Meir Kahane: Encyclopedia II - Meir Kahane - Ideology

Meir Kahane - Ideology

Kahane's overall views have been called Kahanism. Kahane adhered to the belief that Jewish law contains directions for how to run a Jewish state. He pointed out that having a Jewish state with non-Jewish citizens is an inherent contradiction, since the non-Jewish citizens may then become the majority and vote to make the state non-Jewish. He, among many others (such as Joan Peters), held that there is no such thing as a Palestinian people; that in fact the people who call themselves Palestinian are a mixture of disparate and unrelated Arab clans with no claim to a distinct ethnic identity. He claimed that no description of the Palestinian Arabs as a distinct nationality can be found in any pre-20th century text, and Kahane frequently challenged his detractors to prove otherwise. He also claimed that historically, there is no example 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 Arabs), was the only acceptable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to the Arab-Israeli conflict and proclaiming Jewish sovereignty over the lands of Eretz Israel thus liberated.

Kahane also believed that Israel should limit citizenship to Jews only and adopt Jewish law (Halakha) in public life. He advocated that the Israeli government should pass theocratic laws such as banning the sale of pork, outlawing missionary activities in Israel, and not recognizing marriages between Jews and non-Jews. Supporters say Kahane was protecting Torah values and the integrity of the Jewish nation. See: Jewish view of marriage.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Ideology", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki