Itamar Ben-Gvir
Courtesy CNN

In addition to the hundreds of new volunteer units, [national security minister Itamar] Ben Gvir has called on individuals to “go, arm yourself.” Shooting ranges and gun stores in Israel have seen an increase in foot traffic as private gun licensing rules were relaxed by Ben Gvir in recent weeks, Reuters reported.

A press release by the Ministry of National Security said that Hebrew-speaking citizens who have military training, no criminal record, and live in an eligible area “can undergo a telephone interview instead of an in-person one, and be issued a firearm license within a week.”

A 2017 report from the Small Arms Survey, a Swiss nonprofit tracking global firearms holdings, found civilians owned approximately 557,000 registered and unregistered guns in Israel, or 6.7 guns per 100 people – a tiny fraction of America’s 120 guns per 100 people. Israeli officials in October estimated that at least 300,000 Israelis would be eligible for the new licenses.

Guy Ben-Porat, a politics professor at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University, told CNN that while he does not want to discount the fear of the wider Israeli population, who “feel that they have been neglected by the military and the government and the instinct is to demand weapons,” he believes Ben Gvir has been “exploiting the opportunity to promote what he has wanted for a long time” that is “arming Jewish civilians.”

What the country needs is a reduction in arms, he said, pointing to the issue of illegal guns fueling gang-related violence among Arab citizens of Israel. The community – which makes up 20% of the population – has been calling for more measures to help curb criminal violence to deaf years, according to Ben-Porat.

“There’s a gun culture because people are insecure, so they buy guns, and every local feud can turn into a gun battle,” Ben-Porat, who is also an expert on minority policing, said. “However, the answer is not to give guns to Jewish citizens, but to take the guns away.”

— Tara John in Israelis are arming up in the aftermath of Hamas’ attack. Some are worried it is playing to the far right’s vision for the country

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96 COMMENTS

    • In other words, this is a racist white jew who believes that the arabs must be “policed.”
      The dirty little secret is that the jews do not want a gun culture in their society. Because they are afraid of their citizens. And many of their citizens are arab israelis.

      I seem to recall here in the United States that it was illegal to sell guns to the Indian tribes. And it was also made illegal to have a bow and arrow on federal land.

      And I believe in Israel. There was an attempt to ban the five thousand year old weapon called a slingshot. In college, I took a deep dive into the second amendment history, and also did research on weapons of the world. Slingshots have killed a lot of people.

      But if this guy is worried about illegal gun sales, then the question needs to be asked. Are jews selling guns to the arabs???

      In documentaries that have been on the History Channel. The Jewish gunsmiths were documented to be selling guns to the national socialists in the 1930s.

      It’s about time some very hard difficult questions need to be asked about the state of Israel, and the gun control policies historically, they’ve had and why they have them.

      The Jewish in name only, State of Israel, does not get a free pass on gun control, no government does.

      • Let me help you out here. He is an idiot, most of the Israeli’s in the settlements, kibbutzim and moshavim probably think he is an idiot.

        The worst kind of idiot has the most advanced degrees.

        Please don’t judge the rest of Israel based on him.

        The Netanyahu government has been disarming the settlers for a while afraid they would start shooting back at the Gazans. Obviously someone’s head is going to roll for that one. Probably Bibi’s.

  3. “Experts” are scared shitless people are waking up to their grift, so they want to disarm people before the “experts” are held accountable for their bullshit.

    • Academics & philosophers have given us Friedrich Engles (1830-1895) & Karl Marx (1818-1883); grifters of the 19th Century that has haunted the world through the 20th into the 21st century. But alas they were students of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel a philosopher from the early 19th century (1770-1831).

  4. Mandatory training and issuance of a weapon to each citizen at 18 is the answer. Those Arab gangs would go elsewhere….maybe to California, Chicago, or Jersey.

  5. These “experts” don’t care about the well being of their citizens. Their top priority is attaining ideological goals at the expense of everything else. They have a religious belief in their ideology – and will not admit that its a bad one regardless of how much evidence there is.
    DELUSIONAL.

    • Yep. He is denying tactical and strategic reality because it “plays to the vision of the far right”. That’s getting down to cargo-cult level.

  6. “pointing to the issue of illegal guns fueling gang-related violence among Arab citizens of Israel.”

    see, there ya go. You identified the problem (e.g. illegal guns fueling gang-related violence among Arab citizens”). So solve the problem instead of making your law abiding citizens the scape goat and denying them their basic human right to self-defense.

    of we could get rid of our violent gangs here in the U.S. crime (violent and otherwise) would go down over 90%. but like this idiot, our left wing wants to focus on making law abiding citizens the scape goat and denying them their basic human right to self-defense instead of doing something about the actual problem.

    • But that would be -ist.

      The only equitable way to handle it is to treat everyone (not the 1%ers of course) as though they are the same remedial level bronze-age neanderthals and restrict their liberty as much as they’ll tolerate to ensure the safety and security of those 1%ers.

      There was a “journalist” on NPRs The Daily last night who described Israel’s Palestinian strategy up to 10/7. It went something like:

      “Israel thought by increasing imports and work permits they could keep Hamas activity down to a manageable level of occasional dustups while avoiding larger conflict and loss of life.”

      That’s pretty much the 1%er philosophy toward all of us. Let some crumbs fall from the table so we can snatch them up and once in a while we’ll get uppity and kill each other but with any luck we’ll leave them alone.

      Eat the bugs, enjoy your 20 square foot sleeping tube and if you don’t cause any trouble maybe you’ll get an electric scooter to ride to work on your birthday. If you ever feel angry it’s probably your neighbors fault. Definitely not Schwabs, Zucks or Harari’s fault. All those WEF guys just want you be happy. Have nothing, sure, but be happy.

  7. 10/7 demonstrated clearly that those with guns can defend themselves and those without cannot. As for violence against the palestinians, if they would quit F’ing around they would also stop finding out. When you shoot up a peace/music festival full of your own supporters don’t be surprised when some people take that as an abject lesson as to your real beliefs and goals.

    • They’re going to have to take over Gaza again. This time they have to outlaw bigoted Palestinian propaganda. Nothing changes until the culture changes. Believe it or not, some cultures are better than others.

      In other news, something that was 100% predictable is happening. Left wingers are begging the West to take in those racist, hateful, murderous people whose culture is the opposite of ours. What could go wrong? Shouldn’t Arab countries be taking in 100% of Arab refugees? How many does China take in? How about Japan? Why or why not?

      The West Should Welcome Gaza Refugees
      https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-west-should-welcome-gaza-refugees-asylum-seekers-hamas-terrorism-displacement-5d2b5890

      • Everybody bitches bout the evil Israeli border but nobody ever mentions the Egyptian border. How dare anyone suggest a Muslim Arab nation welcome in other Muslim Arabs.

        Nah, better for them to be dumped into a completely incompatible culture. That will ensure peace and tranquility.

        I do look forward to the roof-tossing, tire-necklacing, throat-cutting tolerance running headfirst into draggy storytime. Worth the price of admission. I’m sure it will still be the fault of christians somehow.

        • Egypt does not want Hamas making trouble in Egypt. They’ve had enough problems with the Muslim Brotherhood trying to convert Egypt into a religious state. Allowing Hamas in is just asking for trouble. [See also: Pakistan kicking out Afghanistan “refugees” that were Taliban and their families, and sending them back home.]

      • Why are you assuming that, a priori, Palestinian Muslims and Christians must be ethnically cleansed from that area?

        Jews always complain about the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Germany. Why is ok when they do it?

        I mean- the Palestinians don’t believe in gun control, LGBTQ+, porn, transgenderism for preschoolers, etc…

        I support the Palestinians.

        • Why, First off there is no such thing as a “Palestinian”. They are ARABS!
          Second, the Israelis want to cleans Gaza of your terrorist buddies, HAMAS.
          Third, if you support terrorists, you are a terrorist, Terrorist.

        • I said no such thing. You’re putting words in my mouth and attacking a straw man because you’re a low IQ troll who is incapable of debate.

      • The other countries won’t take the Gaza Palestinians because they are pawns in a geopolitical game.

        If the Gaza Palestinians leave, they abandon any claim to the area. So by being kept there they are leverage in other plans.

        • There’s also the issue of the Hamas leaders who profit by keeping this conflict going. I’m not talking about the fanatics on the front line. I’m talking about the billionaires living in Qatar. Why would they want anything to change? I wonder if this is one of the reasons for such a young population in Gaza. I wonder if they encourage their people to have children (unlike what they do here) to help keep things going.

          Hamas heads grow rich on the backs of suffering Palestinians
          Terror masters Ismail Haniyeh, Moussa Abu Marzuk and Khaled Meshal live lives of luxury in Doha, Qatar, with an estimated combined net worth of some $11 billion.
          https://nypost.com/2023/11/08/opinion/what-is-hamas-fighting-for-to-enrich-its-leaders/

          We made them rich by sending “Palestinians” aid money. We enabled the ongoing conflict by financing it. We literally borrowed money in order to do it. Foreign aid is so corrupt.

  8. He’s saying you have to disarm law-abiding Israeli citizens in order to fix the Israeli Arab gang violence problem. Sound familiar? Their credentialed academic idiots are just like ours.

    • Credentialed academic idiots are really brave saying their words from behind gated communities or universities with armed guards.

  9. “There’s a gun culture because people are insecure, so they buy guns, and every local feud can turn into a gun battle,”

    First, none of that is true. Its a BS ‘fool the stupid’ concept right out of the U.S. EveryTown and Giffords playbook. Its been debunked hundreds of times over time.

    Second, aside from the lie above, it has nothing to do with ‘insecurity’ but rather with ‘preparation’. Sure, there may be those who are afraid and feel insecure in that but they really aren’t getting a gun because they are afraid and feel insecure in that – they are getting a gun because they realize the violent threat is multi-dimensional and when that threat becomes imminent they know its pretty darn unlikely the ‘government’ (e.g. police there in Israel and in every country including the U.S., military as in what happened in Israel, etc…) is going to be there to save them in that imminent moment so really they are ‘preparing’ to be their own first responders.

  10. More guns in Israel would be a win-win based on his analysis; law abiding Israelis would be able to defend themselves from criminals AND criminal Arab gangs might get more guns so they could kill more of each other.

    He, however, suggests that less Israelis should be armed so that they can be victimized by the already illegal armed gangs as well as the already illegally armed terrorists bent on killing all Israelis.

    Im glad to know that Leftist cognitive dissonance is not unique to America.

  12. Idiocy runs in this academic’s family. He must be a relative of dacian the DUNDERHEAD or MINOR49er.

  14. Oy vey! Far right vision? No just right. If the Palestinian gangs are criminals expell them. In Chiraq the Dims “partner” with gangbangers which doesn’t work out so well.Arm up Israeli Jews. The only reason you’re alive are gunz. And nukes.

  15. I don’t want a gun culture, per se. I’ve lost some of my enthusiasm for firearms – that is, I’ve mostly been there, done that, and I no longer invest significant time and money into guns, ammo, and time. Hey, I’m aging. Don’t want to be part of a gun culture.

    But, damned if I’m going to approve of any rules, regulations, laws, or peer pressure that discourages others from defending themselves.

    What’s wrong with the way things were 100 years ago? If you want a gun, get a gun. If you don’t want a gun, don’t get a gun. If you need a gun, get the gun that meets your needs. Live and let live. Everything is good, unless and until you hurt someone.

    Oh wait. What am I thinking. Commies can’t have any of that. Authoritarians need to intrude on every aspect of your life, and tell you what you should be doing.

    Fok ’em all.

    • AMEN & AMEN!!!
      It has long been my belief that if every male (or female, come to that) had a firearm and the WILL TO USE IT, the Holocaust would have been a whole nuther event!
      Armed self-defense is not only a God-given RIGHT, it is an EXPECTATION…
      “Vertrou in God en die Mauser!”- Afrikaner saying…

    • Palestinian children have been told for years that the Israelis have taken their beautiful land and many believe it. When the Jews came in droves during and after WWII, they developed ways to make the desert bloom. They worked the land and found solutions that no one else did.
      If the Jews never came, thier land would look the same as it did then and they would still be living in poverty.

  16. So Jews need to be disarmed so Arabs don’t kill other Arabs…liberal logic gets everyone killed. This guy us an UTTER nutjob.

    • Just like the genius who tried to equate people owning long guns were contributing to crime committed with handguns.

      The rationale was “it must help”.

  17. Ladies and gentlemen what we are witnessing is the beginning of the end play out in real time. The true battle between the haves and have nots that reckons as the calling of TEOTWAWKI. How else to explain the Orwellian double-speak, deep world wide graft, and all out assault on common sense of not believing what you see and hear for yourself. This is a world wide phenomenon. Is this driven by evil? Perhaps. But it is being accepted by good people who have been raised to be polite. Add in apathy and assumption that someone else will step up to solve the problem and bingo-bango… the inmates are running the asylum.

    “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Attributed to Edmund Burke, by John F Kennedy in a speech in 1961. Burke didn’t say it, and its earliest form was by John Stuart Mill, who said in 1867: “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”

    “I’m a nice guy, until I’m not. And sometimes it’s time to not be nice.” – my friend, a former Marine special unit operator. A call to arms for sheep dogs everywhere?

    • It’s accepted and enabled by people who falsely equate “nice” with good. Evil wins when people who know what’s right choose instead to do what’s “nice”. It’s always the right time to be just, honest, responsible, rational, disciplined, etc. It’s never the right time to be “nice”.

  18. So Jews need to be disarmed so Arabs don’t kill other Arabs…liberal logic gets everyone killed. This guy is an UTTER nutjob.

  19. This guy makes absolutely no sense! He definitively articulates “illegal arms” in the hands of the Arab gang violence, but then advocates a ban for regular citizens to get firearms legally to defend themselves?!!! That’s some hypocrisy! He’s been reading too much of the anti-gun nonsense here in the states that say exactly the same thing. But btw, the elites have no problem hiring armed guards (usually at the expense of the public) to defend them.

    • I would start by asking who he works for and who funds them and work backwards until it made sense. If I cared anyway commies all tend to blend together.

  21. Def make sure the prof has no weapons, cuz he is nuts. Then offer him a job as a ‘special envoy’ to gaze, I am sure hmas will let him crash on the couch.

  22. Meanwhile, babies are dying in Gaza because Israel keeps bombing hospitals. It’s disgusting that we keep sending weapons and money to people that push gun control here.

    You’d think after the Lavon affair, USS Liberty, the stingray scandal, and NSO Pegasus on State Department phones- that we’d maybe stop giving these baby killers money.

    I am anti-Semitic because of all the porn, gun control, usury, and persecution of Christians that Jews keep doing. Do like the media? Who controls that? Don’t like Hollywood pushing degeneracy? Hmmmmm…

    • “Palestinian,” tell your terrorist buddies not to put their headquaters in hospitals. You are the disgusting one. Oh by the way, there is no such thing as a “Palestinian.”

    • “babies are dying in Gaza because Israel keeps bombing hospitals.”

      You’re a lying sakoshit parroting exactly what Hamas wants you to parrot. Babies are dying in Gaza because cowardly Palestinians are hiding among the general populace, hiding in hospitals, hiding beneath hospitals, using babies for human shields.

      If there is an Allah, He will put all of your Hamas heroes into hell. There is no paradise for baby killers.

    • The Israelis offered fuel to keep the hospitals running but Hamas refused.

      And a hospital loses its protective status if is used as a military installation such as a command post or ammunition storage.

      Your Hamas pals WANT civilian casualties. It serves the propaganda narrative.

      Did they really think their October-7 action would not be responded to? Don’t do terrorism if you can’t take the consequences.

      But I will admit the Israelis are not very good at the PR game either.

      • FS
        See the video making the rounds where a guy is all chewed up in hospital, and his mom comes running in yelling and screaming?

        They have to calm her down and are telling her IT IS ALL FOR THE CAMERAS? She doesn’t believe them, so they have to take off the ‘bloody bandages’ to prove to her HE IS TOTALLY UNHARMED?

        ROFTL….

  24. Guy Ben-Porat is a traitor to his country. If the Jewish people hadn’t had their guns taken from them Hamas would never have attempted the October 7th invasion. A lot of Jewish blood is on the hands of the liberals that disarmed their citizens. I stand with Israel.

  26. (Communist) Democrat House Members Hold Roundtable On Changing US Gun Laws! > (all they invited were anti-gun people to participate in their echo chamber advocating for a ‘mob rule’ style change in their proclaimed ‘democracy’ without realizing we are not a democracy but rather a republic – all the standard already-debunked-by-independant-researchers talking points with a healthy dose of basically ‘the heck with the constitution we want to do what we want’.)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I18yrrKS0fs

  29. I’m guessing that ole Guy Ben-Porat had no family that got killed by Hamas last month. Easy for him to opine like a fool when he had no foot in the game.

  30. As a former IDF soldier, in the correct lexicon, this guy is a shmuck

    No academic should ever give practical, real life security advice.

  31. “However, the answer is not to give guns to Jewish citizens, but to take the guns away.”
    The Logic of a Complete, Blithering, Idiot.
    it would seem the ‘Academics’ of this world arent that smart after all.

  32. Imagine that all the Super-Nova party-goers on October 7th had been in possession of a 9mm handgun and that every household in the border communities had possessed a small arsenal of AR 15s and AK 47s or a few neat small sub-machine guns.

    The outcome would have been very different

  33. Sad how those that continue to say that the civilian population does not need guns, but they themselves are surrounded by and own them for their own protection, I find many anti-gun / anti self defense individuals an politicians make the most hypocritical comments while using others monies to protect themselves and use the regular citizens are examples for not following their rules that they themselves don’t follow. They have never learned from historical past that disarming law-abiding citizens only leads to genocide, this is what they want, not seeing that people remain safe along with their families, cowards always attack those that they know cannot defend themselves, and they always choose soft targets.

  35. “There’s a gun culture because people are insecure, so they buy guns,” Which is a completely totally rational way of solving the problem of terrorists. Nothing else works except shooting them back until there aren’t anymore of them. This clown would be begging for a gun and some armor if it came to his doorstep. And, of all people, the Jewish people should always be strapped!

  36. What is with these “perfessers” ? How does a higher education rob you of your common sense? Unless you never had any to begin with…
    Guy Ben-Porat, a politics professor at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University=💩💩💩💩💩

  37. this schmuck would willingly walk into the gas chamber.
    the sad part is he wants to take as many innocent people as possible with him.

  40. this imbecile should go read the Book of Esther, clear to the end, to learn what Jews should be celebrating at Purim. While many remember Haman hanging, the Jews who armed themselves and gathered together in militias to defend themselves had killed tens of thousands of Haman’s followers.

  42. Take it from me as an Israeli, Guy Ben-Porat is a fool with little to no audience, ESPECIALLY after Oct.7.
    Israelis won’t go back to the way it was.
    Even the left here is waking up…..not an easy task.

  44. Figures. A professor who knows nothing about the criminal/terrorist mind, nothing about self defense, who thinks people cannot maintain emotional regulation (condescending judgement) is smarter than everyone else and would withhold the means of self defense to its citizens, thus inviting another atrocity. Lao-Tzu: “If one desires peace, prepare for war.” Prepared doesn’t mean you have to start one. I wonder if the professor is a closet Marxist like the ones here.

  45. “called on individuals to “go, arm yourself.” Drivel. Tiny% of the citizens to be “allowed” to own a HANDGUN (no useful long guns). ONE HUNDRED rounds of hand gun ammo? Impressive NOT. Where are these guns/ammo in stock in country?

  47. The worst kind of Jew is the “moser” (pronounced “moi-ser”/”moy-zer”) ie. a traitor to his faith/people, the “moser” tends to be a “cosmopolitan”, natives of the Mida-Atlantic/Northeast state’s metropolitan areas within the USA, “full-professor” Guy Ben-Porat once affiliated with Cambridge, is a perfect example of a moser.

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