Uncompromising Truth about Meir Kahane by the Woman Who Knew Him Best

Reviewing the second installment in a projected three-volume biography of the much-hated American rabbi, written by his widow Libby, Elliot Jager reflects on Kahane’s career and his transformation from leader of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) to leader of the (now-illegal) Israeli political party Kach:

Kahane was one of the most influential, selfless, brilliant American Jewish personalities of the post-World War II era. . . . Under Kahane, the JDL was a catalyst pressuring the U.S. Jewish establishment to put Soviet Jewry, Jewish poverty, and urban anti-Semitism higher on its agenda. Kahane in his original JDL incarnation saved the souls of countless impressionable young Jews from terminal ennui if not outright assimilation. . . .

I found the early Kahane mesmerizing. I first appreciated the enormity of the Shoah because he talked about it when others didn’t. Following him into the street from the auditorium of Hunter College chanting “Never Again” and sitting down on Third Avenue and 67th Street near the Soviet UN mission in Manhattan was like an ecstatic-religious experience for me.

But in his [later] Kach incarnation his ideas sounded reactionary and repugnant. And for most people that is how he is remembered: for saying no to tolerance, no to respect for minority rights, no to religious pluralism, and no to compromise with political opponents.

Read more at Jager File

More about: American Jewry, History & Ideas, Israeli politics, Jewish Defense League, Meir Kahane, Soviet Jewry

Expand Gaza into Sinai

Feb. 11 2025

Calling the proposal to depopulate Gaza completely (if temporarily) “unworkable,” Peter Berkowitz makes the case for a similar, but more feasible, plan:

The United States along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE should persuade Egypt by means of generous financial inducements to open the sparsely populated ten-to-fifteen miles of Sinai adjacent to Gaza to Palestinians seeking a fresh start and better life. Egypt would not absorb Gazans and make them citizens but rather move Gaza’s border . . . westward into Sinai. Fences would be erected along the new border. The Israel Defense Force would maintain border security on the Gaza-extension side, Egyptian forces on the other. Egypt might lease the land to the Palestinians for 75 years.

The Sinai option does not involve forced transfer of civilian populations, which the international laws of war bar. As the United States, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other partners build temporary dwellings and then apartment buildings and towns, they would provide bus service to the Gaza-extension. Palestinian families that choose to make the short trip would receive a key to a new residence and, say, $10,000.

The Sinai option is flawed. . . . Then again, all conventional options for rehabilitating and governing Gaza are terrible.

Read more at RealClear Politics

More about: Donald Trump, Egypt, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula