Kahanists Are a Danger to Israeli Democracy and Far Worse than Louis Farrakhan [UPDATED]

In advance of April’s election, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently brokered the merger of two smaller right-wing parties, in the hope that the agreement would increase his chances of putting together a governing coalition. To the consternation and distress Israeli and American Jewish organizations across the political spectrum, one of those parties is the blatantly racist Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power), which is descended from Meir Kahane’s outlawed Kach Movement, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European governments. Among its many other disgraceful policies, Otzma Yehudit calls for complete Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount and the deportation of Palestinians, leading Aipac (Aipac!) to call the outfit “racist and reprehensible.” Nonetheless, the Netanyahu-arranged merger with Bayit Yehudi – “Jewish Home,” another ultra-right, but not Kahanist, party – is likely to mean that Otzma Yehudi will have at least one representative in the next Knesset.

Writing in The Forward, Michael Koplow challenged “everyone who called out the Women’s March over Farrakhan” to likewise condemn Netanyahu over the Otzma Yehudit deal. And rightly so. For all of Farrakhan’s bigotry, he does not overtly preach violence against Jews. The same cannot be said for the Kahanists, whose acolytes have committed and celebrated arson and murder of Palestinians. As Koplow pointed out, the leader of Otzma Yehudit, Michael Ben-Ari, was banned from entering the U.S. in 2012 as a result of State Department guidelines preventing known terrorists from entering the country. This is the person whose possible entry to the Knesset has now been enabled by Netanyahu. 

Complementing Koplow’s article is a long essay by Yossi Klein Halevi in The Times of Israel, setting out the racist and neo-fascist nature of Kahanism. Here is how it begins:

In traditional Jewish consciousness there is no greater sin than Hillul Hashem, the desecration of God’s Name. The irony of Hillul Hashem is that it is a sin reserved for ostensibly religious Jews: Only someone who behaves disgracefully while speaking in the name of God and Torah can be guilty of desecration.

The embodiment of Hillul Hashem in Judaism today is the Kahane movement, whose latest political incarnation, Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power), has just been brought into the Israeli mainstream through an alliance with the religious Zionist Jewish Home party, with the active encouragement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Kahanism” – named for the late American-born rabbi, Meir Kahane – is the spirit behind numerous acts of Hillul Hashem, from desecrating mosques and churches to Baruch Goldstein’s 1995 massacre of 29 Palestinians in Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs. Yigal Amir, the murderer of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, was inspired by Goldstein and by the writings of Meir Kahane. Kahanism allegedly struck in 2015, when someone firebombed a home in the Palestinian village of Duma, killing three family members, including a baby – and then, when celebrants at the wedding of a far-right couple danced with a photograph of the baby and repeatedly stabbed the picture, confusing Judaism for a demonic cult.

The electoral inclusion of Otzma Yehudit has been repudiated by virtually every responsible Jewish Organization in the U.S. Here is a statement signed by progressive pro-Israel organizations, including J Street, the New Israel Fund, the National Council of Jewish Women, and Ameinu (of which I am a member):

Following Otzma Yehudit Agreement, 8 Organizations Call On American Jewish Community To Affirm: Kahanists Have No Place In The Knesset 

“Kahanists are a danger to Israelis and Israeli democracy” 

This week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, keen to shore up his electoral position, orchestrated the unification of the extreme right-wing party Otzma Yehudit (“Jewish Power”) with the National Union so that it could enter the Knesset in a consolidated right-wing bloc. This is dangerous and deeply concerning. Otzma Yehudit is the latest iteration of a political party based on teachings of racist demagogue Meir Kahane.

For decades, the consensus in Israel was that these racist extremist organizations should have no place in the Knesset. 

We are outraged that right-wing political parties and their leadership have reversed course and opened the door for Kahanists to enter into the Israeli political mainstream.

Our organizations do not advocate for or against any candidate or party in any election. We stand together for the principles enshrined in Israel’s Declaration of Independence. Kahanism, empowered in government, represents a clear and present danger to those values.

Kahane’s party, Kach, was banned from the Knesset in 1988, was outlawed as a terrorist organization in Israel in 1994, and still appears on the US State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

Modern day Kahanists are working to divide Israeli society by stoking racial fears. They seek to strip all non-Jewish Israelis of basic rights; many encourage violence toward Arabs and LGBTQ Israelis. These Jewish supremacist organizations often use incitement to violence to promote their racist agenda. That’s why the US State Department, the EU and the Canadian government all list Kahanist organizations as terrorist groups.

Today's Kahanists have been convicted numerous times for support for terror organizations and incitement to racism. Michael Ben-Ari, a leader of Otzma Yehudit and candidate for Knesset, was denied a visa to enter the US due to the State Department's "prerogative to ban terrorists from entering the country." 

As Americans, we have seen the devastating effects of elected officials embracing white nationalist groups. In America, deadly right-wing extremism poses a clear and present danger to our democratic society. In Israel, it is Kahanists -- and the political mainstream that embraces them -- that pose the most direct threat to Israel’s democratic fiber.

We call on our colleagues in the American Jewish community and Jewish organizations to stand for democracy and equality and join us in affirming that Kahanists have no place in the Knesset.

Signed,

                                                                                                      February 22, 2019

Partners for Progressive Israel

Ameinu

Americans for Peace Now

J Street

National Council of Jewish Women

New Israel Fund

Reconstructing Judaism

T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights

 

UPDATE: Monday's New York Times has a longer story on Netanyahu and the Kahanists here.

NOTE: This post has been slightly corrected regarding Farrakhan and violence.

 

 

Comments

[Stan Nadel]

I agree with almost all of this and would be glad to sign on. But when it claims that "For all of Farrakhan’s bigotry, his followers have never harmed anyone" it makes a dubious proposition. Ignoring the assassination of Malcolm X on the assumption that this claim was really intended to refer only to Jews, I would simply point out that Farrakhan has long had a strong following in Crown Heights where there have been numerous violent attacks on Jews. While to the best of my knowledge no attacker has so far been identified as an NOI member, that doesn't mean that these thugs aren't followers of Farrakhan who have been influenced by his Antisemitic rhetoric to attack Jews.

[Alan J Weisbard]

Thank you Steve. On the button.

[Steve L.]

That is a fair point, Stan. Thanks for commenting. Will fix in the post.

[Jeffry V Mallow]

I would argue that the distinction between Farrakhan's NOI not committing violent acts, in contrast to Kahane et al.'s doing so is a distinction without a difference. Farrakhan's anti-Semitic rhetoric inspires violence against Jews whether or not he has explicitly spoken in favor of it. That being said, great piece Steve!

[[M][a][c][K]]

there’s an old sarcastic joke from Northern Ireland about the relationship between certain politicians and certain thugs...

It’s like the relationship between the junkyard owner and the junkyard dog “he’s not my dog, but he’ll bite you if I say-so”