Among the core Israeli national narratives that have been fractured by the Hamas terror attacks and months of war and violence is the notion that Israel’s ethos on firearms differs from that of the United States.
Both countries can be characterized as gun-centric democracies, but according to the Israeli narrative, the U.S. is a land of too many guns and too few laws, while Israelis “trust their state, and don’t fear each other.” A common refrain emphasizes that in Israel, bearing arms isn’t a right, it’s a privilege.
After Oct. 7, in a shockingly fast turnaround, that privilege became, if not a right, an imperative. In changing Israel’s relationship with firearms, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is also changing the nation in ways that could have profound and lasting implications.
I have spent more than a decade collaborating with Israeli public health scholars and safety activists to better understand how a country with many guns could see only a fraction of U.S. civilian gun deaths.
Partner shootings, homicides, gun suicides, accidental shootings and mass shootings have been remarkably low in Israel in part because the government banned assault rifles for private citizens and issued handgun permits only after an extensive vetting process.
Effective gun laws reinforced social cohesion. If Americans carry guns based on individualized notions of self-protection, Israelis consider gun ownership a shared responsibility, and when gun policy comes up, they will explicitly say they “don’t want to be like the U.S.”
But like many national narratives, Israel’s gun scripts are partly myth. Armed settlers in the West Bank have recklessly intimidated and harassed Palestinians. A robust contraband arms market flourished in smaller cities, and the victims of those guns were overwhelmingly Arab citizens of Israel.
Still, American researchers like me could view Israeli’s gun safety efforts as a model of successful public policy.
Now that model is at risk. Hamas’ kidnapping and slaughter of Israelis represents a catastrophic failure of state protection. It has tapped into deep national fears about being Jewish, vulnerable and exposed.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — an incendiary Jewish supremacist once expelled from army service because of radicalism — has seized the moment. Prior to the Hamas attacks, he tried to weaken gun permit regulations and ease carry rights, but his arguments failed to gain traction. Now, however, he and his allies have managed to fast-track legislation that has generated an unprecedented spike in armed Jewish civilians.
“Carry a Gun, It’s a Life-saver: Ben-Gvir and His Wife Boast of Dramatic Expansion in Israelis Carrying Weapons” read a headline in Haaretz on Oct. 22.
Within a week of the attack, the Netanyahu government was purchasing and distributing thousands of firearms. Contentious Knesset oversight committee meetings detailed how dozens of unqualified people — including Ben Gvir’s personal staff appointees — had been granted temporary authority to approve gun license applications. In March, according to Haaretz,