The Message: News And Views

Kathryn Shihadah

Benjamin Netanyahu’s new coalition, with himself serving as Likud head at the center, was described by Israeli journalist Barak Ravid as the political equivalent of “a US president cutting a political deal with a leader of the KKK.”

These were the comments of Palestinian journalist Kathryn Shihadah for her report published by MintPress, titled: “Netanyahu’s Newest Allies, Followers of an FBI-Designated Terrorist”.

Zionist Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who is quick to call out alleged anti-Semitism, is teaming up with an openly racist political party with a deeply problematic background, in hopes of snagging the next election.

Netanyahu’s newest partner, the fanatic political party Otzma Yehudit, or “Jewish Power” party, would be a part of his next coalition cabinet, bringing with it a stunning history of bigotry and violence.

Leaders of Jewish Power are disciples of the dead Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose biography includes extremist activities in both the United States and Israel.

FBI had labeled the Godfather of “Jewish Power” a terrorist

In New York, Kahane had founded the Jewish Defense League, which even the pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League (ADL) labeled as racist, violent, and extremist, and which the FBI designated a terrorist organization. He was convicted for conspiracy to manufacture explosives and received a five-year suspended sentence.

In Israel, Kahane co-founded and won a Knesset seat with the political party Kach. The Zionist regime itself banned Kach due to its “racist” and “anti-democratic” platform, which the New York Times reported advocates forcible expulsion of all 2.2 million Arabs from 1948 occupied Palestinian territories.

The Kach party was listed as a terrorist oufit in 1994 after Baruch Goldstein, a party member, massacred 29 Muslims as they prayed in the shrine of Prophet Abraham in al-Khalil in the holy month of Ramadhan. This – Jewish Power – is the party with which Netanyahu’s Likud party has now partnered. Netanyahu is reported to have signed an agreement promising Jewish Power two ministerial posts and two seats in the Security Cabinet.

Below are some of Jewish Power’s top leaders.

Benzi Gopstein, a leader in Jewish Power, runs Lehava, a Zionist organization that works aggressively against intermarriage, business relationships, or any mixing between Jews and Christians and Muslims. He is reported to have told a Lahava meeting that Palestinians were a “dangerous cancer” that “has metastasized everywhere.”

Gopstein has referred to Christians as “bloodsucking vampires” – which earned him a censure from the US – and declared that Christmas should be outlawed.

The next one is Baruch Marzel, who is reported to have a long police record before he turned 30, including assaulting Palestinians and Jews.

Marzel served as Rabbi Meir Kahane’s “right-hand man” until Kahane was killed. He has advocated violence toward all, going so far as to call for a “religious war” against Palestinians, and organizes a celebration at Goldstein’s grave every year.

The 3rd notorious terrorist partner of Netanyahu is Itamar Ben-Gvir, a senior Jewish Power leader, who displays a picture of Baruch Goldstein in his living room, and whom the Jewish newspaper Ha’aretz once described as the “go-to man for Jewish extremists who have run afoul of the law….[whose] client list reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of suspects in Jewish terror cases and hate crimes.”

 He has been retained by members of the “hilltop youth,” an extreme settlers group too right-wing even for most Israelis. Ben-Gvir calls these settlers the “salt of the earth” and “the biggest Zionists that exist.”

The 4th terrorist partner of Netanyahu is Michael Ben-Ari, another notorious leader in the Jewish Power party – whom the US has labelled a member of a terrorist party. He still considers himself a follower of Meir Kahane.

As a Knesset member, he has worked to call attention to the increased “infiltration” of Sudanese refugees, and blamed them for a rise in crime.

Ben-Ari has also publicly burned a Palestinian flag in response to the United Nations’ passage of resolution 67/19, which upgraded the status of Palestine to that of nonmember observer state.

As the Intercept reports, times have changed dramatically since Rabbi Kahane was in the Knesset. Before he was killed in 1990, Kahane introduced legislation to strip non-Jews of their citizenship and called for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the occupied land.

At that time, his proposal was denounced as similar to the Nuremberg Laws passed by the Nazis of Germany.

This new coalition, with Likud head Netanyahu at the center, was described by Jewish journalist Barak Ravid as the political equivalent of “a US president cutting a political deal with a leader of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan (KKK).