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Meir David Kahane (: "Prevention of Participation of Candidates List." Kahane was known in the United States and Israel for his strong political and nationalist views, exemplified in his promotion of a theocratic "Greater Israel". Kahane founded two controversial movements: the Jewish Defense League (JDL) in the United States and Kach , an Israeli Political Party . In 1988 Kach was declared a Racist party by the Israeli government and banned from the Knesset , and in 1994 following the Mosque Of Abraham Massacre the party was outlawed completely. Kahane received a felony conviction in the United States for conspiring to make bombs and was tried and convicted in Israel for conspiracy to commit acts of violence in a foreign country. IDEOLOGY Kahane's ideology has been called Kahanism . Kahane adhered to the belief that Jewish law contains directions for how to run a Jewish state. He believed that a Jewish state with non-Jewish citizens is inherently contradictory because the non-Jewish citizens may someday become the majority and vote to make the state non-Jewish. He, among others (such as author Joan Peters ), believed that a Palestinian people do not exist; regarding Palestinians as disparate and unrelated Arab clans with no distinct ethnic identity. Kahane claimed that no description of Palestinian Arabs as a distinct nationality can be found in any pre-20th century text and he frequently challenged his detractors to prove otherwise. He also claimed that historically, there are no examples of Arab Muslims living peacefully with other ethnic groups. Thus, Kahane proposed the forcible deportation of all Arabs from all lands controlled by the Israeli government. In his view, evicting most Palestinian Arab Muslims (even Israeli Arab s), was the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and to the Arab-Israeli Conflict . Kahane also believed that Israel should limit citizenship to Jews and adopt Jewish law (. EARLY LIFE Kahane was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1932 to an Orthodox Jewish family. His father, Rabbi Yechezkel Shraga Kahane, was born in Safed , Palestine in 1905 and studied in Yeshivot in Poland and Czechoslovakia . Later, he emigrated to America, where he served as rabbi of two congregations. Meir Kahane received Rabbinical Ordination from the Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn. He was fully conversant with the Talmud and Tanakh , and worked as a pulpit rabbi and teacher in the 1960s. Subsequently, he earned a degree in International Law from New York University . As a teenager he became an admirer of Zeev Jabotinsky , a frequent guest in his parent's home, and joined the youth wing of Revisionist Zionism called '' Betar ''. He personally led protests against Ernest Bevin , the British Foreign Secretary who opposed the foundation of Israel on the grounds that Britain should recognize Arab aspirations for an independent state. Kahane also organized and launched public demonstrations in the U.S. against the Soviet Union 's policy of persecuting Zionist activists and curbing Jewish emigration to Israel. He was active in the "Free Soviet (Russian) Jewry" movement and advocated policies designed to increase emigration of Russian Refusenik s to Israel. Kahane founded the Jewish Defense League (JDL) in 1968 , purportedly in response to threats made by the Black Panthers movement. Kahane was also in contact with Joe Colombo , head of the Colombo Mafia family, and was with him in 1971 when Colombo was shot and killed by Gallo family assassins. Kahane confirmed his connections to these organized crime networks in an interview he gave to Playboy Magazine in 1972 . In the 1960s Kahane was an editor of the largest Anglo-Jewish weekly, Brooklyn's '' The Jewish Press '' and was a regular correspondent for that paper until his death. He appeared often on American radio and television. ISRAEL In the U.S., the JDL engaged in paramilitary activities, including the bombing of several buildings; the harassment, stalking and, sometimes, murder of prominent political and intellectual opponents of the JDL. Consequently, police pressure began to build upon Kahane, and in 1971 , he emigrated to Israel (known as "making Aliyah "). Kahane quickly moved to establish the ''Kach'' Party . In 1980 , Kahane stood unsuccessfully for election to the Knesset . Later in 1980, Kahane served six months in prison following an administrative detention order against him, the details of which have not been disclosed publicly. According to Ehud Sprinzak , "the prevailing rumour was that a very provocative act of sabotage on the Temple Mount was planned by Kahane and a close associate of his, Baruch Green." {Link without Title} In 1984 , Kahane was elected to the Knesset (Israeli parliament). The Central Elections Committee had banned him from being a candidate on the grounds that Kach was a racist party but the Israeli High Court determined that the Committee was not authorized to ban Kahane's candidacy. The high court suggested that the Knesset should pass a law that would authorize the exclusion of racist parties from future elections (the Anti-Racist Law of 1988). Kahane refused to take the Oath Of Office for the Knesset and insisted that a verse from Psalms be added to it, to indicate that when the national laws and Torah conflict, Torah law should have supremacy over the laws of the Knesset. Kahane's legislative proposals focused on revoking the Israeli citizenship of non-Jews and banning Jewish-Gentile marriages or sexual relations, based on the Code of Jewish Law compiled by Maimonides , the Mishne Torah. In spite of the fact that Kahane's proposals were based on Torah Law, none of Israel's religious parties or prominent rabbis publicly supported Kach legislation. As his political career progressed, Kahane became increasingly isolated in the Knesset. His speeches, boycotted by Knesset members, were made to an empty parliament, except for the duty chairman and the transcriptionist. Kahane's legislative proposals and motions of no-confidence against the Government were ignored or rejected by his fellow Knesset members. Kahane often called the other Knesset members "Hellenists" in Hebrew (a reference from Jewish religious texts describing ancient Jews who assimilated into Greek Culture after Judea 's occupation by Alexander The Great ). In 1987 , Rabbi Kahane opened a Yeshiva (Yeshivat Haraayon Hayehudi) with funding from American supporters, for the teaching of "the Authentic Jewish Idea". In 1985 , the Knesset passed an amendment to Israel's Basic Law , barring "racist" candidates from election. The Committee banned Kahane a second time, and he appealed to the Israeli High Court. This time the court found in favor of the committee, declaring Kahane to be unsuitable for election. Kahane asserted that polls showed the Kach Party was about to become the third largest party in Israel and this was the true reason that the party was banned. ASSASSINATION In 1990 , after concluding a speech in a Manhattan , New York hotel, Kahane was killed by El Sayyid Nosair . According to prosecutors, a man named Wadih El Hage purchased the .38 caliber Revolver used by Nosair. El-Hage was told by a man named Mahmud Abouhalima to buy the gun. Nosair was acquitted of murder because no witness had actually seen him pull the trigger but he was convicted of gun possession charges. Nosair later stood trial as a co-conspirator of Shaikh Omar Abdel Rahman . Both men received life sentences for the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing , conspiracy to use explosives against New York landmarks, and plotting to assassinate U.S. politicians. Nosair received life plus 15 years of imprisonment Since it was ruled that Kahane's murder was part of the "seditious conspiracy," Nosair was later convicted of killing Kahane [http://www.cnn.com/US/9510/terror_trial/update/ . POLITICAL LEGACY Following Kahane's death, no charismatic leader emerged to replace him and Kahane's radical ideology declined in popularity among Israelis. However, two small Kahanist factions later emerged; one under the name of '' Kach '' and the other ''Kahane chai'' (Hebrew: כהנא חי, literally "Kahane lives {Link without Title} "). In . Providing funds or material support to these organizations is a crime in both Israel and the United States. In late 2000 , as the Al-Aqsa Intifada began, Kahane supporters spray painted graffiti on hundreds of bus shelters and bridges all across Israel. The message on each target was identical, simply reading: "Kahane Was Right". In 2005 , an Israeli politician using the pseudonym Obadiah Shoher assembled a group of followers and claimed to be the true followers of Kahane. The group was named Samson Blinded, after Shoher's book, a compendium of Kahane's ideas entitled, ''Samson Blinded: A Machiavellian Perspective on the Middle East Conflict''. SON KILLED On December 31 , 2000 , Meir Kahane's son, Kahane Chai leader Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane and his wife Talya were shot and killed in their van as they were driving with their children from Jerusalem to their home in the Israeli Settlement of Kfar Tapuach . Their van was riddled with more than 60 shots from automatic weapons. The attackers were allegedly Palestinian militants, although no perpetrators were ever identified or apprehended. SEE ALSO
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Also author of Numbers 23:9: "... lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations," I. Block, 1970s. Contributor—sometimes under pseudonym Michael King—to periodicals, including New York Times. Editor of Jewish Press, 1968. For supplementary information and insights:
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