it “stop immediately.” But influential ultranationalists in Israel’s government are doubling down.
“I really admire the United States of America but with all due respect, we are not another star in the American flag,” Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted on X last week. “The United States is our best friend, but before everything else, we will do what is good for the state of Israel.”
If Gaza has been rendered uninhabitable, then how can migration out of the territory be characterized as voluntary?
Ben-Gvir’s prickly pushback underscores the extreme lopsidedness and moral folly of the U.S.’s relationship with Israel as it wreaks havoc in Gaza. The U.S. provides Israel with extraordinary financial and military assistance and diplomatic cover; President Joe Biden has even bypassed Congress multiple times to expedite weapons transfers to Israel. And, yet, when the U.S. offers the most modest pushback to Israeli language that suggests an ethnic cleansing project, Israel gives the U.S. the middle finger. It’s well past time for the U.S. to put an end to that imbalance.
Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich are the ultranationalist firebrands who’ve recently been pushing the envelope the most. “What needs to be done in the Gaza Strip is to encourage emigration,” Smotrich recently told Army Radio. “If there are 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza and not 2 million Arabs, the entire discussion on the day after will be totally different.”
Smotrich also argued that the disappearance of most of Gaza’s population would permit Israelis to regenerate the war-torn enclave themselves: “Most of Israeli society will say, ‘Why not, it’s a nice…
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