This project is a theoretical exploration of the social origins of vigilante violence through the lens of the rise of vigilante group Lehava from the the extreme right fringe to a mainstream force in Israeli politics. It asks: What is the social origin of vigilantism? How do vigilantes justify extra-legal violence? What are the long-term effects of vigilantism? The pre-October 7th increase in incitement to violence and the surge of attacks against Palestinian-Arab citizens within Israel occurred in reaction to an interlude of legal liberalization and judicial interventionism that weakened direct discrimination, enabling Palestinian-Arab citizens’ greater socio-economic mobility, public visibility, and self-assertive political aspirations. The paper makes the claim that vigilantism is an expected outcome of moral panics (following Stanley Cohen), a particular form of privileged backlash to expanding rights, which aims to recover and institutionalize state-enforced inequality. The fusion of privilege/right, moral panic, and vigilantism — three distinct analytic frameworks originating from history, anthropology, political science, legal scholarship, and criminology —  provides an expansive sociological theory of political vigilantism for studying the expansion and contraction of rights. To support this theory, the paper maps Lehava’s origins in radical Kahanism and its expansion through the 2010s to its present position within the Israeli government as part of Otzma Yehudit and a backer of Minister of Internal Security Itamar Ben-Gvir onto Stanley Cohen’s four stages of moral panic. Public letters, news items, and movement bulletins provide a new perspective on Lehava’s rhetorical strategies for encouraging violence within the bounds of Israel’s electoral laws, which have a carve-out for “religious speech” that might otherwise be deemed inciting. In addition, using economic data from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, it highlights the connection between Lehava’s increased vigilante violence within the bounds of the Green Line and Palestinian-Arab advancement. Connecting these two phenomena illuminates the manner in which merchants of moral panics may parlay vigilante violence into enduring political power. The paper will be of interest to a diverse audience, including right-wing studies scholars who wish to center vigilante violence as an interesting phenomenon in its own right, and scholars of Israel concerned with the mainstreaming of religious fundamentalism within Israel.