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Rabbi Meir David Kahane (Template:Lang-he, also known by the pseudonyms Michael King, David Sinai and Hayim Yerushalmi, 1 August 1932 – 5 November 1990) was an American-Israeli Orthodox rabbi, author, political activist, and a former member of the Israeli Knesset.

Kahane was known in the United States and Israel for his strong political and nationalist views, exemplified in his promotion of a theocratic Greater Israel which meant that he believed that God intended the area for the Jewish people and therefore they should take and annex Judea, Samaria (also called the West Bank), and Gaza. He founded 2 controversial movements: the Jewish Defense League (JDL) in the USA and Kach, an Israeli political party. In 1984, Kach gained one seat in the Knesset and Rabbi Meir Kahane became a member. In 1986, Rabbi Meir Kahane voted in favor of an anti-racism law that exempted "acts for purposes of religious worship or intended to preserve Israel's unique character." In 1986, Kach was declared a racist party by the Israeli government and banned from the Knesset, and, in 1994, following the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre by Dr. Baruch Goldstein the movement was outlawed completely. Kahane's Knesset career was ended by section 7a of Basic Law: The Knesset (1958): "Prevention of Participation of Candidates List."

Kahane was assassinated in Manhattan in 1990 after concluding a speech in a New York hotel. El Sayyid Nosair later stood trial for the murder in state court and was acquitted (though convicted for gun possession). Later he faced Federal charges including Kahane's murder as part of the 1993 al Qaeda terrorist truck-bombing of the World Trade Center and plots to bomb the United Nations building and to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. He was convicted on these Federal charges and is serving a life sentence.

Early life

Kahane was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1932 to an Orthodox Jewish family. His father, Rabbi Yechezkel Sharaga Kahane, was born in Safed, Turkish Palestine, in 1905, and went to study in Polish and Czech yeshivas religious schools. Later, he emigrated to the USA, where he served as rabbi of 2 congregations. Meir received his rabbinical ordination from the Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn. He was fully conversant with the Talmud and Tanakh (Jewish Bible), and worked as a pulpit Rabbi and teacher in the 1960s. During this period, he tutored famed Jewish folk musician Arlo Guthrie for his Bar Mitzvah. Subsequently, he earned a law degree from the New York University Law School.

As a teenager, he became an ardent admirer of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, who was a frequent guest in his parents' home, and joined the Betar (Bet Trumpeldor) youth wing of Revisionist Zionism. He actively participated in protests against Ernest Bevin, the British Foreign Secretary who blocked emigration of Nazi death camp survivors to the Jewish Homeland and opposed Israel's independence in favor of creating a Hashemite Arab monarchy dependent on British power ( and a rival claimant to the Saudi royal family for control of oil resources and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina ). Kahane also organized and launched noisy public demonstrations in the USA against the Soviet Union's policy of persecuting Zionist activists and curbing Jewish emigration to Israel. He was active in the "Free Soviet (Russian) Jewry" movement and advocated policies designed to increase emigration of Russian refuseniks to Israel.

Kahane was also in contact with Joe Colombo, head of the Colombo mafia family, and was with him in 1971 when Colombo was murdered by Gallo crime family assassins. Kahane confirmed his connections to these organized crime networks in an interview he gave to Playboy magazine in 1972.

In the 1960s, Kahane was an editor of the largest Anglo-Jewish weekly, Brooklyn's The Jewish Press and was a regular correspondent for that paper until his murder by an al Qaeda assassin ( part of the terrorist group that first truck-bombed the WTC World Trade Center in New York City in 1993 ). He appeared often on American radio and TV shows.

Ideology

Kahane's ideology has been called Kahanism. Kahane adhered to the belief that Biblical Jewish law contains directions for how to run a Jewish state, and that these directions are directly applicable in the present day. He believed that a Jewish democracy with non-Jewish citizens was contradictory because the non-Jewish citizens might someday become a numerical majority and vote to make the State non-Jewish. He, among others (such as author Joan Peters), believed that a Palestinian people do not exist, regarding Palestinians as disparate and unrelated Arab clans with no distinct national identity. Kahane claimed that no description of Palestinian Arabs as a distinct nationality can be found in any pre-20th century text and he frequently challenged his detractors to prove otherwise. He also claimed that historically there are no examples of Arab Muslims living peacefully alongside other non-Arab ethnic groups. Thus Kahane proposed the forcible deportation of all Arabs from all lands controlled by the Israeli government. In his view, evicting most Palestinian Arab Muslims (even Israeli Arabs), was the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to the Arab-Israeli conflict. When he served as a Member of the Knesset he proposed a $40,000 compensation plan for the Arabs he was to evict.

Kahane also believed that Israel should limit citizenship to Jews only and adopt Biblical Jewish law (Halakha) in public life. He advocated that the Israeli government should pass theocratic laws such as banning the sale of pork, outlawing missionary activities in Israel, and a ban on all sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews . Supporters say Kahane was protecting Torah values and the integrity of the Jewish nation, but his detractors consider Kahane's views bigoted. See: Jewish view of marriage.

Israel

In the U.S., the Jewish Defense League ( JDL ) engaged in militant defensive and offensive activities, including the bombing of several buildings occupied by supporters of Soviet anti-Jewish activity and harassment of political and intellectual opponents of the JDL. Consequently, police pressure began to build upon Kahane, and, in 1971, he emigrated to Israel (known as "making aliyah").

Kahane quickly moved to establish the Kach party. In 1980, Kahane stood unsuccessfully for election to the Knesset. Later, in 1980, Kahane served 6 months in prison following an administrative detention order against him ( details have not been disclosed publicly ). According to Ehud Sprinzak, "the prevailing rumour was that a very provocative act of sabotage on the Temple Mount was planned by Kahane and a close associate of his, Baruch Green."

In 1984, Kahane was elected as an MK - Member of the Knesset (Israel's Parliament). The Central Elections Committee had banned him from being a candidate on the grounds that Kach was a racist party, but the Israeli High Court determined that the Committee was not authorized to ban Kahane's candidacy. The High Court suggested that the Knesset should pass a law that would authorize the exclusion of racist parties from future elections (the Anti-Racist Law of 1988).

Kahane refused to take the oath of office for the Knesset and insisted that a Biblical verse from Psalms be added to it, to indicate that when the national laws and Torah conflict, Torah (Biblical) law should have supremacy over the laws of the Knesset.

Kahane's legislative proposals focused on revoking the Israeli citizenship for non-Jews and banning Jewish-Gentile marriages and sexual relations, based on the Code of Jewish Law compiled by Maimonides in the Mishneh Torah. In spite of the fact that Kahane's proposals were his interpretations of Biblical Torah law, none of Israel's mainstream religious parties or prominent rabbis publicly supported Kach legislation.

As his political career progressed, Kahane became increasingly isolated in the Knesset. His speeches, boycotted by Knesset members, were made to an empty parliament, except for the duty chairman and the transcriptionist. Kahane's legislative proposals and motions of no-confidence against the government were ignored or rejected by fellow Knesset members. Kahane often pejoratively called other Knesset members "Hellenists" in Hebrew (a reference from Jewish religious texts describing ancient Jews who assimilated into Greek culture after Judea's occupation by Alexander the Great). In 1987, Rabbi Kahane opened a yeshiva (HaRaayon HaYehudi) with funding from US supporters, for the teaching of "the Authentic Jewish Idea".

In 1985, the Knesset passed an amendment to Israel's Basic Law, barring "racist" candidates from election. The committee banned Kahane a second time, and he appealed to the Israeli High Court. This time the court found in favor of the committee, declaring Kahane to be unsuitable for election. Kahane asserted that polls showed the Kach Party was about to become the 3rd largest party in Israel and this was the true reason that the party was banned.

Assassination

In 1990, after a speech in a Manhattan, New York hotel, Kahane was assassinated by al Qaeda terrorist El Sayyid Nosair as part of a larger conspiracy masterminded by Osama bin Laden and blind Shaikh Omar Abdel Rahman (including multiple attacks and bombings of Federal offices, public landmarks and Jewish community buildings in and around New York City). According to prosecutors, another terrorist named Wadih el Hage purchased the .38 caliber revolver used by Nosair for the murder. El-Hage was told by fellow conspirator Mahmud Abouhalima to buy the gun. Nosair was acquitted of murder because no witness had actually seen him pull the trigger, but convicted of gun possession charges.

Nosair later stood trial as an Al Qaeda co-conspirator of Shaikh Omar Abdel Rahman. Both men received life sentences for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, conspiracy to use explosives against New York landmarks, and plotting to assassinate U.S. politicians. Nosair received life plus 15 years of imprisonment. Since it was ruled that Kahane's assassination was part of a "seditious conspiracy," Nosair was later convicted of killing Kahane. Nosair's relatives obtained funds to pay for Nosair's defense from Al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden.

Political legacy

Following Kahane's murder, no charismatic leader emerged to replace him in the movement, and Kahane's ideology declined in popularity among Israelis. However, 2 small Kahanist factions later emerged; one under the name of Kach and the other Kahane chai (Hebrew: כהנא חי, literally "Kahane lives ").

In 1994, following the murders in the Ibrahim Mosque by Kach supporter Dr. Baruch Goldstein, the Israeli government declared both parties to be terrorist organizations. The U.S. State Department also added Kach and Kahane Chai to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Providing funds or material support to these organizations is a crime in both Israel and the USA.

In late 2000, as terrorist attacks on Israel during the Al-Aqsa Intifada began, Kahane supporters spray-painted graffiti on hundreds of bus shelters and bridges all across Israel. The message on each target was identical, simply reading: "Kahane Was Right".

In 2005, an Israeli politician using the pseudonym Obadiah Shoher assembled a group of followers and claimed to be the true followers of Kahane. The group was named Samson Blinded, after Shoher's book, a compendium of Kahane's ideas entitled, Samson Blinded: A Machiavellian Perspective on the Middle East Conflict.

Son murdered

On December 31, 2000, Meir Kahane's son, Kahane Chai leader rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, and his wife Talya were murdered in their van as they were driving with their children from Jerusalem to their home in the Israeli settlement of Kfar Tapuach. Palestinian terrorists fired more than 60 machine-gun rounds into their van. A statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office in 2001 announced the arrest of 3 members of Fatah's Force 17 allegedly involved in the attack.

According to the statement, PLO activist Mahmoud Damra, also known as Abu Awad, was responsible for arming and training the 3 murderers, identified as Talal Ghassan, 37, a senior Force 17 member in Ramallah, Marzouk Abu Naim, 43, and Na'man Nofel.

Publications

(Partially under pseudonym Michael King; with Joseph Churba) The Jewish Stake in Vietnam, Crossroads, 1967
Never Again! A Program for Survival, Pyramid Books, 1972
Time to Go Home, Nash, 1972.
Letters from Prison, Jewish Identity Center, 1974
Our Challenge: The Chosen Land, Chilton, 1974
The Story of the Jewish Defense League, Chilton, 1975, 2nd edition, Institute for Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane, (Brooklyn, NY), 2000
Why Be Jewish? Intermarriage, Assimilation, and Alienation, Stein & Day, 1977
Listen, Vanessa, I Am a Zionist, Institute of the Authentic Jewish Idea, 1978
They Must Go, Grosset & Dunlop, 1981
Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews, Lyle Stuart, 1987
Israel: Revolution or Referendum, Barricade Books (Secaucus, NJ), 1990
Or ha-ra'yon, English title: The Jewish Idea, n.p. (Jerusalem), 1992, translated from the Hebrew by Raphael Blumberg, Institute for Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane (Jerusalem), 1996
On Jews and Judaism: Selected Articles 1961–1990, Institute for Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane (Jerusalem), 1993
Perush ha-Makabi: al Sefer Devarim, Institute for Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane (Jerusalem), 1993, 1995
Perush ha-Makabi: al Sefer Shemu'el u-Nevi'im rishonim, Institute for Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane (Jerusalem), 1994
Listen World, Listen Jew, 3rd edition, Institute for the Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane (Jerusalem), 1995
Kohen ve-navi: osef ma'amarim, ha-Makhon le-hotsa'at kitve ha-Rav Kahana (Jerusalem), 2000
Cuckooland, illustrated by Shulamith bar Itzhak (yet unpublished).

Also author of Numbers 23:9: "... lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations," I. Block, 1970s. Contributor—sometimes under pseudonym Michael King—to periodicals, including New York Times. Editor of Jewish Press, 1968.

For supplementary information and insights:

Kahane et le Kahanisme" by Shulamith Bar Itzhak.
Meir Kahane: Ideologue, Hero, Thinker by Daniel Breslauer. Lewiston/Queenston: Edwin Mellen Press, 1986.
The Boundaries of Liberty and Tolerance: The Struggle Against Kahanism in Israel by Raphael Cohen-Almagor. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1994.
The False Prophet: Rabbi Meir Kahane, from FBI Informant to Knesset Member by Robert I. Friedman. Brooklyn, NY: Lawrence Hill Books, 1990.
Heil Kahane by Yair Kotler. New York: Adama Books, 1986.
Israel’s Ayatollahs: Meir Kahane and the Far Right in Israel by Raphael Mergui and Phillipe Simonnot.
The Roots of Kahanism: Consciousness and Political Reality by Aviezer Ravitzky.
Kach and Meir Kahane: The Emergence of Jewish Quasi-Fascism by Ehud Sprinzak.

References

Rabbi Meir Kahane Jewish Virtual Library
Jewish militant faces bomb trial BBC News, 15 June 2004
Snared in The Terrorist Web Time, 6 September 1993
"A Jewish Visit to Guthrie's Land".
"USA v. Omar Ahmad Ali Abdel-Rahman et al: 93-CR-181-KTD".
Cite error: The named reference cnn-1995 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
Smith, Greg B. (October 9, 2002). "Bin Laden bankrolled Kahane killer defense". New York Daily News.
"Kach and Kahane Chai".
"Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT)".

External links

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