Gary Cooperberg, November 3, 2005

Sunday, November 20, the eighteenth of Cheshvan, will mark the fifteenth anniversary of the murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane of blessed memory, may HaShem avenge his blood. Tzadikim are taken from us prior to national calamities to spare them the anguish of seeing Divine punishment for our sins. Prior to his murder the rabbi was greatly distraught at what he perceived to be imminent tragedies to his people. HaShem spared him from seeing the humiliation of Oslo and the perfidy of Sharon’s surrender of Gaza, not to mention the horror of so many terrorist murders in Israel, including that of his own son and daughter-in-law.

Rabbi Kahane spent his life trying his best to bring his people back to the Land and to true Jewish observance. While it was beyond his ability to reshape the Jewish State into a truly Jewish State, he certainly succeeded in bringing countless Jews home, both to the Land and to Jewish observance. This fact will eventually result in turning Israel into a truly Jewish State. His legacy lives in the lives of those who were fortunate enough to know him.

In spite of the fact that the Israeli system of government is basically a small clique of power hungry politicians which effectively bar all "outsiders" from participation, Rabbi Kahane single-handedly broke into the closed forum when he won a Knesset seat in 1984. Kach was the first and only faction of One to succeed in breaking into the private club of political hacks. In the short time he was there he set more precedents than any other faction in all the years of the Knesset’s existence. He so upset the power brokers that they devoted countless hours to devise a way to assure that the Rabbi would never again regain his seat. They ostracized him by walking out every time he rose to speak; the Knesset Speaker refused to table bills presented by the Rabbi; a special committee of the B’nei Brith Anti-defamation League was invited to Israel to create an advertizing campaign to defame Rabbi Kahane; the term "Kahanism" was coined as an equivalent to racism in reaction to the Rabbi’s suggestion that enemy Arabs in Israel be deported to Arab countries (an act which Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin actually exercised after the Rabbi’s murder when he deported busloads of Israeli Arab terrorists to Lebanon); and an "anti-racism" law was passed (which, by the way, was supported by the Rabbi), but was worded in such a vague way as to permit a distorted interpretation and was thus used to ban Kach from running in the next election. And, even after succeeding in the unprecedented effort to ban a Jew from running for office in Israel, the power brokers were so afraid of Rabbi Kahane that his assassination was arranged to make it look like an Arab terrorist murdered him. Thus was Israel "protected" from having Rabbi Kahane as a leader.

The result of this "success" was a succession of political precedents which paved the way for the murder of thousands of Jewish citizens and the attempted abandonment of the Zionist dream. A national policy which recognizes the right of the terrorist PLO to independence and statehood on Jewish soil as espoused by an alleged right wing prime minister, is proof that the success in expelling Rabbi Kahane included expelling any visage of Jewish self respect as well.

The saying of our sages that "He who is merciful unto the cruel is destined to be cruel unto the merciful" was clearly demonstrated by Sharon’s alleged concession to our enemies by expelling Jews from their homes in Gaza. This was a cowardly, deceitful, immoral, illegal and treasonous act on the part of a Jewish prime minister and all those who supported it. It was the most shameful event in Jewish history next to the sinking of the Altalena.

Although many good people have fallen prey to despair in the aftermath of this self created tragedy, we must all remind ourselves that Israel is not the plaything of those who presume to lead her. While certainly they do have the power to inflict needless harm upon the nation, which they have done and continue to do, they do not have the power to self destruct this nation. No power or combination of powers in the world has the ability to destroy Israel. In spite of our mistakes and in spite of the perfidy of our leaders, this country has a Divine Destiny which will come to pass in spite of our failings. The very fact that this country still exists after so many stupid self inflicted blows from our own leaders, (not to mention our enemies), is proof positive that our G-d is watching over us.

Rabbi Kahane tried desperately to get us to realize the power that we possess if only we would behave as proud Jews; loyal servants of our G-d. If we would but conduct our lives, both personal and national, according to the Law of our Torah, we could hasten the redemption and avoid so much needless tragedy. Redemption is destined to happen. It is only the amount of suffering that we need to endure that is in our hands. How foolish we are to cause ourselves so much needless pain. The entire world is looking at the tiny Jewish State for leadership. Rather than serving our G-d and becoming the example of His control of this world, we seek to flee from our destiny and thus prolong our agony and that of the entire world.

The source of true world peace and redemption will not be found in Washington, London, Moscow or the European Union. It will come from Jerusalem. Only when we Jews stop looking all over the world for redemption and instead turn to our own destined role as true servants of the G-d of Creation will we and all the nations of the world eventually find genuine peace. The is the legacy of Rabbi Kahane. We must all continue to strive to achieve that goal.

Gary Cooperberg, a resident of the Jewish community in Hebron, Israel, is the founder and director of Project Shofar.

Copyright © 2005 Gary Cooperberg