Jerusalem – Netanyahu Brokered A Deal With The Political Heirs Of Meir Kahane. Here’s Why, And Why It Matters.

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    Bezalel Smotrich' leader of the National Union Party, presents the new pre-election alliance with Otzma Yehudit in Petah Tikva, Feb 20, 2019. Photo by Gili Yaari/Flash90 Jerusalem – Israel’s parliamentary politics is often a forum for horse-trading. Governments form when parties win enough seats in the Knesset and cobble together enough partners to form a ruling, majority coalition.

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    But one trade is raising eyebrows and even alarm, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being seen as brokering a marriage of convenience between an extremist right-wing party, Otzma Yehudit, and a more moderate right-wing party, Jewish Home.

    Otzma Yehudit, which means “Jewish power,” is the spiritual godchild of Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Kach party, which was banned from the Knesset under a Basic Law outlawing incitement to violence and later exiled entirely in Israel. Kahane was the American immigrant founder of the militant Jewish Defense League, who before his assassination in 1990 promoted the immediate annexation of disputed territories and the expulsion of Arabs from the West Bank.

    On Wednesday, Netanyahu canceled a planned meeting in Moscow with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for, according to Russian media, “Israeli internal political reasons.”

    Hours later Otzma Yehudit accepted a compromise offer and entered into its unity pact with Jewish Home.

    Netanyahu needs a solid bloc of right-wing parties to form a government following the April 9 election. If the two parties had run separately, there is a chance that neither would have had enough votes (3.25 percent of those voting) to enter the Knesset, hampering Netanyahu’s ability to assemble a majority.

    To sweeten the pot, Netanyahu offered the joint list of Jewish Home-Otzma Yehudit two Cabinet seats, as well as a spot on the Likud candidates list.

    What is Otzma Yehudit?

    Like its Kahanist ancestors, the party calls for a greater Israel from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the annexation of the West Bank. It calls for unrestrained settlement building and the resettlement of Palestinians and Arab Israelis in Arab countries. It wants to restore Israeli sovereignty to the Temple Mount and cancel the Oslo Accords.

    Party head Michael Ben-Ari has called Kahane his rabbi and his teacher. Other leaders include former Kahane aide Baruch Marzel, a resident of Hebron who holds a party every year at the grave of Baruch Goldstein, who in 1994 massacred 29 Palestinians at the Cave of the Patriarchs; Rabbi Bentzion Gopstein, who runs Lehava, a group that opposes marriages between Jews and non-Jews; and Itamar Ben Gvir, an attorney who defends right-wing activists accused of Jewish terrorism.

    Do any members of Otzma Yehudit have a realistic shot of being elected to the parliament?

    The fifth slot on the combined party list is reported to be reserved for Ben-Ari. So maybe.

    How are people responding?

    Mideast watchers outside of Israel are appalled.

    “I grant that Otzma will have little to no power in an Israeli govt,” tweeted Michael Koplow, policy director of the Israel Policy Forum. “Explain to me how associating with [Otzma Yehudit] is any different than politicians who are willing to cavort with Farrakhan, and why anyone who rightly goes nuts over the latter should do anything different with the former.”

    Lahav Harkov, The Jerusalem Post’s senior contributing editor, urged restraint. The move might mean “a Knesset with one person from Otzma in it whose chances of imposing a theocracy and deporting most or all Arabs is nil. This is purely symbolic,” she tweeted. “Let’s not kid ourselves that the whole Knesset is turning into Kahane now.”


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    9 Comments
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    lazy-boy
    Active Member
    lazy-boy
    5 years ago

    hot dog! hope they can get the government to really get rid of kissing Abb ass’s rear….

    yamsar
    yamsar
    5 years ago

    Like the orange greps in the WH who saw good people in the neo Nazi march, the shtetl rebel binyumin nusenyuhi found the equivalent ‘good people’ in Israel. You couldn’t make this stuff up. Yidden, we need to take our heads out of our chulent plates and dump the orange kishke together with his violent counterpart in Israel. Feh. RESIST.

    SuchHatred
    SuchHatred
    5 years ago

    Does this mean that the Knesset is finally also ready to expel its Arab members who call for Israel’s destruction and who consort with Israel’s enemies? I wouldn’t bet on it.

    Aguttenshabbos
    Aguttenshabbos
    5 years ago

    To # 4. I concur 100%.

    Deremes851
    Deremes851
    5 years ago

    “Rabbi” Meir Kahane and his son lived and died by the sword.

    Right wing Jewish extremist are putting their twisted ideology before Jewish lives. They will live among animal Arab murderers even though they know they will get killed c’v.

    Zionism is THE greatest tragedy that happened to Klal Yisroel.
    We will soon read the Parsha of Amalekites. Let remember that the holy Tzadik the Chofetz Chaim said that Zionist are Amalekites.

    triumphinwhitehouse
    triumphinwhitehouse
    5 years ago

    if liberals are appalled then I know its a good thing, the problem is, in Israel the government has no power its all in the hands of supreme court which is leftist. Kahane way is the only way particularly about resettling so called Israeli Arabs, and if the evil Sharon can do it to Gaza Jews clearly they can do it to Zoabi anything less means Israel is doomed.

    FactsRule
    FactsRule
    5 years ago

    This article is overwhelmingly malicious slander & evil.