Kahanism no longer threatens to taint the Knesset – it has taken root

The 25th Knesset and the 37th government of Israel have presented us with a series of unprecedented events, processes, and decisions that pose a significant threat to Israeli democracy and the future of Israeli society. The most severe of these is the entry of Kahanism into the mainstream of Israeli politics and the legitimacy this ideology is gaining among large segments of Israel’s body politic, even in unexpected places. For example, with a young secular woman from Tel Aviv.

Last week, Minister May Golan, a member of Likud – once the party that led the boycott against Meir Kahane in the Knesset – delivered one of the most shameful displays ever seen in the plenum, as she shouted and waved her arms seeking to defend the tarnished honor of Michael Ben Ari, a declared Kahane supporter disqualified from running for the Knesset. One can only imagine what Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, may they rest in peace, would have said if they heard her words. They are surely turning in their graves.

The dramatic shift in the attitude toward Kahanist ideology and its advocates is perhaps the most significant change Likud has undergone since it’s founding and until today, when decay now grips the party under Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu has not only normalized Itamar Ben Gvir and his Kahanist doctrine, he has also turned them from minor players into the tone-setters of the Israeli right. In many ways, he has facilitated and encouraged the infiltration of Kahanism into the heart of his party, opening the doors of Likud to it. His partners in the Likud leadership, who are indulging in dreams of succession, will eventually find that Kahanism will push them out of their own party.

In the past two years, Kahanism has gone beyond being just a phenomenon whose normalization must be fought. It’s not just that this racist and anti-democratic worldview has taken hold among specific sectors, it has also been treated lightly by a much broader audience, including players and institutions that should have taken a clear and uncompromising stand against it. What is required of us today is no longer a “battle of containment” but a concentrated effort to push this dangerous phenomenon from the center of Israeli existence to the extreme and illegitimate fringes to which it belongs.

Significant swaths of the Israeli media should come in for criticism for nurturing Ben Gvir and normalizing his Kahanist views. So too the perverse relationship between him and some journalists and media outlets. Key players in the national-religious public have also capitulated to the currents emerging from the racist Lehava and Otzma Yehudit movements, and the difficulty in presenting a clear and forceful theological, educational, and communal alternative to these trends.

However, the lion’s share of criticism for the complete normalization of Kahanism must be directed at the political system and politicians. And first and foremost among those failing in their duties is Benjamin Netanyahu, who paved Ben Gvir’s way to the Knesset, to the cabinet table, and to his outsize influence on the rule of law. Netanyahu’s utter laxity regarding Ben Gvir’s dangerous actions, such as changing the status quo on the Temple Mount, is no less severe and consequential than his failures and actions that led to the October 7th disaster, and, as with October 7th, the writing on the wall is clear.

And still, Netanyahu is not solely responsible and to blame. Kahanism has taken a malignant hold thanks, also, to politicians and parties from the ostensibly liberal center, who have been sitting on the fence or, worse, have been aligning themselves with the right. In the past two years, the opposition has failed in many crucial tasks, one of which is the clear and vehement opposition to the infiltration of Kahanism into the political mainstream. I look today at my colleagues in liberal parties and ask how it is possible that what was a glaring red line for Likud leaders in the past is not a glaring red line for us today.

The calls to settle Gaza and Lebanon, support for extremist settler violence in the territories, calls we hear for revenge and the bloodlust; the blatant violation of the status quo on the Temple Mount, the takeover of the police, reckless distribution of weapons, attempts to subordinate the Civil Guard to Ben Gvir’s command, and the complete disregard for the bloodshed in Arab communities, these are just the tip of the iceberg of the future that awaits us if we don’t manage to dismantle the legitimacy that Ben Gvir’s Kahanism has gained.

The rejection of this legitimacy requires clearly drawing a line in the political and public sand. It requires setting clear and unambiguous boundaries. That is why, at the opening of the Knesset’s winter session, my colleague MK Naama Lazimi and I announced that we would boycott every speech by Itamar Ben Gvir. At face value, this is a symbolic step, but we attach to it a call and demand to return to fundamental principles regarding what is legitimate and illegitimate in Israeli politics. This simple and basic step, once shared by all Zionist parties, must become the hallmark of the political forces committed to the future of Israeli democracy. We expect our friends in the opposition to adopt it, and we hope that the broader public, which filled the streets over the past two years, will join this demand from their representatives. 

Our laxity has led to this dangerous change. It is time to use our feet and our voices to say: enough.