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Kahane won
By Gideon Levy
Tags: israel news, israel elections

Rabbi Meir Kahane can rest in peace: His doctrine has won. Twenty years after his Knesset list was disqualified and 18 years after he was murdered, Kahanism has become legitimate in public discourse. If there is something that typifies Israel's current murky, hollow election campaign, which ends the day after tomorrow, it is the transformation of racism and nationalism into accepted values.

If Kahane were alive and running for the 18th Knesset, not only would his list not be banned, it would win many votes, as Yisrael Beiteinu is expected to do. The prohibited has become permitted, the ostracized is now accepted, the destestable has become the talented - that's the slippery slope down which Israeli society has skidded over the past two decades.

There's no need to refer to Haaretz's startling revelation that Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman was a member of Kahane's Kach party in his youth: This campaign's dark horse was and is a Kahanist. The differences between Kach and Yisrael Beiteinu are minuscule, not fundamental and certainly not a matter of morality. The differences are in tactical nuances: Lieberman calls for a fascist "test of loyalty" as a condition for granting citizenship to Israel's Arabs, while Kahane called for the unconditional annulment of their citizenship. One racist (Lieberman) calls for their transfer to the Palestinian state, the other (Kahane) called for their deportation.
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Now the instigator of the new Israeli racism will apparently become the leader of a large party once again in the government. Benjamin Netanyahu has already pledged that Lieberman will be an "important minister" in his government. If someone like Lieberman were to join a government in Europe, Israel would sever ties with it. If anyone had predicted in Kahane's day that a pledge to turn his successor into an important minister would one day be considered an electoral asset here, they would have been told they were having a nightmare.

But the nightmare is here and now. Kahane is alive and kicking - is he ever - in the person of his thuggish successor. This is not just a matter of disqualifying Yisrael Beiteinu; it is not even a matter of this party's growing strength to terrifying proportions, becoming the fulcrum that will decide who becomes prime minister. This is a matter of legitimization. All society bears responsibility for it.

Kahane was ostracized; Lieberman is a welcome guest in every living room and television studio. Imagine: Ehud Barak does not rule out a coalition with him; Uzi Landau, considered a "democrat," is now Lieberman's number two; a former senior ambassador and a retired police major general also adorn the list. Did we know that Israel was being represented in Washington by an avowed racist in the person of Daniel Ayalon? Did we know that former Border Police chief and deputy police commissioner Yitzhak Aharonovich was one, too? They have come out of the closet, these racists, breaking out of the heart of the establishment to the despicable right, and the attitude toward them has not changed a bit.

Lieberman and his soldiers are borne on the tides of hatred for Arabs, hatred of democracy and the rule of law, and the stink of nationalism, racism and bloodthirstiness. These have turned, horrifically, into the hottest electoral assets on the market. Like all others of his political ilk, he cynically fans these base urges, particularly among the weaker classes, the rejected, the poor and the immigrants. But not just there. Many young people, among them brainwashed soldiers, will give him their vote, and no one ostracizes them. He chose an easy, relatively weak target, Israel's Arabs, and sets his supporters on them. But his doctrine has seeped in much deeper than that.

Lieberman is the voice of the mob, and the mob craves hatred, vengeance and bloodshed. A useless war in which hundreds of children were killed was received here sympathetically, if not happily. The parties from the right and center have tried to disqualify the Arab parties; these lists are also excluded ahead of time in every political calculation. And Arab students cannot rent an apartment.

When the intifada of Israel's Arabs breaks out here one day, we will know whom to blame - those who criminally incited against them and, no less, those who turned this incitement into something acceptable and legitimate. This cancerous growth has spread to all parts of society; it remains only to issue a desperate last call: Keep away from this abomination. Anything but Yisrael Beiteinu, lest it really become Israel, our home.
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  1.   The Israeli Left Must Be Desperate! 03:04  |  massaraksh 08/02/09
  2.   LOL @ Gideon Levy 03:55  |  A Nice Fellow 08/02/09
  3.   Equality for all 04:15  |  Josh 08/02/09
  4.   Israel is most racist country in history 04:22  |  Chris 08/02/09
  5.   Lieberman 05:21  |  Zelda 08/02/09
  6.   Again on target 06:10  |  Mex 08/02/09
  7.   "Racism"? Bull! Look it up! 10:54  |  danny 08/02/09
  8.   Gideon Lost 10:59  |  Baruch Gold 08/02/09
  9.   Lets Hope! 11:06  |  yosi 08/02/09
  10.   Why Gideon Levy is so angry 11:09  |  Michael 08/02/09
  11.   Racism? 11:14  |  Bin 08/02/09
  12.   If Lieberman gains power in Israel 11:23  |  Chris Linthwaite 08/02/09
  13.   The true racists 11:44  |  Yaacov 08/02/09
  14.   When the intifada of Israel`s Arabs breaks out here one day... 11:58  |  Fed Up 08/02/09
  15.   Go, Liebermann, go! I`m looking forward when 12:02  |  Andreas 08/02/09
  16.   It is a counter-weight to your beliefs 12:04  |  Ariel 08/02/09
  17.   Israel is more like America than South Africa? 12:05  |  Manny Goldstein 08/02/09
  18.   Dear Yosi, let`s hope... 12:08  |  Frank 08/02/09
  19.   But the arabs who stab Jews as happened today 12:08  |  Allon 08/02/09
  20.   Massaraksh: Citing a book he did not understand. 12:10  |  Andreas 08/02/09
  21.   Crying Wolf! Ignorance about Lieberman 12:24  |  Sceptic 08/02/09
  22.   Gideon Levy is right 12:31  |  Smadar 08/02/09
  23.   Israel Racist country ? to Chris etc 12:34  |  Sceptic 08/02/09
  24.   shallow article 12:41  |  utpictura 08/02/09
  25.   Anything Gideon Levy dislikes is probably good for Israel 12:45  |  John Doe 08/02/09
  26.   Racism doesn`t apply to same-race conflict 13:05  |  Arabian Jew 08/02/09
  27.   Gideon Levy 13:15  |  Pierre 08/02/09
  28.   Lieberman is Israel´s "Le Pen" 13:16  |  hipolito 08/02/09
  29.   Calling anyone you disagree with a fascist worked 30 years ago 13:19  |  Freethinker 08/02/09
  30.   Double standards in your face ! 13:19  |  blame shame khraim 08/02/09
  31.   So who is the real democrat, Levy, your friend Zahar? 13:30  |  Freethinker 08/02/09
  32.   Radical right reaction to Radical left 13:35  |  Simha 08/02/09
  33.   Kahane won? No, habibi, the Left/Oslo lost. 13:43  |  Yisca Slomovitz 08/02/09
  34.   ARAB parties siding with the enemy are allowed to run in Israel.! 13:46  |  PETER SM 08/02/09
  35.   ARAB parties siding with the enemy are allowed to run in Israel.! 14:07  |  PETER SM 08/02/09
  36.   thank you Gideon 16:14  |  kat 08/02/09
  37.   GIDEON AND RACISM 16:19  |  Brant 08/02/09
  38.   A little analogy for democratic behaviour 16:25  |  Ardi 08/02/09
  39.   Mex 16:25  |  Sean 08/02/09
  40.   Kahana! 16:46  |  Elie Raymond 08/02/09
  41.   Equal rights since 1948? I don`t think so! 18:37  |  Palestinian Brit 08/02/09
  42.   Gideon, a left extremist? 18:48  |  El-Kadri 08/02/09
  43.   josh 3 19:05  |  curious 08/02/09
  44.   There is nothing racist about demand for 19:18  |  TOMY 08/02/09
  45.   citizenship and Israeli Arabs 19:38  |  madeleine Agai 08/02/09
  46.   Kahane won 20:06  |  Bill 08/02/09
  47.   To Frank!! 20:09  |  yosi 08/02/09
  48.   Racism in Israel 20:11  |  Nathaniel Braia 08/02/09
  49.   Uniter, Not a Divider 20:16  |  Knott Bushman 08/02/09
  50.   Brand and extremism; Gideon is no extremist! 20:33  |  Mikael 08/02/09
  51.   Lieberman 20:55  |  Kodi 08/02/09
  52.   Lieberman and Hamas are symbiotic. 21:17  |  Tzfonit 08/02/09
  53.   re:Palestinian Brit 00:54  |  UsedToPostHere 09/02/09
  54.   Loyalty 01:44  |  Paul Andrews 09/02/09
  55.   Gideon`s wrong 01:45  |  Raffaele Ladu 09/02/09
  56.   No tolerance for Lieberman/racism 02:00  |  david 09/02/09
  57.   Kahane and Lieberman 02:11  |  Mark 09/02/09
  58.   Democracy 02:18  |  David 09/02/09
  59.   #44 CITIZENSHIP IN USA IS DIFFERENT FROM ISRAEL 03:28  |  Joel Brown 09/02/09
  60.   Spreading hatred and scapegoating 03:36  |  AlbyFlugzeug 09/02/09
  61.   #55, No tolerance for any racism 03:54  |  Bruce 09/02/09
  62.   Very well...but don`t count on U.S. aid 03:54  |  Hanna 09/02/09
  63.   #41, Palestinian Brit 04:17  |  Bruce 09/02/09
  64.   True concern to David 55 05:37  |  Sceptic 09/02/09
  65.   To all those who believe arabs always lived in israel 05:41  |  eric 09/02/09
  66.   Discrimination in Israel 05:53  |  Sceptic 09/02/09
  67.   Speaking of education 05:54  |  Sceptic 09/02/09
  68.   Zero to Sixty in Sixty to Zero 06:23  |  Persian Kitty 09/02/09
  69.   Lieberman = Haider + Le Pen ? Yes, but... 06:26  |  LM 09/02/09
  70.   Startling? 07:00  |  David 09/02/09
  71.   What "loyalty" is Yisrael Beiteinu demanding? 07:20  |  Johnboy 09/02/09
  72.   True concern to David 55 07:26  |  Sceptic 09/02/09
  73.   #56 The Pledge is a Loyalty Test? 07:52  |  David 09/02/09
  74.   Analyze Them All!!!! 08:42  |  Jay A Friedman 09/02/09
  75.   A mirror of Palestinian hatred and facism 09:18  |  MarkC 09/02/09
  76.   Gideon`s mea culpa comes way too late 09:22  |  Jacob Blues 09/02/09
  77.   If Kahane won it is because he was vindicated 09:26  |  Lev Yehudi 09/02/09
  78.   He and his is whole family were assassinated... 09:36  |  UlfT 09/02/09
  79.   to 57 - democracy - isn`t the same for Hamas 09:37  |  facts 09/02/09
  80.   what can be demanded of a country`s citizens 09:51  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 09/02/09
  81.   #63, jb, wrong 10:00  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 09/02/09
  82.   Anyone praising Gideon Levy simply wants Israel destroyed! 10:20  |  Warren 09/02/09
  83.   Gideon Levy hates democracy! This article is a sham! 10:28  |  GrowUp Leftwing nuts 09/02/09
  84.   to Baruch Gold #8 - 4th try 10:29  |  zeev 09/02/09
  85.   Zeev- #84 17:29  |  kameel 09/02/09
  86.   1933 in Israel 12:16  |  Dror 10/02/09
  87.   Levy again. 14:11  |  jn 10/02/09
  88.   Stop Lying Gideon 17:10  |  Justin White 10/02/09
  89.   Bin-Moron ! Arabs and Jews Semitic people 23:17  |  george Archers 10/02/09
  90.   Kahane Won 22:40  |  Carolyn Schuk 12/02/09
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