Israeli Government

If they ever award a Nobel Prize for resurrecting defunct organizations, Israeli government officials would certainly win one. First, they save the terrorist PLO from extinction by helping it set up an autonomous region and giving it an armed force to hold it. Now, the Israeli government has made the extremist Kach movement, founded by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, the darling of the Israeli public. By suddenly jailing Kach activists without trial or charges, under the Draconian “Administrative Detention Law” left over from the days of the British Mandate, and by banning Kach and its little sister, Kahane Chai, everyone from the chief rabbis, the print media, to the ultra-liberal Israeli Assn. of Civil Rights has rushed to defend them. People are glued to their televisions, as Kach leader Baruch Merzel taunts the government by giving live interviews from his hide-out, to where he has disappeared since the banning. Youngsters in school look at Kach as the underdogs, fighting the Establishment on their behalf. Now, Kach youth leaders are openly invited to speak to their peers.

Money is pouring into the organization from American Jews who now compare Kach people to the fighters of the Irgun and Sternists, who were imprisoned by the British during Israel’s struggle for independence.

What the government has done is set the stage for a final showdown. It will be a battle between the PLO and Kach for the hearts and minds of the Israeli public. The voices of reason in the center can no longer be heard.

MICHAEL REICH

Jerusalem, Israel

The writer is a former resident of Northridge.