Nadene Goldfoot
US finally removed Rabbi Kahane from a terror blacklist.
He had founded the Kahane Chai Group that was designated as a terror movement back in 1997 after it had voiced support for a Jewish man who had massacred 29 Palestinians. "The Cave of the Patriarchs massacre of 1994, also known as the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre or the Hebron massacre, was a
shooting massacre carried out by Baruch Goldstein, an American-Israeli extremist and physician, and member of the far-right Kach movement. "
shooting massacre carried out by Baruch Goldstein, an American-Israeli extremist and physician, and member of the far-right Kach movement. "
The Israeli government of Yitzhak Rabin condemned the massacre, and so must have Bill Clinton, USA president at the time, and responded by arresting followers of Meir Kahane, criminalizing the Kach movement and affiliated movements as terrorist, forbidding certain Israeli settlers to enter Palestinian towns, and demanding that those settlers turn in their army-issued rifles, although rejecting a Palestinian Liberation Organization demand that all settlers in the West Bank be disarmed and that an international force be created to protect Palestinians
Rabbi Meir was only 2 years older than myself, born on August 1, 1932 in the United States as Meir David Kahane. He became an Israeli ordained Orthodox rabbi, writer, and ultra-nationalist politician who served one term in Israel's Knesset. He didn't move to Israel until 1971. My husband and I had done this in 1980. In 1980, Kahane was arrested for the 62nd time since his emigration, and he was jailed for six months after a detention order that was based on allegations of him planning armed attacks against Palestinians in response to the killings of Jewish settlers. Kahane was held in prison in Ramla, where he wrote the book They Must Go. Kahane was banned from entering the UK in 1981.
He called for immediate Jewish mass migration to Israel to avoid a potential "Holocaust" in the United States, supported the restriction of Israel's democracy to its Jewish citizens, and endorsed the annexation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A cofounder of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) and founder of the Israeli political party Kach in 1971, he espoused strong views against antisemitism. In 1984, he became a member of the Knesset, when Kach gained its only-ever seat in parliamentary elections. Kahane was boycotted across the aisles of the Knesset, and would often speak in front of an empty chamber. Well, that's how Democracy is supposed to work. People were very direct in their feelings.
That same year, he was convicted in New York for conspiracy to manufacture explosives and received a suspended sentence of five years.
In Israel, he was convicted for plotting to blow up the Libyan embassy in Brussels in revenge for the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, receiving a suspended sentence and probation.
He became friends with my 3rd cousin, Stanley Goldfoot, my mother's age, early on, as Stanley was born and raised in South Africa, and was also more radical than most Americans at age 18. Stanley had also gone to Israel and had become Chief of Intelligence of the Stern Group (Lohame Herut Israel) standing for "fighters for the Freedom of Israel", for short called Lehi, which the Brits called "The Stern Gang," the more radical of defensive groups of his day, being born on May 2, 1914. Their leader soon was Yitzhak Jazaminsky (Shamir). Stanley told me how he drove Rabbi Meir around on his rounds. They were friends. Stanley, a journalist, had been jailed by the Brits. They had that in common. There was a lot of shooting going on at Israeli citizens then, lots of attacks by Hamas in '94. Stanley is known for his Letter to the World, which is how he demonstrated his frustration.
A pregnant Israeli woman was shot to death in the West Bank. HAMAS claimed responsibility for the attack which prompted widespread rioting by settlers in the West Bank. | |
| In Hebron, US born Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein, a member of Kach, opened fire on Muslim worshipers in the cave of the Patriarchs, killing 29 people and wounding over 100 more. Goldstein was then beaten to death by Palestinians in the Mosque. PLO chairman Arafat called on the UN to deploy forces in the Occupied Territories and asked the security council to condemn the killings. | |
| Israel issued orders for the administrative detention of 5 members of Kach and Kahane Chai movements, and announced that some settlers in Hebron would be disarmed and approximately 15 would be barred from entering the West Bank. A commission was created to investigate the Hebron killings. Israel also announced the planned release of 1,000 Palestinians prisoners by March 7. | |
During the month of March 21 Palestinians were killed and 223 more were wounded. |
Meir Kahane was born in Brooklyn, New York, to an Orthodox Jewish family. Kahane descended from a line of well-known rabbis, including his father, who was head of the Flatbush Board of Rabbis. His father, Yechezkel Shragei (Charles) Kahane (1905–1978), had studied at Polish and Czech yeshivas, and was the author of the rabbinic work Torah Yesharah. He was deeply involved in the Revisionist Zionist movement as a close friend of Ze'ev Jabotinsky. Kahane's grandfather was Nachman Kahane (1869–1937), a leading rabbinic scholar in Safed, who was the son of Baruch David Kahane (1850–1925), the author of Hibat ha-Eretz, and a disciple of Chaim Halberstam of Sanz. Baruch David was a direct descendant of Simcha Rappaport (1650–1718), of the Rappaport rabbinic family, who were allegedly able to trace their ancestry back to Eleazar ben Azariah, a 1st-century sage in the Land of Israel. Baruch David immigrated to Mandatory Palestine from Poland in 1873. As a teenager, Kahane became an ardent admirer of Jabotinsky and Peter Bergson, who were frequent guests in his parents' home.
I'd say that he was a rabbi of leading Jews who had decided to really do something about anti-Semitism but just couldn't balance his thoughts with action vs effects on all of humanity. He had one main thought in mind and that was it.
He had the fortitude of our past Aluf "General" Bar Kokhba who had fought and died from 132-135 against the Romans. With the fall of Jerusalem and then Bethar, the fortress to the southwest of Jerusalem where Bar Kokhba was slain, the rebellion was crushed in 135. Bar Kokhba was successful but it only lasted for 3 years, and then the Romans did him in, embarrassed and angry for showing them up.
According to Christian sources, Jews were thenceforth forbidden to enter Jerusalem. We hadn't tried it again for 2,000 years, finally realizing the dream on May 14, 1948 with talk.
In 2007, the FBI released over a thousand documents relating to its daily surveillance of Kahane since the early 1960s.
Resource:
https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2021/12/stanley-goldfoots-letter-to-world.html
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/h1spr00ypq?utm_source=email
https://www.refworld.org/docid/469f38a8c.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Goldstein
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