Ayala Ben Gvir says she feels like ‘reservist’s wife’ as far-right minister tours US
Opposition MK tells wife of the Otzma Yehudit leader, who was barred from IDF service over his extremism, that she is ‘not a reservist’s wife, you’re the wife of a convicted felon’
Ayala Ben Gvir, the wife of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, wrote in a column published Friday that since her husband is away on an official visit to the United States, she feels “a bit like a reservist’s wife.”
The far-right Otzma Yehudit party leader’s wife wrote in her weekly column for the synagogue newsletter “Giluy Da’at” that “outside he is the national security minister, but at home he is the entertaining and fun Itamar,” and that while he is away from the country, she has to stay home and be with their children until he returns.
“I feel a bit like a reservist’s wife,” she wrote. “I salute each of them!”
The far-right minister did not serve in the military, and as such, he has never served in the reserves.
He was rejected from compulsory service in the IDF because of extremist activism in his youth, though he has said that he campaigned to be drafted despite the rejection.
Ben Gvir is a self-described disciple of Rabbi Meir Kahane, a former Knesset member whose Kach party was banned and declared a terror group in the 1980s in both Israel and the US. Like the late Kahane, Ben Gvir was convicted in the past of supporting a terror organization, though he insists he has become more moderate in recent years, including at a speaking event Thursday in New York.
Ayala Ben Gvir’s assertion that she feels like the wife of a reserve soldier was met with widespread scorn online, including from politicians.
MK Shelly Tal Meron of the opposition Yesh Atid party wrote to the minister’s wife on X that “a person who was not drafted to the IDF because he was a member of a terrorist organization is not a soldier and certainly not a reservist. You are not a reservist’s wife.”
“You are the wife of a convicted felon, who traded in his ‘Kahane Chai’ t-shirt for a suit and tie,” she added.
Ben Gvir is currently visiting the US for his first official trip as a representative of the Israeli government. He started his tour in Florida, where he attended a meal at US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, although Trump was not present. He also met with Miami police, toured a prison, visited a gun store and an Israeli supermarket, and met with Jewish community members.
The Times of Israel Community.