About Meir Kahane, Kahanism, Ben Gvir and Bibi-ism

A few weeks ago, I had dinner in the NYC area with a rabbi and a young rabbinic intern. We were talking about contemporary Israel and how it is run now by Kahanists (followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane) and the young rabbi-in-training asked me “who is Meir Kahane”? I was a bit shocked but afterwards I realized that I should not have been surprised, since he died (by assassination ) such a long time ago, in November 1990, in New York City.

So, who was Meir Kahane? And why is the term Kahanism, so central to understanding contemporary Israel?

Rabbi Meir Kahane was a “modern” orthodox rabbi who grew up in Brooklyn in an Orthodox Jewish family (his father and grandfather were rabbis) and became famous (or infamous) after he founded the Jewish Defense League in Brooklyn in 1968, ostensibly to protect Jews who were in danger. When I was a rabbinical student in the summer of 1969, I was asked to do some research on this young rabble rouser, when I served as a student intern for the Social Action Commission of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC, now known as the URJ, Union for Reform Judaism). I discovered that he was a very dangerous and scary person.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Kahane caused a lot of trouble in NYC and other cities in America by his radical behavior via raucous demonstrations and his outrageous statements in the press. The militant Jewish Defense League (JDL), which he founded and led for several years, attracted followers with the post-Holocaust slogan “Never Again,” and sent armed patrols of young Jews into Black neighborhoods. After being imprisoned for conspiring to make bombs, Kahane moved to Israel in 1971.

In Israel, Kahane formed a political party called Kach (“This way”), which was an ultra-nationalist racist, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian, anti-peace, anti-democracy, anti-everything party. He won a seat in the Israeli Knesset (parliament) in 1984, but his term ended when the Knesset banned his party for its anti-democratic and racist beliefs. Back in those days, the Knesset rejected racism and authoritarianism!

Nowadays, many of the people and political parties in the Knesset, are openly racist and anti-democratic, like Kahane was back then. However, it is now “kosher” (legitimate) in Israel to have such political parties in the Knesset and even in the government.  What a great change this is from 1984 when the parliamentarians of Israel rejected outright racists and demonic demagogues! Now Kahanism is part and parcel of Israeli politics, so much so that it has become weirdly “normative”!

Two of the political parties which are now in the Knesset and the government are out-and-out racist Kahanist parties. Their “leaders”—Itamar Ben Gvir of “Jewish Power” (the most Kahanist political party of all!) and Betzalel Smotrich of “Religious Zionism” (which I believe is both irreligious and anti-Zionist!!)—are devout followers of Kahane! Before they became legit in recent years, they were rabble rousers like he was, especially in the West Bank (what I like to call “The Wild West”) and they were known troublemakers who were arrested many times.

Ben-Gvir has been convicted eight times for offenses that include racism and supporting a terrorist organization. As a teen, his views were so extreme that the army banned him from compulsory military service.

In November 2015, at a memorial ceremony for Rabbi Meir Kahane, who called for complete segregation between Jews and Arabs in Israel and advocated the enactment of Nuremberg-like racial and miscegenation laws, Ben Gvir said:

The memorial here is not only a way of remembering the person but it is a pledge of allegiance, a declaration of allegiance to the idea, to continue his way. We see and hear more and more people who believe that Kahane was right. . .We want the ideas of Rabbi Kahane in power.  (from the website of the Israel Religious Action Center)

Thanks to a cunning move by Benjamin Netanyahu, who brought him into his coalition for his own personal political survival when he formed the current most racist, extremist, fanatical government in the history of Israel in December 2022, Ben Gvir is now in power. Despite Bibi’s previous declarations that he would never bring him into a government in Israel, he appointed him to the dangerous position as Minister of National Security (the Police and the Prison Services), where he has done tremendous damage during the past three years to these very important state institutions and to the reputation of Israel and Judaism worldwide.

Among Bibi’s many sins of irresponsible behavior and poor judgment during the last three years, this was undoubtedly one of the worst. It is impossible to overstate how devastatingly destructive Ben Gvir has been in his position as a minister in the government of Israel and how much his demonic demagoguery has incited violence in Israel and especially in the West Bank, where the so-called “Hilltop Youth”—who are his devoted followers—commit unspeakable pogroms against innocent Palestinians every day now, with the help of the IDF, the Border Patrol, and the Police, under Ben Gvir’s tutelage and Smotrich’s supervision, as minister in the Defense Ministry, with the task of overseeing (annexing) the West Bank.

Moreover, Ben Gvir’s constant outrageous and blasphemous statements to the media are harmful to Israel’s reputation as a moral state and society every day. Not only that, but he looks like and sounds like Kahane, even though he has tried a little bit (although unsuccessfully) to deny or tone down some of  his Kahanist supremacist theology. In fact, he is the ultimate Kahanist, as he himself said:

… They tarnished Rabbi Kahane’s character… He was cast out for no reason. Rabbi Kahane fought for the State of Israel… To prevent the enemy from coming and doing whatever they want. Our enemies, even if they see you, will want to kill you… What is the difference between Rabbi Kahane and us? Except for  the fact that he was a great leader, the main difference is that for us they are willing to turn on the microphone… The difference [between us] is in the style in which we speak [not in the opinions]… Those who are disloyal must be kicked out. (February 21, 2019, as reported on the website of the Israel Religious Action Center.)

In addition to all this, Ben Gvir (and his friend Smotrich and the extremist Members of Knesset who are affiliated with their political parties) have consistently opposed all cease-fire arrangements and peace deals during the more than two years of this horrible war against Hamas, which has gone on for much too long. He has constantly  put pressure on Bibi to continue the war, causing many soldiers and hostages to be sacrificed. And he has influenced Bibi and the Likud party so much that it is hard to tell the difference any more between Kahanism and Bibi-ism. They have become one and the same, with many Likudniks sounding more and more like Ben Gvir every day. They have all become ultra-nationalists, anti-democratic and anti-Palestinian and rejectionists of all plans for peace, in their everyday behavior and in their political ideology. These two extremist parties could easily merge into one, from an ideological point of view today.

In the upcoming elections, it will be essential for the future of Israeli society, for all the opposition political parties to get their act together, so as to rid us once and for all of Kahanism/Bibi-ism. These ideological movements, which have been in power in Israel for the last three years (and much more in the case of Bibi-ism) have brought Israel to the abyss of doom and destruction. They have been constant warmongers and destroyers of democracy, as well as detrimental to Judaism and Jewish ethics.  They must be resoundingly defeated in the elections in the coming year if Israel is to remain a sane and sensitive Jewish and democratic state.