Meir Kahane - Revisited

Rabbi  Meir Kahane (Arutz Sheva)

I have never doubted his wisdom about the Arab mindset. Rabbi Meir Kahane was way ahead of his time. A true visionary (albeit a violent one) about an issue that few people understood or were even willing to grasp when he explained it to them. Few individuals put their money where their mouth is the way he did. Unfortunately, it was that clear understanding  accompanied by extremist rhetoric and his willingness to use violence to achieve his goals that led to his demise.

Nonetheless, his views resonated with enough Israelis to earn him a seat in the Israeli Knesset, where he became the proverbial thorn in the side of the conventional politicians of that time. To say that he was provocative would be an understatement. By the next election his popularity was growing  and he was poised to gain a few more Knesset seats. That was when the Israeli Supreme Court deemed him to be a racist. Forbidding him to run for the Knesset.

Kahane denied the accusation, claiming to have many individual Arabs as close friends and supporters, but that didn’t help him. He used vile rhetoric about Arabs—language that could have been used by Hitler against Jews. His proposed solution to the Palestinian issue was characterized as ethnic cleansing and Nazi-like.

Kahane believed that Israel must settle all of Eretz Yisroel. including Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. Territories captured in the 1967 Six-Day War. Which should be annexed. He insisted that it was forbidden by Halacha to give any of it to the Arabs. He was therefore vehemently opposed to a Palestinian state.

Anticipating the demographic problem (the growing Arab population that would eventually outnumber the Jewish population) early on, he suggested that Palestinians could live in Israel and be given every opportunity to prosper. Essentially granting them equality with Israel’s Jewish population, but without voting rights. Palestinian Arabs would be given the option of accepting those conditions or leaving the country voluntarily. Those who refused would be forcibly deported.

This was deemed ethnic cleansing by Israel’s mainstream politicians. And added fuel to accusations of racism.

Even though Rav Ahron Soloveichik agreed that it was forbidden to give up any land Israel recovered during the Six-Day War, he was vehemently opposed to Rabbi Kahane. He believed that, although Kahane's heart was in the right place, his tactics inspired extremism and violence. And they did:

On February 25, 1994, Baruch Goldstein, dressed in an Israeli military uniform, entered a mosque in the Cave of the Patriarchs and opened fire on 800 Palestinian Muslim worshippers during Ramadan, killing 29 and wounding 125, until he was beaten to death by survivors.

Kahane’s ideology also inspired extremist followers like Itamar Ben-Gvir, who managed to secure six Knesset seats in the last election, giving his Kahanist faction a level of power that Rabbi Kahane could have only dreamed about when he was alive.

Well, according to Arutz Sheva, it seems that Meir Kahane has made a comeback.

Lizzy Savetsky, a popular pro-Israel influencer and activist, published a clip in which the late rabbi explains that Arabs would only respect Israel if it is tough with them. In the video, Kahane states:

"I'm not the kind of Jew who walks around begging people to love him. You know when people love us? After every Holocaust."

With the video, which received nearly 8,800 likes and was shared over 4,000 times, Savetsky wrote:

"Rabbi Meir Kahane, of blessed memory, was labeled as a violent extremist, but he was right. This is the truth right here. The only language the Arabs understand is force and fear. We are tired of Kaddish and tired of yahrtzeits. Get the hostages home and get all of the terrorists out of Gaza for good!!"

Rabbi Meir Kahane was assassinated in New York on November 5, 1990, during a visit to the U.S. He has been characterized as a vile racist who sullied the good name of the Jewish people with his hateful rhetoric against Arabs. Characterized as a man whose views and actions were reprehensible and did irreparable harm to Israel and the Jewish people.

I don’t think that’s a fair characterization of him. I agree with Rav Ahron, He was an extremist in ways that were both dangerous and counterproductive. But his understanding of the Arab mindset was exactly right and far ahead of its time. And his proposal for the future, which once seemed preposterous, is not so far-fetched today, now that the president of the United States has essentially adopted his approach for Gaza, if not the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). Even the idea of annexing the West Bank has been floated by some in Trump’s circle.

Not likely? Sure. But having it become part of the thinking of a US president? Who’d a thunk it?!