At the outset I will say that I am not a Kahanist. Far from it. I much prefer the Carlebach approach of hugging and love [without being a follower of Carlebach given the many problems he had that have surfaced over the years]. But I also recognize that R' Meir Kahane made a lot of valid points. One of them was that living alongside Arabs in this country is going to cost us many lives. We pay the price daily. Not only when people are actually killed, but also the constant pain of the families who mourn their beloved. Should we transfer them all out here? That is a moot point because we could not feasibly do so. But the Torah is clear that if the other nations don't want to live here peacefully, then they can't stay. Many of the Arabs have made it exceedingly clear that they don't want to live in peace.
The leftists, even with kippot, often attack this position as being racist. They also feel uncomfortable with the notion that the Jews are the chosen people and that Hashem gave the Land of Israel to us. They are correct that the notion of chosenness does not fit well with the post modern notion of "everyone is essentially the same" and other nonsense but go argue with Hashem. HE chose us and gave us the land.
That being said. I saw an article from a Talmid Chochom and mechanech that disturbed me.
I quote: "The Kahanists are considered a fringe element in the religious Zionist community".
Calling a group "fringe" or "extreme" belies intolerance and bigotry. Just because a group holds beliefs different from most others - why does that mean that they are wrong or evil? According to that label, the Jewish people, less than one percent of the world's population, are also a fringe group. We are also extremist [we don't eat a perfectly good piece of lettuce for fear of even one bug being in the lettuce, we sit on the floor and cry because a big synagogue was destroyed 2,000 years ago, we don't touch our spouses two weeks a month, nor do we even pass them the salt. Fringe extremism, no??]
It is also not true. Most Religious Zionists [and Charedim for that matter] agree with a lot of what Kahane said [albeit not necessarily with his methods].
".... and most Jewish leaders view them as Jewish racists"
Who are these Jewish leaders? And WHO CARES what they think. Most so called "Jewish leaders" don't keep Shabbos and most of the other laws and are woefully ignorant of Judaism. A little superficial knowledge of Tanach and a few practices relating to holidays and mourning is what they know and not much more.
And what defines one as a racist? To think that we are chosen by G-d? Yes, plenty of people define that idea as racist. And WHO CARES what they think?!
"One of the party’s candidates on the combined list is a lawyer who primarily defends Jews accused of violent acts including murder against Arabs."
Ben Brafman is a top criminal defense lawyer. Is he in favor of violent crimes?? No. He is in favor of everybody getting a fair trial [it helps that he makes millions... כן ירבו]. Defending Jews who are accused of violent crimes allows them to get a fair trial. Sometimes a Jews "violently" kills an Arab - in self defense. Doesn't he deserve a hearing??
Those who see Baruch Goldstein as a hero [I don't] mentioned in the article do so because they believe [rightly or wrongly] that he was acting in self defense. I don't know ANYONE [including Kahane] who says that we should just go around randomly killing every Arab in sight.
He and others consider the Israeli government, in particular the Shin Bet and police, as enemies of patriotic Jews.
I cannot reveal a personal story I had in my family, but it is exceeeedingly clear to me that at times the government [which includes Jew hating Arab MK'S] the shin bet and police are enemies of the Jews. [Remember Gush Katif.] I have no doubt about it. The author lives in the US so maybe he is not aware of what is really going on here. I am.
"However, in Israel many religious Zionists believe that maintaining sovereignty in Yehuda and Shomron is of paramount importance. To them, a government that would compromise on territory would forfeit legitimacy."
Funny a rabbi would write this. This has NOTHING to do with religious Zionists. The Ramban paskens "שלא נעזבנו ביד זולתנו מן האומות". Who says we have the right to give away our land?? It is NOT our land but G-d's [see the Rashi on the first pasuk in chumash]. The only permission we MIGHT have is when it would save Jewish lives. The Arabs [many of them] are VERY CLEAR that as long as we inhabit the earth, they will try to kill us. Can we be SOOOOOO naive not to believe them and assume that giving them our land will make them behave? We tried it already and IT DIDN'T WORK.
"For Yossi Klein Halevi, a disillusioned former JDL member who wrote in a blog in the Times of Israel on Feb. 24, 2019, legitimizing Kahanism and Jewish racism is a hillul Hashem (desecration of God’s name)."
No offense - but WHO CARES what some journalist thinks is a chilul Hashem. Why would a Rav and Talmid Chochom [as the author is] base his definition of what is or isn't a chilul Hashem on what a person who is nothing of a Talmid Chochom thinks?? [Rav Soloveitchik famously proved that Kiddush and Chilul Hashem are NOT based solely on what people think but on properly following the Torah - even when people might have an adverse reaction, from the story in Brachos 20 עיי"ש].
"The land of Israel has sanctity. Of greater importance is to be a nation that is kadosh."
Meaning - let's give away parts of Israel to the Arabs, thus transgressing the Torah and [worse] endangering the safety of 6 million Jews.
רחמנא ליצלן מהאי דעתא!!!!!
