Bentsi Gopstein: The Revolution Is Already Here
The head of the Lehava organization says he worked with the security forces to rescue Jewish women from the heart of Gaza, and explains why he is convinced that the real revolution will not come from the Knesset.
Bentsi Gopstein, chairman of Lehava, maintains cautious optimism even on days when there seems to be no reason for it. In an interview in the podcast studio of Channel 7, he explains that this approach is not detached from reality, but stems from a deep, rooted upbringing he absorbed in his youth. Gopstein was born and raised in the Pardes Katz neighborhood, a place that did not always treat its residents kindly, but he says he never experienced a feeling of deprivation. Even at a young age, he sought the truth, without filters and without fear of the establishment, and in his view this is a common thread between the boy he was then and today’s Israeli youth. According to him, the younger generation can spot fakeness from miles away and demands authenticity, even when it is not always pleasant to hear.
Over the years, Gopstein says he has seen ideas that were once considered utterly taboo gradually become part of the mainstream. He recalls the days when he was expelled from high school yeshivot simply because of his political views. He compares the renewed acceptance of the deep right to the process that took place in the reception of the songs of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. “When Rabbi Carlebach was in Hebron, they looked for a minyan for him, to pray with him. Today, Carlebach in Hebron is the main minyan.”
The road to the mainstream, however, was full of bitter legal battles. Gopstein describes a years-long campaign of persecution, conducted, according to him, first and foremost by the Reform movement, which set out to incriminate him. After years of gathering material and investigations, an indictment was filed against him that included charges of racism and support for terrorism. The court acquitted him of most of the charges, but convicted him, in his view absurdly, on the count of terrorist organization because of a song. “It was a song, ‘Baruch HaGever,’ that is what I was convicted for. They gave me a few hours of community service, just to tick off the box on my conviction, and that is the persecution, and I assume it will continue. I am not worried about it.”
Despite the heavy personal cost, which ultimately included his disqualification from running for the Knesset by the Supreme Court after a brief half-hour hearing, Gopstein firmly refused to apologize or express regret, even when that could have eased his situation. “I am proud that I always said my truth. I regret nothing.” His disqualification from the Knesset does not make him feel he missed out. On the contrary, he sees being outside the parliament building as a huge advantage, allowing him to speak his truth without the shackles of political correctness. The building, he says, is a place where the truth is censored. “You can do many things outside the Knesset. The Knesset is a very important place, but there you cannot tell the truth. You cannot say that we have in this country people who want to fight us, people who are not all happy with the blue and white flag.”
He forcefully rejects accusations of racism, stressing that his struggle is not based on origin or skin color, but on loyalty to the State of Israel as a Jewish state. He points to his work on behalf of Arabs who converted to Judaism and even to Arabs being members of Lehava, as long as they are loyal to the state. “I deal with gerim, Arabs who converted, they do not find peace anywhere else and with me they have an open home. I am not racist. My problem is with anyone who thinks this country is not a Jewish state.”
The flagship activity of Gopstein and his wife Anat, within the Lehava organization, is rescuing and rehabilitating women and children from Arab villages and from areas under the Palestinian Authority and the Strip. In the interview, he reveals a glimpse of dramatic events that took place behind the scenes, including cooperation with the Shin Bet security service. “During the war, the Shin Bet called several organizations and asked whether there were Jewish women in Gaza. Thank God, they all got out of there, at least as far as I know,” he says.
According to him, the physical rescue is only the beginning. The real struggle is for the soul and identity of children who grew up under education that taught hatred of Israel. He describes a chilling case of a child who was rescued at age three and lived in Gopstein’s home. “They were in our house. The child saw an IDF soldier and picked up a stone to throw at him. That is what he understood he was supposed to do at age three. A few months ago he enlisted in Golani, and that is very moving.”
Gopstein’s worldview was shaped to a large extent behind prison walls and during arrests. He recounts his arrest as a young boy, under the age of 18, who spent half a year in Ramla Prison for entering the Temple Mount, and later a administrative detention term he served together with Dr. Baruch Goldstein during the period of the Kach movement. But contrary to expectations, prison is not a dirty word for him. “If there is something you believe in and it is true, then prison should not be something that closes you off because of it. You need to make a revolution, and you do not make it with weapons, or by burning cars or with violence against Arabs. That is not the revolution. The way to create a revolution is to convince more Jews, and if I go to prison for that, then gladly.”
Today, Gopstein identifies a tectonic shift in Israeli public life, especially among the younger generation. This revolution is happening largely thanks to social networks, which broke the monopoly of the traditional media and allowed right-wing discourse to break through the screens uncensored. “Today you can reach every home. That is the transformation. There is immense awakening. When I meet teenagers, I see it.”
When the conversation turns to national politics and the performance of his longtime friend, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Gopstein stands by him and explains the immense difficulty of creating governance in the face of a legal and bureaucratic system that puts obstacles in the way. “Minister Ben Gvir is the only one who ‘moved their cheese,’ who shook up their system, and I think the judicial system also needs to be shaken up. That is why they hate him and fight against him.”
He speaks cautiously in his assessment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but demands that he show more independence and rely on faith rather than on the leaders of the nations of the world. “He got more courage when brave people were placed next to him. Netanyahu needs strong people with him, but he still needs complete faith and confidence and not to be afraid. In the end, we need to trust the Holy One, blessed be He, and not Trump.”
