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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, AUGUST 3, 1984
PAGE 11
own map and conception of the identity of Israel...• These elec
tions seem to reaffirm that a new Israel is in the making and
whatever shape it ultimately- takes seems certainto be quite
different in temperament and outlook from the mythic olcr-social
ist Israel of pioneers and dreamers, where Labor was the dominant
party.
Election Rules Open Way For Radical Rabbi
Israel's election laws have a very low mandatory vote threshold--only one
percent--for representation in Parliament.
Hence the proliferation of
small parties, which are threatening to undermine the very basis of the
country's democracy--much in the same way as the German Weimar Republic
collapsed under the weight of over-representation in the 1930s (West Ger
many today requires a five percent representation).
The most dramatic single result of the election was the victory by Brook
lyn-born firebrand Rabbi Meir Kahane. His Kach Party was able to clear the
one percent hurdle--representing about 20,000 votes--by 3000 votes.
The son of an Orthodox rabbi, the 51-year-old Kahane first embraced mili
tant Zionism when he was 15 years old. He became a constant thorn in the
side of the New York City police department, eventually founding in 1968
the militant Jewish Defense League, a private army of youths organized to
protect Jewish residents. The JDL also planted bombs in Soviet offices to
protest treatment of Russian Jews.
In 1972 Kahane moved to Israel (he holds dual U.S. and Israeli citizen
ship). In Israel, he has been arrested numerous times and imprisoned twice
for a total of 13 months. Here is a profile of Kahane which appeared in the
July 30, 1984 issue of PEOPLE magazine (just before the election):
Behind Kahane's zealotry is his conviction that Israel as an ex
clusively Jewish state is justified by the Old Testament. "I'm
trying to explain to the people of Israel that if we don't want
Jewish blood to flow, we must throw the Arabs out," he says. "I
am not ashamed of it. It was written in the Talmud: 'If one comes
to slay you, slay him first.'"...
After two unsuccessful campaigns in 1977 and 1981•..drift to the
right among Israeli youth and increasing support for permanent
settlement of the West Bank have broadened Kahane's ballot-box
appeal. "This time it's different," he says.
"The people of
Israel see where the wind is blowing. They will vote for me.".•.
Last March four of his Kach youths--all U.S. citizens--were ar
rested for machine-gunning a bus on the West Bank, wounding six
Arabs. Of the car bombing that gravely wounded•••two West Bank
mayors [in 1980 ], Kahane says with a grin, "I was in prison when I
heard. I blessed God and thanked Him. I was delighted when it
happened. But do you think I would tell you if I had anything to
do with it?" He professed astonishment when the Israeli govern
ment arrested 25 citizens last spring for terrorist acts against
Arabs. "Those arrested--the Jewish underground--are wonderful
boys," he says. "They fulfilled a holy task."