© Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty ImagesCandles burn with the image of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane at his grave near Jerusalem.
s considered something of a prophet by the Israeli right-wing. He openly advocated expelling all Palestinians from historic Palestine between the river and the sea - what he called "the Land of Israel". He wrote in
his 1981 manifesto:
"The Jews and Arabs of the Land of Israel ultimately cannot coexist. There is only one path for us to take: the immediate transfer of Arabs from Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel."
Although liberal Israeli elites still view Kahane as a fanatic extremist,
the reality is that Kahanism has today gone mainstream in Israel.The latest sign of that came last week, as
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brokered a merger agreement between two far-right parties in next month's general election,
to form the "Religious Zionism" list.Former Transport Minister
Bezalel Smotrich united with fanatical Kahanist settler and lawyer Itamar
Ben-Gvir of the "Jewish Power" party. In return,
Netanyahu offered Smotrich a vote-sharing agreement and chairs on the judicial appointments committee. Netanyahu wanted to avoid the right-wing vote being split too much, which would have damaged his chances of forming a ruling coalition.
Smotrich recently called for Israel to
wipe the Palestinian village of Khan Al-Ahmar off the map, in revenge for the International Criminal Court's ruling that it can investigate Israel for war crimes.
"What matters is not what the Gentiles will say but what the Jews will do," he said, quoting an infamous phrase attributed to Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion (who, incidentally, was supposedly on the "left").
Comment: Arms twisted? True colors? Or, swamp creatures revealed!