Why are some pro-Israel influencers suddenly promoting Meir Kahane?

"For 2,000 years we were losers, today we are winners. It is so much better to be a winner... It is better to have an Israel that is hated by the whole world than an Auschwitz that is loved by the world.”

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Dov Hikind, a former Democratic New York State Assemblyman and the founder of Americans Against Antisemitism, said, “All these years later and [I] still miss him so deeply.”

Another account, Am Yisrael Chai, added, “I am now a proud Kahanist.

“We should have listened sooner but unfortunately we needed to experience the full depth of their hate and depravity to truly understand. There never ever was a chance for peace with them,” said a post which has been viewed more than 130k times.

An Instagram account which goes by the name Low Effort Zionist Memes reshared the clip and said: “We don’t support theocracy in Israel but the particular message sent here isn’t a bad one.”

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Another image shared by the account shows a picture of Larry David turning into Kahane, “From ‘nice guy’ to Kahane in 30 days!” the post joked.

Another account jested that Liberal Zionists “clutched their pearls” over Khanism.

The post, shared by Lily Dayton, claimed “The current resurgence of Kahanism has nothing to do with Meir Kahane's controversial ideology; it reflects a seismic shift in Jewish opinion toward the Palestinians.

“People talking about Kahane have simply concluded that he was correct in assessing that the Palestinians want to annihilate the Jewish people and that their presence in the land of Israel is incompatible with Jewish safety. In other words, ‘transfer’ has become an accepted part of mainstream Zionist discourse after 16 months of war with the Palestinians and their supporters abroad,” the post said.

One post joked about the resurgence of Kahanism (Photo Instagram)[Missing Credit]

But other activists have slammed the accounts for focusing on Kahane and his hardline ideology.

Israeli journalist and activist Emily Schrader hit back against the resurfaced clips, telling her 167k followers: “Meir Kahane was a terrorist who founded a movement that is responsible for horrific acts of terror and a violent ideology rooted not in self-defence of preservation but in pure unadulterated racism.”

She said that using comments from Kahane “as an example to make your case” results in “sanitising racism and violence against civilians.”

“Kahane did not ‘understand how to deal with the enemy’ unless you really believe that the enemy is boiled down to one race of people that doesn’t even include Israel’s primary threat today, the Islamic Republic, but does include 20 per cent of Israel’s citizens,” Schrader said.

Her remarks have been viewed over 10k times.

Emily Schrader slammed those who shared clips of Kahane (Photo X)[Missing Credit]

JC columnist and founder of the Tel Aviv Insitute, Hen Mazzig, also slammed the resurgence of Kahanism: “Jews, like all people, are not a monolith. We have our extremists and radicals, and as a community, we reject them. Meir Kahane was one of them—he embodied everything we stand against, everything we reject, and everything we must never turn into.

“There is no excusing or celebrating any part of his rhetoric when his ultimate goal was terror and violence. Kahane and his ideas should remain dead,” Mazzig said.

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So, who was Meir Kahane?

Born in Brooklyn in 1932, the rabbi, political activist and founder of the Jewish Defence League (JDL) is known for his extreme nationalist views, calls to ban Jewish-Arab intermarriage and for the mass expulsion of Palestinians.

In New York City in the 1960s he established the JDL to combat “antisemitic black racists” and embrace “Jewish power”. The JDL patrolled majority-black areas and clashed with other minority groups in New York. Kahane said they were engaged in self-defence, others said the group were vigilantes.

They protested against the Black Panther Party and accused Jewish groups which opposed the Vietnam War draft of doing more to destroy Israel “than all of the Arab armies”.

A right-wing religious Jew mourns over a poster of the assassinated extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane. (Photo by Quique Kierszenbaum/Newsmakers)Getty Images

Kahane popularised the slogan “never again” before it became a rallying cry for other movements. He said he wanted to make sure that if there was another Holocaust, Jews would be ready to defend themselves – a Kahanist sentiment that has gained traction in recent weeks.

He led the JDL in a campaign of domestic terror in the early 1970s, including bombings and civil disobedience, to pile pressure on the Soviet Union to allow Jews to emigrate to America.

An Israeli man waves a flag of the ultra-nationalist Kach Party outside Damascus gate In Jerusalem. (Photo Alamy)Alamy Stock Photo

He made aliyah with his family in 1971 after he was convicted of weapons possession in the US.

Once in Israel, he founded the extreme right-wing, anti-Arab party JDL-Israel which he quickly renamed Kach – meaning “thus” or “this is the way”. Representing Kach, he was elected to the Knesset in 1984, but the party was banned from participating in the next elections when it was accused of inciting racism.

Kahane favoured religious law over Western democratic principles, wanted to revoke Israeli citizenship from non-Jews and proposed a ban on sex between Jews and Gentiles.

He was assassinated by an Islamist-linked Arab terrorist in 1990 while delivering a speech in New York, turning him into a martyr for his cause.

Candles burn with the image of the late Brooklyn born Rabbi Meir Kahane as a follower prays at his grave (Getty Image) AFP via Getty Images

Kahanism, the ideology Kahane promoted, remains highly controversial. It calls for a Jewish theocratic state and the expulsion of Arabs from Israel. The Israeli government outlawed Kach and its offshoots, labelling them terrorist organisations.

One of the most prominent figures associated with Kahane’s ideology today is National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and his Jewish Power party.

Ben-Gvir, who was barred from military service due to his extremist affiliations, was an open admirer of Kahane. He started attending the Kahane memorial in Jerusalem’s Har Menuchot cemetery as a teenager and in 2022 he gave a speech at the site commemorating the late rabbi.

Israel's Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, gestures during the opening of the 25th Parliament session in Jerusalem on October 28, 2024. (Photo Getty Images)POOL/AFP via Getty Images

He told the audience that he owed his religious identity to Kach, but added, “It’s not a secret that today I’m not Rabbi Kahane.”

While Ben-Gvir has distanced himself from some aspects of Kahane’s ideology, his rhetoric embodies elements of Kahanism.

Once deemed too extreme for mainstream discourse, Kahanist hardline rhetoric now holds sway with some right-wing Israelis and diaspora Jews disillusioned with conventional approaches to security.

Today, hardline protesters can be seen wearing t-shirts and raising flags emblazoned with the raised fist power logo of the JDL.