Ben Gvir Campaign Claims October 7 Avoidable Under His Defense Leadership
Otzma Yehudit launched a new campaign claiming October 7 would not have happened if Itamar Ben Gvir were Defense Minister, sparking sharp public debate.
Otzma Yehudit launched a new campaign on Monday featuring billboards across the country with the message: "If Ben Gvir had been Defense Minister, October 7 would not have happened." The campaign video includes footage of party chairman and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir speaking on May 9, 2023—about five months before the October 7 massacre—calling to change Israel's security concept against its enemies.
"The State of Israel must change the conception," Ben Gvir is heard saying in the speech. "The conception must be one of striving for contact, of defeating the enemy. And no more containing and containing and containing and containing."
The video's voiceover claims that Ben Gvir "warned against the conception" and demanded a policy shift, but was ignored. The video concludes: "Today it is already clear: Israel needs a defense minister who thinks differently, identifies the danger in time—and defeats the enemy. If Ben Gvir had been Defense Minister, October 7 would not have happened."
Following the public uproar caused by the billboards, Itamar Ben Gvir published a response attacking critics of the campaign: "I see the whining of the left following the billboards that Otzma Yehudit hung this morning... and it only reinforces for me that deep down they too know the truth."
