Itamar Ben-Gvir
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Itamar Ben-Gvir is Israel's far-right Minister of National Security. John Kiriakou cites him as an example of what happens when people "convicted of anti-Arab or anti-Muslim hate crimes" are put in charge of security over their victims. He describes Ben-Gvir more specifically as a convicted felon, found guilty by Israeli courts on multiple counts of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate crimes, now serving as national security minister with oversight of security in Gaza and the West Bank. Before the October 7 attack, Kiriakou says, Ben-Gvir, thinking he was "smarter than everybody else", insisted any attack would come from the West Bank rather than Gaza, and had response teams transferred there, contributing to the delayed response. In a separate account, Kiriakou attributes the pre-attack Israeli belief that any conflict would occur in the West Bank rather than Gaza directly to Ben-Gvir, describing him as "the new extreme right-wing" National Security Minister. A co-guest on the same program described Ben-Gvir's hate-crime convictions in similar terms, adding that he had displayed in his home a portrait of a man who committed a massacre at the Cave of the Patriarchs.

Kiriakou returns to the convictions as the disqualifying fact rather than an incidental one, pairing Ben-Gvir with finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, "they both have felony convictions for anti-Muslim hate crimes... and they're in charge of the Palestinians", and drawing from it the conclusion that no lasting peace is possible while either remains in office.

Kiriakou also notes that the Knesset passed a law, under Ben-Gvir's national-security portfolio, reinstating the death penalty specifically for Palestinian detainees, the first such measure since Israel abolished capital punishment in 1956, with the sole exception made for Adolf Eichmann.

The West Bank misdirection

John Kiriakou places Ben-Gvir at the centre of the failure to act on warnings before 7 October. Settlers along the Gaza border spent two weeks reporting to the Ministry of National Security that Palestinians were flying kites, releasing balloons and checking wind speeds, with unusual walkie-talkie chatter. Ben-Gvir's answer, in Kiriakou's account, was that nothing was happening in Gaza and the next attack would come in the West Bank, and he ordered government assets used against possible cells there instead.

On the placement of the warning

Discussing the intelligence that preceded October 7, Kiriakou says Ben-Gvir "insisted that the attack was coming in the West Bank", and declines to treat that as an error: "I believe that the man is not that stupid. He knew it was coming in Gaza." Asked to rank him, Kiriakou puts him below Netanyahu: "He's worse." He describes Ben-Gvir as "supposed to be the big mastermind" of Israeli security and "really just a war criminal."

Named in the nuclear warning

In October 2025 Kiriakou named Ben-Gvir, with Bezalel Smotrich, as part of a governing far right he describes as convicted of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate crimes and "crazy enough to use nuclear weapons", the thing he says should be "our next great fear." On his reading the only brake is sustained American pressure, and he could not tell whether the pressure then being applied was policy or a passing gesture.

The champagne toast

After the passage of the Knesset death penalty law, Ben-Gvir was photographed and filmed toasting it with champagne, saying, while laughing, "We will count them, the hanged Palestinians, one by one." The episode was put to John Kiriakou on the DeProgram show, and his characterisation of the government it represents was direct: "This is a bloodthirsty government."

During the 2026 Iran war, Kiriakou reported that Ben-Gvir's house had been targeted by Iran and that he was, on the latest reporting available, critically injured, part of a pattern he described as Iran adopting Israel's own decapitation tactics. That episode is treated at Netanyahu in hiding.

See also

- October 7 attack
- Benjamin Netanyahu
