They will never understand…..

Rabbi Meir Kahane, the controversial leader of the Jewish Defense League, was assassinated on Nov 5^th,1990. The date corresponds with the Hebrew calendar as the 17^th day of the month of Cheshvan. It is customary among Jews to visit the graves of those who passed away on the anniversary of the yartzeit.

Monday, November 18 was the yartzeit of the late Rabbi this year. Many chose to pay their respects by making a visit to his grave. Among them was Israel National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Ben Gvir claims to be a student of Meir Kahane, and it is presumed that his visit was prompted by Hakoras Hatov or repaying a kindness to a benefactor.

The United  States Department of State quickly condemned his visit in the strongest possible terms:

“As we’ve said on previous and similar occasions, celebrating the legacy of a terrorist and a terrorist organization is abhorrent. We strongly condemn any attempt to whitewash acts of terrorism.”

And yet, when President Reagan visited the cemetery in Bitburg Germany where hundreds of members of the Waffen SS, a truly murderous terrorist band are buried, the State Department did not utter a word. Neither did our government condemn numerous Japanese Prime Ministers upon their visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, the burial place of Japanese war criminals, including the infamous General Tojo.

The ’woke’ leftists of the recently repudiated Biden’Harris government do not understand the Jewish concept of Hakoras Hatov. How could they?

In today’s polarized political climate, words such as genocide, Nazi, and terrorist have been bandied about loosely and carelessly. In Israel’s current just war of defense, where the real terrorists murdered, raped, and burned babies and hide behind civilians, how is it that the Israeli Defense Forces fighting against this terrorism are accused of “genocide”? And when the leftists in America call Donald Trump “Hitler”,  is it possible that they conflate a man whose policies they just don’t like with a man responsible for the murder of millions? How many millions did Trump murder? This is an affront to the families of holocaust survivors whose parents were murdered by Hitler and his Nazis. There seems to be no accounting for such hyperbole.

Meir Kahane was also called similar names. When the Israeli government outlawed his political party and banned him from running for the Knesset, it was not for ideological reasons. The reason was the polls, which predicted a large win of up to 10 seats for Kahane’s party, as his message resonated with the Israeli electorate.

I too, was a student of Rabbi Meir Kahane in the 60’s in New York. I learned from him to stand up for those Jews who could not stand up for themselves. But more than that. He taught me Jewish history and Zionism and introduced me to Jewish figures such as Jabotinsky, Begin, and Trumpledor. Can I forget these lessons taught by him because he became controversial after moving to Israel? While some of his students have turned their backs on him, I cannot. I cannot forget my debt to him as I cannot forget the lessons of Hakoras Hatov I learned from other rabbis. On my forthcoming visit to Israel, I, too, expect to pay my respects at his grave.

I do not know Minister Ben Gvir personally. As an American Jew, I try not to meddle in Israeli politics. I do, however, respect the Minister who also has not forgotten a debt.

So, those in the State Department who seem to have little else to focus on than a visit by a Jew on a person’s yartzeit, I say, focus on more important issues facing the world today. Don’t forget, you don’t have much more time.