OPINION: Buried several paragraphs into a Fox News story about Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir headlined “Controversial Israeli official says his country can learn from America’s gun laws,” is a quote suggesting anti-gun Democrats in this country could learn something from him.
“We need to allow as many citizens as possible to be armed. It gives people a sense of security—when someone has a weapon in their pocket, they feel safer,” the far-right Ben-Gvir told Fox News Digital.
Ben-Gvir recently visited the U.S. and reportedly stopped at a gun store and shooting range. A settler in the West Bank, Fox News said he has been a longtime advocate “for wider distribution of firearms in Israel.” This became especially keen in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.
However, the controversial Israeli politician could use a little research on our Second Amendment. According to Fox News, he observed, “I believe we need to learn from the Americans. One of the important lessons is their policy on weapons…I’m not sure I would distribute arms to the same extent, but I definitely believe in expanding access because citizens have the right to defend themselves.”
Our “policy on weapons” is pretty simple: The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. It’s right there in the Second Amendment, which anti-gun Democrats and even some Republicans have been trying to erode for decades.
More than 40 state constitutions also contain right-to-bear-arms provisions, which organizations including the Second Amendment Foundation, National Rifle Association, Gun Owners of America, and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, have been defending, even while the attorneys general in some states have not.
According to a biography of Ben-Gvir published by Wikipedia, he was born in May 1976 and his political background “lies in Kahanism – a…movement that supports the expulsion of Palestinians from their lands.” His alleged personal politics notwithstanding, Ben-Gvir appears to have it right about self-defense, and he evidently understands how important firearms are to that principle, especially in his particular part of the world.
This isn’t the first time Fox News has focused on how people of Jewish heritage have taken up gun ownership. Back in 2023, following the Hamas attack, the network put a spotlight on Rabbi Yossi Eilfort in Los Angeles, California. At the time, he was appearing in an NRA-produced video discussing the mission of a group he founded called Magen Am USA, described as “the only Jewish, nonprofit organization licensed on the West Coast to provide armed security services.”
The story related how, in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, here in the U.S., protests were “sparked” and there was a noticeable increase in “antisemitic rhetoric… as pro-Palestinian supporters took to the streets of cities such as New York and Los Angeles.”
In that report, Fox News Digital “spoke with the owner of Beverly Hills Guns, Russell Stuart, who has known Eilfort for years and said there has been an explosion of California Jews rushing to purchase firearms for self-defense as the war in Israel continues and instances of antisemitism increase stateside.”
Stuart said at the time there had been a sharp increase in gun sales, and he had heard fears from people about a “second Holocaust.”
While there is no Second Amendment in Israel—or anywhere else outside the United States, for that matter—this unique feature in the U.S. Constitution, while constantly under assault from anti-gunners, invariably becomes the “fallback” for people who suddenly realize their personal safety is really in their own hands. We may not have Hamas attacks in this country, but common American criminals don’t play favorites. They do not make appointments, and they’re not concerned about who they hurt.
All of this underscores the importance of the Trump administration’s heightened interest in protecting Second Amendment rights. During the past month, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s launch of the Second Amendment Enforcement Task Force raised a lot of eyebrows.
Then Assistant A.G. Harmeet Dhillon told conservative commentator Glenn Beck she will direct the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division to pursue Second Amendment protection.
CCRKBA’s late April launch of an online petition, allowing gun owners across the country to call on Bondi to turn her new 2A Task Force loose on 12 specific states where restrictive gun control policies have dramatically impaired Second Amendment and state constitutional gun rights has added to the momentum. The petition is still open for signing.
Itamar Ben-Gvir may have a far different outlook on Mideast politics than most Americans, but he lives in the middle of a war zone, where bloodshed seems more a matter of “when” rather than “if.” His perspective has been shaped by the environment in which he lives. His recognition that an armed citizen has a far better chance of fighting back and surviving, rather than being taken hostage and maybe not surviving, if they have the right tools—guns and the right to own them—makes a lot of sense, whether one lives in Jerusalem or Jersey City.
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About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
