Retired Israel Defense Forces Major General Gil Regev sparked significant public controversy following remarks made during a recorded discussion with journalist Guy Peleg, in which he claimed to feel a deeper personal connection to Arab laborers he once worked alongside in Rafah and Judea and Samaria than to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Regev went beyond the political contrast, explicitly dismissing their shared Jewish heritage as a meaningful common denominator.
During the dialogue, Regev challenged Peleg to define what common ground exists between himself and the leader of the Religious Zionism party. When Peleg responded that both are Jewish, Regev dismissed the connection outright. “What does that mean? That they cut my foreskin? Hello, that is nonsense. I happen to be Jewish. My mother was Jewish,” Regev retorted, contending that mutual membership in the Jewish nation does not constitute an authentic partnership of values between individuals.
To explain his argument, the retired general recounted his career in the private sector in the prefabricated construction industry. Regev explained that his commercial projects took him into the Gaza Strip, where he and a business partner erected a structure on the roof of the Rafah municipality, and noted that on other occasions he directly employed Arab laborers in Judea and Samaria. Regev maintained that working side by side allowed him to connect with people beyond their national identities.
“We would wipe hummus, eat olives,” Regev recounted. “Those moments, right? Where we would talk about life—not politics, not occupation and all that, but about life. They shared stories about their lives, and we shared about ours. I understood: they desire life.” Regev concluded by drawing an uncompromising comparison with the sitting finance minister: “They and I had more in common than I will ever have with Smotrich. I will never have that interface with him where we are eating from the same dish, Guy. Pita touching pita, right?”
The contentious remarks came in the context of an exchange about escalating societal polarization and the potential breakdown into domestic civil strife. When Peleg asked directly whether he supports the eruption of a civil war within Israeli society, Regev clarified his posture: “I do not support it; I am speaking to you about things that could realistically happen here.”