The more things change, the more they remain the same

Rabbi Meir Kahane, controversial founder of the Jewish Defense League in NYC in 1968, could be making the same arguments today about Israel’s right to exist that he made many years ago, before he was shot to death in 1990 by an Egyptian Muslim terrorist in NYC.

MJL Formed in New York City, the JDL proclaimed its commitment to “protect Jews from anti-Semitism by whatever means necessary.” Using “Never Again” as a rallying cry, the JDL ran small-scale, sometimes thuggish patrols in changing New York City neighborhoods, where elderly and impoverished Jews faced anti-Semitism, robberies, and harassment.

Kahane managed to dodge legal sanction for years, but by 1971 he faced a de facto ultimatum: leave the United States or face the possibility of criminal prosecution. So Kahane and his family moved to Israel.

Once in Israel, Kahane formed the Kach political party in 1971 and channeled his efforts into the parliamentary system. He preached that the state could find security only by aligning its political and social spheres with Jewish law. Kahane decried the secular Zionism that he found prevalent in Israel.

His rhetoric focused most of all on evicting the Arab population of Israel, and he spoke freely of the impossibility of maintaining a Jewish democratic state in the face of a growing Arab minority. Blacklisted from Israel’s political establishment because of his views, Kahane authored several books including the bestseller They Must Go, about what he considered the “problem” of the growing Arab minority in Israel. 

Kahane continued to make public appearances around the world until he was assassinated at a Manhattan speaking engagement in 1990. The gunman, El Sayyid Nosair, an Egyptian with connections to Al-Qaeda, was ultimately convicted.

We could use another Meir Kahane in the face of Hamas-supporting NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.

See: MELANIE PHILLIPS The Islamists’ Trojan horse