It should have come as no surprise when Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev used the eve of Independence Day, May 9, to announce a provocative new piece of legislation that she intends to champion. She wants to compel institutions and facilities built with state funding to fly the Israeli flag.

Regev’s flag law is the latest link in a series of controversial legislative initiatives, ordinances and statements by her that have offended various sectors of the population. They are also the kind of initiatives that she can ride all the way to the Likud primaries. Take, for example, the Mizrahi agenda that she is trying to advance in Israeli culture. The problem is that she is using an attitude of disdain toward everyone else to win the hearts of the masses. Regev is never satisfied with speaking out sharply about Ashkenazi cultural hegemony over Israel. She always insists on being defiant, expressing herself in ways that she knows will make headlines and turn her into a “working class hero.” For example, she used the term “tightasses” to describe Ashkenazi artists from Tel Aviv.

Alongside her war against the Ashkenazim, which is winning her more and more support among the Likud’s Mizrahi electorate, Regev also wants to use strong-arm tactics with Israel’s Arab sector such as passing laws and regulations requiring them to be loyal to the state. All of this is, of course, intended to promote her image as a minister eager to settle the score with the Arabs and restore order.

The "cultural loyalty" law, which she initiated upon entering office, was intended to deny government funding from cultural institutions that criticize the state and its symbols. As expected, the proposed law raised a commotion, enraging leftist and Arab Knesset members and artists and prompting them to protest, which was exactly what she wanted. Every disparagement and curse, every criticism and insult hurled her way is pure poetry for her, proving to her right-wing electorate that she is not afraid of her opponents. She is a proud and unapologetic patriot, the ultimate Zionist.