5 Marcheshvan 5785
The 18th of Marcheshvan (Nov. 5, 1990) is the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Meir David Kahane, ztz"l, Hy"d. Today, a day following the Gregorian date, the Jerusalem Post has published a typically scathing op-ed taking Rabbi Kahane's name in vain. The hatred still expressed with such venom 34 years after his assassination is testimony to the real reason behind it - the threat posed by Torah Judaism to the Greek ideas of democracy.
The 25th Knesset and the 37th government of the State of Israel have presented us with a series of unprecedented events, decisions, and phenomena that pose a significant threat to Israeli democracy and the future of Israeli society.The most severe of these is the entry of Kahanism into the mainstream of Israeli politics and the legitimacy this ideology is gaining among large segments in politics, even in unexpected places. For example, with a young secular woman from Tel Aviv.Last week, Social Equality and Women’s Advancement Minister May Golan – a member of Likud, once the party that led the boycott against Meir Kahane in the Knesset – delivered one of the most embarrassing displays seen in the plenum, as she shouted and waved her arms seeking to defend the tarnished honor of Michael Ben-Ari, a declared Kahane supporter disqualified from running for the Knesset.[See further here: Political Trial of Former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari Began Today]...What is required of us today is no longer a “battle of containment” but a concerted effort to push this dangerous phenomenon from the center of Israeli existence to the extreme and illegitimate margins to which it belongs.The writer is a Labor Party MK.