Itamar Ben-Gvir is not entering the election with an ordinary demand for a ministerial portfolio. His plan to secure the Defense Ministry is directly tied to the conduct of the next war and to the future of Gaza, the West Bank, and the Palestinian Authority.
According to what he has announced, his plan includes:
Encouraging what he calls “voluntary migration” of residents of Gaza and the West Bank.
Disarming the Palestinian Authority and arresting Palestinian leaders whom he accuses of supporting terrorism.
Changing the rules of engagement and providing soldiers with greater protection and support.
Increasing the salaries of combat soldiers and granting them land free of charge.
Gaza: Pushing the Population Out
The most consequential element of the plan is the potential transformation of Palestinian departure from Gaza into an explicitly stated policy.
Ben-Gvir has previously proposed a seven-year plan to encourage Palestinians to leave the Strip, including discussion of financial incentives and arrangements for resettling them outside Gaza.
If this idea were to become government policy, it would move from the rhetoric of the far right into an official instrument for reshaping the demographic reality of the Strip.
The West Bank and the Palestinian Authority
Ben-Gvir’s linkage of “disarming the Palestinian Authority” with the arrest of its officials reflects a security-centered rather than political approach to the West Bank.
The approach he proposes is not based on strengthening the Palestinian Authority as a partner in administering Palestinian territories. Instead, it seeks to weaken its security and political capacity and prevent it from maintaining independent instruments of power.
This would have direct implications for any future arrangements concerning Palestinian governance.
The Military and Rules of Engagement
Changing the rules of engagement, alongside increasing soldiers’ salaries and granting them additional benefits, would give the military greater operational latitude within an increasingly hard-line security environment.
Politically, Ben-Gvir seeks to make the protection of soldiers and the expansion of their operational authority a permanent component of the next government’s agenda.
Why the Defense Ministry?
The Defense Ministry gives its holder direct influence over some of the most sensitive files:
Gaza, the West Bank, the military, rules of engagement, settlements, and the Palestinian Authority.
That is why Ben-Gvir’s campaign for the ministry is, at its core, a struggle over the direction of Israeli policy after the war.
The Election: A Test of the Next Direction
The Israeli election scheduled for October 27, 2026, does not appear settled according to current polling. The contest over who will lead the government and who will be able to form a coalition holding 61 seats remains open.
This is where Ben-Gvir’s importance lies: even if he does not secure the Defense Ministry, the strength of his party within the next coalition will determine how much leverage he has to push these issues during coalition negotiations.
Ambition and Influence
This is no longer simply a matter of Ben-Gvir’s personal ambition.
It is an attempt to push Israeli policy toward a more hard-line model based on reshaping Gaza, weakening the Palestinian Authority, and expanding the scope for military force.
The election will determine not only who forms the next government, but also how much influence this political direction will have within it.