Dean's World

Some years ago Meryl Yourish and I had a fight over a couple of things that, in retrospect, were pretty stupid. Still, it was funny: a year or so after those incidents she wrote me to ask for a personal favor. She was entirely nice about it. I assumed this was an olive branch and complied. Since then we've exchanged short, polite emails a couple of times over mostly blogging-related matters. I didn't think we'd ever be friends again but I thought simple civility and courtesy were now a reasonable expectation.

Apparently not. Well, live and learn I guess.

Without responding to the slime spewed by Meryl and her commenters--the sexist, misandrist garbage about me, the slanderous claims about what I supposedly think about Judaism, or the shamefully Islamophobic nonsense--let me focus once again on my exact problem with the following video:

Lettre ouverte au monde entier
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I agree with much of what's said in that video, as I've said from the start. I quibble with one or two things. If they weren't the words of a deplorable man, I would find nothing worth remarking negatively upon. I'd have probably posted the video on Dean's World, with a hat tip, and said little more about it.

However, the fact is that Meir Kahane was an evil man. Weak-tea statements like "I do not agree with everything he stood for" while glowingly quoting him at length strikes me as a big mistake. That opens up the Israeli people, and their supporters, to the charge that they stand by terrorism and theocratic extremism and are thus "no better than" their enemies--which is stupid garbage. But Kahane, by his life and actions, made such bullcrap harder to refute. If most Jews hadn't thoroughly rejected him he'd be the poster child for Jewish evil rather than the minor footnote he deserves to be.

I've spent too many years, too much personal time and money, and taken too much abuse for defending Israel. I will not stand by while a murdering terrorist thug and embarrassment to humanist values is approvingly quoted and treated as merely a bit controversial.

Under the assumption that we are actually talking like rational adults, let me point to a few examples that might help Meryl and her friends understand my point. I'll start with some comparatively mild objections about Kahane. I will then move up to issues that I consider felonies and not misdemeanors. So if someone tries the trick of only responding to my more mild objections, or pretending I put them all on the same level, we'll all know better.

Minor objection #1, which might be called a nitpick:

Meryl approvingly notes that Israel respects gay rights and is proud about this. She and I completely agree about this--we're both liberal humanists after all. As I noted almost three years ago, the following quiz is reason alone for tolerant people everywhere to respect Israel. You don't have to "approve" of homosexuality to note what it says about an enlightened, tolerant society not to imprison and persecute such people, to prefer to talk to them rather than stone them.

What would Rabbi Kahane have said about this? Well, he wanted to throw every non-Jew out of Israel, get rid of most of Israel's democratic institutions, and bring in traditionalist, Orthodox religious rule throughout the country. He advocated turning Israel into an officially theocratic, Orthodox regime. Furthermore, the Kahanist official line has always been that homosexuality is "detrimental to the perpetuation of Jewish life."

Update: This just in, Kahanists lionize a man for stabbing a homosexual. Nice folks, those Kahanists.

I think we are safe to assume that there would be no gay pride parades if Rabbi Kahane's Israel came into existence; indeed, the Kahanists continue to do their best best stop such things.

Minor objection #2, a bit more serious:

Ehud Sprinzak some years ago wrote an excellent expose of Rabbi Meir Kahane, detailing Kahane's theocratic views. There's lots there to read but I found this part particularly revealing:

The Arabs are, taken together, the collective entity that, for Kahane, threatens Jewish existence; and the Israeli Arabs (there is no Palestinian nation for Kahane) are a highly explosive time bomb. The Arabs claim the same land as the Jews, refuse to recognize God's biblical prescriptions and would never be ready to settle for less than the whole. This places them in the same position as the native population of Canaan at the time of the Israelite conquest, and all biblical rules and regulations adopted and applied by Joshua against the Canaanites are relevant today. Joshua, Kahane reminds us, sent the Canaanites three letters offering them three alternative courses of action: leave the land, fight for it and bear the consequences or peacefully surrender to the Jews and obtain the status of loyal "resident strangers." Any individual Arab is thus welcome to stay provided he fully accepts Jewish sovereignty, as well as the right upon which it is founded. Applying the rules of Halakha (written and oral tradition) according to his understanding, Kahane maintains that even in the case of complete submission, full rights of citizenship should not be given to "strangers." Only "strangers" who will obey the seven commandments of "Noah's sons," pay special taxes and submit to special labour regulations may remain. Following the "kingdom rules" of Maimonides, the "strangers" must also constantly be "humiliated and detested"

Does that sound like dhimmitude to you? It sure does to me.

I thought we were all proud of the fact that Arab citizens of Israel serve in its armed forces, in its government, and enjoy almost all the same rights that everyone else in Israel does. Israeli Arabs--not the Palestinians, but the actual Israeli Arabs who stood by Israel even when they were invaded--are treated with respect and friendship, and even gratitude. I've noted this myself many times as a reason to respect Israel. Would that every one of Israel's immediate neighbors was so tolerant of religious and ethnic minorities within their borders.

But Sprinzak notes that Kahane called for even Israeli Arabs to be expelled or at least treated with contempt and loathing. As Sprinzak noted, Kahane didn't just hate the non-Jews in Israel. He wanted them all gone, and the few who might stupidly remain should be treated with utter loathing and permanent second-class citizenship.

Minor Objection #3: To Kahanists, a Jewish woman who has sex with a non-Jew is a whore and a traitor to the Jewish people. If she doesn't deserve jail then certainly the man who had sex with her does. The Kahanists openly advocate this policy. They don't just frown upon miscegenation. They don't just condemn it. They don't even limit themselves to discouraging it. They want to make it punishable by law for a Jewish woman to have sex with a non-Jew.

I admit we are still in "controversial" territory here. I can understand why a reasonable Jew would say, "well maybe I support some of those ideas, or some parts of them," or even, "well I don't support much of that but I get where it's coming from." Either way, most would say, "we have higher issues we have to deal with right now--the protection of Israel."

I get that. So:

Not-So-Minor Objection #4: Kahanism is a terrorist movement.

If you read Sprinzak's expose, you'll find it's a pretty good introduction to Kahane's actual terrorist activities. The innocent people he beat up, the everyday people his followers hit with sticks and stones, the bombs they blew up or tried to blow up, the car bombs they set, the people he and his friends threatened to kill--and some of the people they actually did kill.

The Anti-Defamation League--an organization of which I am sometimes critical, but is certainly not anti-Jewish or anti-Israel--has a lengthy look at Kahane and his movement's violence. Click "show" below to see a few selections. By the way, the Jewish Defense League, mentioned repeatedly, is a Kahanist organization:

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"We feel that [Baruch] Goldstein took a preventative measure against yet another Arab attack on Jews. We understand his motivation, his grief and his actions. And we are not ashamed to say that Goldstein was a charter member of the Jewish Defense League."

May 22, 1970: Six unidentified members of the JDL stormed into the offices of two Arab propaganda agencies in New York. Three Arab men were severely beaten with wooden clubs, and the offices were left in disarray. The three victims were hospitalized. Responding to reports that JDL literature was found at the scene of the attacks, Kahane did not take credit for the assaults but stated that "If we did [take credit], we'd be open to all sorts of problems. We obviously can't." He then proceeded to express his approval of the attacks.

November 25, 1970: At 3:20 a.m., a bomb exploded at the Manhattan offices of the Soviet airline Aeroflot and its travel agency Intourist causing extensive damage. Thirty-five minutes after the explosion of the bomb, an anonymous caller telephoned the Associated Press and declared that the bomb was in response to Soviet anti-Semitism and pronounced the JDL slogan, "Never again!" At a subsequent press conference, Kahane voiced approval of the bombing but denied responsibility for it, stating, "Any protest to help enslaved people is a legitimate form of protest - including bombing and other forms of violent action."

January 8, 1971: A bomb exploded in the pre-dawn hours of the morning outside a Soviet cultural building in Washington DC causing moderate damage. Shortly after the explosion, a woman telephoned news agencies and warned: "This is a sample of things to come. Let our people go. Never again! " Bertram Zweibon, the vice-chairman of the JDL denied the group's involvement, but declared, "We do not condemn the act."

May 24, 1972: In an apparent effort to disrupt U.S. - Soviet relations, four people, two of which were reported to be members of the JDL, were arrested and charged with bomb possession and burglary in a conspiracy to blow up the Long Island residence of the Soviet Mission to the UN. President Nixon was on an official visit to Moscow at the time. The arrests were announced by Acting Attorney General Richard Kliendienst. On August 4 1972, the two JDL members pleaded guilty and were sentenced to serve 3 years in prison for one and a year and a day for the other.

February 8, 1975: Rabbi Kahane was accused of having conspired to kidnap a Soviet diplomat, to bomb the Iraqi Embassy in Washington, and to ship arms abroad from Israel, when he was there in 1972. As a result, a federal judge scheduled a hearing on revocation of Kahane's 5-year probation, dating from a July, 1971 conviction for making a firebomb. The judge subsequently found Kahane guilty of violating his probation, and imposed a one-year prison term, which Kahane began serving on March 18 of that year.

April 25, 1975: Six JDL members, expressing dissatisfaction with the responsiveness to community needs of the San Francisco Jewish Welfare Federation, forced their way into the office of the executive vice president of the Federation, ransacked files and assaulted four staff members, including one who, according to a Federation spokesman, had been crippled as a result of having spent time in a concentration camp during World War II.

January 13, 1976: Three pipe bombs were discovered and disarmed by New York City police near the United Nations, and a fourth bomb found at the Iraqi UN Mission was later similarly disarmed. Anonymous telephone callers told the Associated Press that the bombs had been set by the Jewish Armed Resistance Strike Unit, which has been associated with the JDL. The UN bombs were found by a Transit Authority employee in a subway emergency exit shaft under an exit ramp from the FDR drive next to the UN. A UN spokesman said that fragments from the bomb could have killed or wounded anyone within 50 feet. A JDL spokesman said his organization applauded the attempted bombing.

On March 28 1976, in an article titled "Anti-Soviet Violence Here Upsets Jews in Moscow" The New York Times reported that Soviet Jewish refuseniks had publicly criticized the JDL's actions: "A number of Jewish activists refused permission to emigrate... feel that lanti-Soviet] harassment in New York hurts their cause and may give Soviet authorities an excuse to become even more intransigent." The article also quoted several Jews awaiting exit visas in Moscow as expressing opposition to violent attacks upon Soviet personnel in New York, and concluded: "Another Jewish activist feared that such actions could make authorities more unwilling to relax emigration policies for fear of losing face."

May 3, 1976: Five pipe bombs shattered windows and caused minor damage to two banks, a Russian book store, a subway exit near the UN and the national headquarters of the Communist Party. A caller to the Daily News stated that the bombs had been planted by the Jewish Armed Resistance Strike Unit, and supplied the location of a letter relating to the bombings, which was later found there by police.

Responding to the spate of violence against Soviet diplomatic personnel and property, six Orthodox rabbis and deans of Yeshivot (Jewish religious seminaries) issued a statement denouncing violence and terror by Jews against Russian officials and property in the United States as a transgression of Jewish law. The statement was released on May 14, 1976 by the Agudat Israel of America in the name of the Council of Torah Sages.

August 30, 1981: Four gasoline firebombs were hurled at the home of an accused Nazi war criminal, Boleslavs Maikovskis, in Mineola, Long Island at 2:30 a.m. There were no injuries, but slight damage to the house was reported. Within minutes of the firebombing attack, a representative of the JDL telephoned the New York Post and took responsibility for the attack.

September 6, 1981: A small bomb exploded at the Four Continent Bookstore at 1:40 a.m., causing damage to the display window of the store. The Four Continent Bookstore, which sold literature published in the Soviet Union, was targeted by what a caller identified as the "Thunder of Zion" which claimed to be a "militant faction" of the JDL. The caller stated, "Within the next two weeks they [Soviet Jews, including refuseniks Anatoly Shcharansky and Maria Tlemkin] had better be released or Russian blood will flow on New York streets. There will be blood up to your knees, including [Soviet foreign minister Andrei] Gromyko's." Arno Weinstein, the national director of the JDL, in an interview with the New York Post, said, "We do not take responsibility for this, but we applaud it. I am very happy that Jews are finally taking some action."

October 25, 1981: Two firebombs severely damaged the Egyptian Government Tourist Office at Rockefeller Center in New York at 4:18 a.m. There were no injuries. An anonymous caller to the New York Daily News claimed responsibility for the bombing at 4:35 a.m., stating, "This is the JDL. We have just firebombed the Egyptian government offices. We demand that the Camp David Accords be buried with Anwar Sadat, in solidarity with those against the retreat from the Israeli-liberated lands - the Sinai. Shalom. Never again!" A spokesman for the JDL later denied responsibility for the bombing, but "if this bombing was done to expose the fallacy of the Camp David Accords, we support the act. " Kahane himself was quoted by the New York Post as saying, "it could have been members of the JDL and it could have been anyone. "249 At a press conference on October 26, Kahane stated, "I would not be particularly anxious to be an Egyptian in New York City."

October 11, 1985: The West Coast headquarters of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee is bombed, killing its Palestinian-American director, Alex Odeh and injuring 7 others. A JDL spokesman declared that Odeh "got exactly what he deserved."

October 27, 1987: Victor Vancier, the former National Chairman of the JDL, was sentenced to ten years in prison for bombing attacks at the Soviet diplomatic residence in New York and at Soviet cultural performances. A JDL co-defendant in the case, Jay Cohen, committed suicide on September 6 in his hotel room in the Catskill Mountains. Two other JDL members who were sentenced in the same case were Murray Young, described as a "bomb maker," who received a five-year term because he co-operated with prosecutors after his arrest. Young told the sentencing judge that he had engaged in violence because his grandfather had been beheaded in Russia. Sharon Katz was sentenced to six months house arrest and five years probation, and a $5000 fine for detonating a tear gas grenade. The three were sentenced for an incident in October of 1986 in which the opening night performance of the Soviet Union's Moiseyev Dancers was tear gassed. Vancier had previously justified the JDL's violence by saying that Jews must take extreme measures because "crazy Jews live longer.

January 5, 1994: Between 2:30 and 3:30 a.m., a bomb was placed outside a New York building that houses Americans for Peace Now, Habonim, Israel Horizons, and the Progressive Zionist Caucus. The bomb did not explode but was later defused by police . A second bomb, placed outside the building which houses the New Israel Fund, exploded but there were no injuries. Notes left with the bombs declared that an Jewish "civil war has begun. " The notes also spoke of the "spilling of blood in Israel" and criticized the Israeli Government as being "too liberal. " The notes were signed by the "Shield of David" and the "Maccabee Squad." A press release issued by Kahane Chai provided its traditional response subsequent to such incidents: the organization "denied responsibility" for the attacks, but "refused] to condemn the act."

June 9, 1995: Los Angeles, California - William Howard Ross, a member of the Jewish Defense League, was sentenced to life imprisonment for having enlisted Robert and Rochelle Manning to construct and mail a booby trap bomb to a local computer company with whom Ross had had a personal dispute. (See June 1988 and February 10, 1994 regarding the trial and sentencing of Robert Manning.)

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Those are just a few selections I chose almost at random; you should read the whole thing yourself.

Indeed, the ADL's listing isn't even complete. The Jewish Virtual Library notes one of the supreme ironies: Binyamin Zev Kahane, Rabbi Kahane's son, openly approved of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Rabin was murdered in 1995 by a Kahanist terrorist named Yigal Amir, a member of a Kahanist offshoot group known as Eyal.

Got that? No Arab, no Islamist, murdered Yitzhak Rabin. A Jew proudly affiliated with Kahane murdered Yitzhak Rabin.

Worse, the Kahane organization, in their typical fashion, denied being part of the terrorist act but then said they approved of the action anyway.

This was not the first time a Jew was terrorized by the Kahanists. But it was the final straw for most Israelis.

So let's get something straight: it is not Dean Esmay who says Kahane and his followers are terrrorists. The U.S. State Department says so. The Council on Foreign Relations says so. The Israeli government says so. The Center for Defense Information's Terrorist Project says so. The Anti-Defamation League says so. Even Front Page Magazine, of all places, recognizes that Jewish terrorism is still terrorism, and notes a recent Kahanist atrocity from 2005.

"Are they as bad as bad as the Islamist terrorists?" is almost a cowardly question. Who gives a damn? Are they evil or are they not? Do you have the moral fortitude to answer that without equivocation?

I do not "think" Kahane was a terrorist, I know he was. And now everybody, including Meryl Yourish, knows it too. Kahanism = terror and oppression and barbarism. That being the case, here are a few simple questions:

Will you unequivocally denounce Rabbi Meir Kahane as the leader of a radical theocratic and terrorist movement that even Jews are not safe from being harassed, beaten, and murdered by? Or will you stick with a mealy-mouthed "well, I don't agree with everything, but..." or "yes but Dean Esmay is a bad, evil man" response?

We all make mistakes. The real question is whether we apologize for them and try to make amends.

(And by the way, see Dean Esmay, Terrorist Supporter if you're thinking I've never made the mistake of unwittingly supporting terrorists myself.)

Update: And by the way, I thought this blindingly obvious but maybe it needs to be stated: when a terrorist--a man who was a practicing terrorist before he ever even moved to Israel--takes it upon himself to speak for all of Israel, the unspoken assumptions behind his "we don't give a damn what anyone in the world thinks" rhetoric seem pretty obvious, do they not?