Thank you to http://jewess.canonist.com/?p=370 and failedmessiah.com for mentioning this blog on their website.
I will never forget it. Growing up in a small town, there were not a lot of religious people around and/or coming through there on a regular basis, so when my father's chavrusa from the Mirrer Yeshiva came to visit for a few days, I was pretty interested to what and who he was and what he was saying even though I was all of about 8 years old. I remember it, however, like it was yesterday.
He spoke about the Jewish people and what they had to do to move forward. He spoke about the Jewish people no longer sitting still and taking all the crap that the world was heaping on us for centuries and he spoke about Israel. He was passionate and very well spoken, but he waved off weakness with a Jewish wave of the hand while he squinted his eyes and made that "zteh" noise that Israleis make when they are short on patience. My father is basically a pacifist, but he could not help getting taken in by his Chavrusa's words and then let me know that he had heard it all before during their yearlong study of Kiddushin and their travels together to Columbia University. Only now it was louder and clearer and more people were hearing his message and seeing his defiance.
My father's Chavrusa was Rabbi Meir Kahane-ZTL.
Now before anyone get's all beat up about the ZTL after his name, let me just explain why it's there. I believe the ultimate witness to the truth, is the passage of time. I think it's all well and good for Al Gore to suggest that we are melting away, but like the early seventies when the Ice Age was going to freeze the earth because of xy and z, ultimately, time will be the loudest witness to the alarmist claims of the group think scientists that believe we are destroying the earth and scortching it into oblivion.
Time made a hero out of Menachem Begin when he made the sole decision against world opinion to destroy Iraq's Nuclear reactor. He was scorned and lambasted like a criminal and yet some ten years later during Gulf War 1, it was easy to see just how many lives he saved, but acting alone and in the best interests of the Jewish People. Time has proven that the left in America was wrong about Russia and Reagan was right and now time has proven that Rabbi Kahane was right on point, but the cowardly, arrogant and pompous Israeli government was wrong.
Let's review just a bit for those who are lost in the propaganda of the Israeli and American press. Kahane did not say he wanted to kill every arab. He did say that if an arab wanted to live inside Israel, he would have to pledge allegiance to the state and forsake any ideas of trying to destroy from within. Kahane did say that if you did not want to live there as an arab, you should be deported much in the same way that the arab countries of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Jordan etc. sent all it's Jewish citizens on their way after the establishment of the Jewish State in 1948-a population exchange is how Kahane put it. Kahane wanted theaters closed on Shabbat-I can live with that-I can go to the theatre the other six days of the week-and Jewish law to be the predominant law of the land-WHENEVER POSSIBLE. He also said that the Jews wanting to be a Jewish state and a democracy at the same time, could not sustain itself because at some point the Jews will be out numbered democratically and the country will have to choose between a democracy or a Jewish state. It seems like that time is near.
Reports out of Jerusalem indicate that the mayor is worried about a non Jewish majority in the very near future and is calling for drastic steps to ensure the tragedy does not, in fact, happen. Seems like Kahane had it right...all of it. He predicted that the Hellenists would be lost for an answer and thousands of Jews would die because of their confusion. He was amazed by the ignorance on the left and the silence by the Charedi on the right. He felt the religious sold him out-and he was right-all in the name of power. It was more important for the Chardei to have power in a government coalition, than to agree with him and back him in public, even though they agreed with him in private. It was a shame how the religious treated him and almost criminal how the government-in a democracy no less-outlawed him and now that same government is looking for answers to the hard questions he proposed to them some 20+ years ago. His international public spanking of Ahud Olmert on Nightline is a classic and can be found here http://youtube.com/watch?v=G0v1To8B4_A (I would provide the video myself if I knew what I was doing)
Do I agree with everything Rabbi Kahane said? I am sure not.
Do I appreciate his honesty and candor? Absolutely.
Do I think he had all the answers? No, but at least he was willing to offer solutions-albeit unpopular in the political and media arena-while most others would not...they elected to kick the can down the road...and now you see where it has led us....
Kahane may not have been popular in his life, but he has been proven correct in his death.
3 comments:
Kahane way have had a few points and been honest. However Kahane is certainly no longer right. Perhaps if people would have implemented SOME of his suggestions back then things would be better, they may well have been worse. However, now his solutions are outdated. His followers are more extreme than he was. They worship his hatred and bigotry and seperate themselves from other jews. The most loyal Kahanists are worse than the zealots who would kill Jews who didn't agree with them. You must look at the movement a leader created. Looked at the current hardcore group of followers, you have to realize that thier views are from Kahane and did not come from a vaccuum. We could spend all day discussing what Kahane "really" believed, but it would be a mostly futile excersize. However one thing is certain: The followers of Kahane and those who insist "Kahane was right" have lead to 29 dead human beings in Hevron and very likely one dead human being in Tel Aviv today
Piont taken. I am of course talking about his time and what he wanted to do then. Even you must admit that what the government did back then was wrong and they should have let the market decide.
I make no assumptions about him or his followers. They are what they are. All I am saying is he was on point then because he saw what would be inevitable while everyone else kicked the problem down the road.
One must remember what things were like in the late 70's and through the 80's when Kahane was at his peak politically to understand why he wasn't listened to.
At the time, Israel was riding a wave of self-confidence. Having survived the 1973 war, the country managed to make peace with Egypt, smash the PLO's power base in Lebanon and bring hyperinflation and other economic problems under control. By the mid 80's, for the first time in its history, Israel was progressing from being a second world country to a first world one.
At the same time, Arab morale was at an all time low. Bad enough they lost the 1973 war but they also lost Egypt to their cause and when Israel finally launched a successful attack in Lebanon, showing that the days of the Jews only responding to terror were over, they saw very little hope for destroying Israel. Even when the intifada began, it didn't break this mold. The PLO couldn't take advantage of the unrest and the Israelis felt strong enough to survive it, albeit with feelings of guilt.
It was in this atmosphere that Kahane, z"l, preached. His problem was that he was out of sync with his time. He was talking about the dangers of an Arab population at a time when the danger, although present, was perceived as minimal. There was peace in the land. You could drive through most parts of the West Bank and the area around the central bus station in Tel Aviv at night was more dangerous for Jews than downtown Ramallah. No one could see his point.
Had he started his preaching in the late 90's as the folly of Oslo became apparent and people developed bitterness towards the government, he could have made a difference.
I also agree with what seraphya said. In part, one must judge a movement by its followers. I one belonged to a shul which boasted a small contigent of Kahane Chai members. There were, without exception, unintelligent thugs that I was ashamed to think were Jewish. Everything was about hating Arabs, hating Christians who didn't hate Arabs, and REALLY hating Jews who didn't hate Arabs. Their philosophies were simplistic, their understanding of the Torah concepts they claimed supported them was laughable and they made a mockery of anything their departed leader might have stood for. Unfortunately, that is Kahane's legacy today.
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