American investor Bill Ackman urged Israel’s next government to exclude National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, saying their actions had damaged Israel’s reputation in the United States ahead of Tuesday’s election.
Reuters reported Sunday that Ackman made the appeal as polls showed a close race between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and opposition parties. Reuters said Ackman wrote on X that his view reflected how Israel is perceived in the United States.
Ackman argued that leaving the two ministers out of the next government could help repair Israel’s credibility with Americans across party lines and create more room to expand the Abraham Accords. He described the change as Israel “turning a new page,” Reuters reported.
The accords were established in 2020 under the mediation of President Donald Trump’s first administration, bringing formal relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Israel later restored official ties with Morocco, Reuters reported.
Poll projections cited by Reuters put Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party at about 10 seats, compared with six previously, and Smotrich’s Religious Zionism at eight, up from seven. Britain, Canada and Australia have sanctioned the ministers over accusations that they incited violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, the outlet reported. Reuters also said policies they oversaw in Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist coalition were widely viewed as discriminatory toward Israel’s Arab minority and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Ackman and his wife, Neri Oxman, own 5% of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Reuters reported. Ackman supported Trump’s 2024 presidential bid, and Trump publicly endorsed Netanyahu last week. At a Tel Aviv conference Thursday, Ackman praised Netanyahu’s defense of Israel after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, Reuters said.
Nimrod Goren, president of Israeli think tank Mitvim, interpreted Ackman’s remarks as reflecting a preference in Trump’s circles for Netanyahu to form a unity government after the vote. Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s leading challenger, and other opposition leaders have ruled out joining a government with him, Reuters reported.
Israel’s general election is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 27.
