Ehud Olmert: Ben-Gvir is an enemy of the state

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert called National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir an "enemy of the state" on Saturday, in an interview with Israel's channel N12. 

Ben Gvir responded to the statement with a post on X calling Olmert a "failed prime minister, now a failed citizen," and suggested that Olmert should be on an "apology tour" for his own policies in Gaza.

Olmert, who led the Israeli government from 2006 to 2009, has been an outspoken critic of Prime Minister Netanyahu, the ministers of his government, and the way that he and the war cabinet have handled the fighting in Gaza. 

The men have related to the hostage crisis, and the state itself, very differently

Last month, Olmert wrote an opinion piece for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz calling for a deal to release all Hamas prisoners held in Israeli jails in exchange for the release of all of the Israelis that the terror group is holding captive in Gaza.

Ben Gvir has consistently argued against a hostage deal that would involve the release of terrorists, arguing that the cost to Israel's security cannot be justified by a release of hostages, at least under the terms proposed.

That includes the exchange carried out in November, in which 105 hostages were returned to Israel in exchange for a temporary ceasefire and the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners. An estimated 136 people are still held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

It is not the first time Ben Gvir has been called a danger to the state: Ben Gvir was arrested and indicted on many occasions prior to his election to the Knesset, and in 2007 was convicted of incitement to racism.

He has also aligned himself with groups that espouse the extremist ideology of the late Meir Kahane, whose political party is banned as a terrorist group, and expressed identification with the Jewish terrorist Baruch Goldstein, who murdered 29 Muslim worshippers in Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarchs in 1998.  

Ehud Olmert, too, served prison time, following his time as prime minister, for accepting bribes early in his political career and for obstruction of justice.