Tag: JDL

“Jewish extremists” are Israel’s own sons

Earlier this month, a strange thing happened: a Jewish extremist was held in “administrative detention” by Israel. This practise, internment without charge or trial, dates back to the British occupation of Palestine, and Israel habitually uses it against Palestinians.

But for a Jewish citizen to be “administratively detained” is highly unusual. The internee is Meir Ettinger, a 24-year-old pro-settler fanatic who is the grandson of the notorious Rabbi Meir Kahane.

Kahane was the founder of the Jewish Defence League, a terrorist organization founded in New York in 1969. The group was responsible for a string of bombing and other violent attacks against Palestinian, Egyptian and Soviet civilian targets in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as against JDL members who quarrelled with the leadership in one way or another.

Continue reading over at MEMO.

“Kahane was right” – but not in the way Israeli racists claim

On the history of the JDL and the posthumous victory of Meir Kahane:

But today we can say that Kahane was right in only one sense. He was an extreme ideologue of hatred, and never seemed to waiver in his belief that one day he would be vindicated and his ideas would become mainstream in Israeli society and in the Israeli government. In that sense, he was right. Today, there is no need for an Israeli Kach party, because many of its ideas have been adopted by more mainstream Israeli parties.

Read the whole thing over at MEMO.