Rabbi Meir Kahane
Photo: Knesset Website
Kahane won
Baruch Marzel's not the only one who calls for ethnic cleansing
When Meir Kahane, may he rest in peace, immigrated to Israel with his plans to "ethnically cleanse" Israel of its Arab population, people drowned out his speeches with whistles and yelled slogans such as "No racism here" and "No fascism here."
The government even proposed a law prohibiting both racism and racist preaching, but the bill was approved by the Knesset with minor changes, including a devious amendment that in practice defends incitement: "Publication of quotes from religious texts or prayer books, or protecting religious rituals will not be seen as offenses under Article 144-b, as long as the offense was not committed with intent to incite to racism."
Since then it has been alright to preach that a "good goy is a dead goy." It is also acceptable to ignore all writings about loving non-Jews and strangers' rights "because you were strangers in the Land of Egypt" (Exodus 23:9), choosing instead to adopt another verse in the Torah: "When the Lord your God shall deliver them up before you, and you shall smite them; then you should utterly destroy them; you should make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them" (Deut. 7:2).
Despite the fact that this verse refers to the seven nations of ancient Canaan that no longer exist, this verse has become the key phrase amongst right-wing rabbis in the territories as well as inside Israel.
"Don't have mercy on them" means don't let them settle down next to you, and the chief rabbi of Tzfat has embraced this verse, openly calling on Tzfat residents to refuse to sell or rent property in the city to Arabs. And the attorney general refuses to deal with it, despite the fact that it is open racism.
Promoting ethnic cleansing
Even though the Knesset rejected the cursed race laws Kahane put forth as an MK, today we continue to have several openly racist parties, at least according to the International Convention against Racism that Israel ratified in January, 1979.
Three parties preach for ethnic cleansing: Baruch Marzel's Jewish National Front is notorious for its hatred of Palestinian Arabs, stealing their land and unashamedly calling for their eviction from Israel.
More elegant and polite than Marzel are the leaders of the other parties on the list – Benny Elon and Avigdor Lieberman.
They don't use the word "transfer," but Benny Elon told me a long time ago: "We don't support 'transfer', but we'll make their lives so miserable here that they'll transfer themselves."
Lieberman, too, wants ethnic cleansing, and wants to get rid of Israeli Arabs in the Triangle and Umm al-Fahm, houses, property and all. It remains unclear if this plan includes lands the IDF has chewed up for "training" or "security" purposes.
National Union and Israel Our Home boast openly racist agendas. All good people, who currently lean towards voting for the Ale Yarok (Green Leaf) Party and other groups that have no chance of actually making it into the Knesset – would do well to consider whether they really want to throw their votes away.
They must consider whether they really want a country that is not a democracy, but rather an "ethnocracy."
Promoting equality
A "Jewish State" means we are a closed, religious clan, and that we do not support equality. Consider, for example, the Druze, who are Israeli citizens, who consider themselves "brothers-in-arms" and many of whom have died while serving this country. Do they have equal rights? Do their towns receive the same amount of funding as Jewish towns in the occupied territories?
All the more so with regard to non-Druze Israeli Arabs. True, they do not serve in the IDF, but neither do the ultra-Orthodox. Do these non-serving groups receive equal funding?
Everyone wanting Israel to be a true democracy, a place in which people – all people – are considered equal – would do well to consider exactly whom they plan to vote for on March 28.
They would also do well to consider the lawless IDF, and the brainwashing and the ethnic cleansing it conducts – in the name of security, of course – in the Jordan Valley, for the purposes of stealing lands, and in the West Bank, where we ignore the uprooting of thousands of trees by settlers so they can steal even more land.
In a country in which only Jews are considered human beings with rights, it is no surprise that our hands are so easy on the trigger, and the killing of women, children and innocent civilians becomes a routine occurrence.
IDF: Preventing peace
Ongoing IDF provocation in the territories, intended to prevent peace, is not coincidental. After all, in which other democratic country has the army killed many leaders of an occupied, helpless people, or embarked on a dangerous, pathetic revenge mission to restore the honor of a dead man, who in any event has already got streets and bridges named after him?
And lest we forget, all this is to honor the man – Rehavaam Zeevi - who established the first party to espouse transfer.
In the past, we have suffered when countries we lived in wanted to cleanse themselves of any Jewish presence.
Now, when we've got the upper hand and the best-equipped, strongest army in the Middle East, we want a Jewish state, cleansed of the indigenous "goyim" who also live here.
The army does its work with terrific determination. Benny Elon, Avigdor Lieberman and the extremist, nationalist rabbis who have declared the Arabs to be "Amalek" can rejoice at the fact that Israeli democracy has been turned into a domineering ethnocity.
But at the end of the day, we will be a pariah amongst the democratic world, and charges of "anti-Semitism," "Holocaust" and the rest of the verbal manipulations intended to cover up our actions and scare others away from criticizing us, will no longer cover up the truth.
