8 March 7 • 2019
jn

views

ADL.ORG
M

any American Jewish 
organizations generally 
refrain from commenting 
on Israeli electoral issues. The fact 
that so many felt they had no choice 
but to condemn the agreement 
to include Otzma Yehudit Party 
(Jewish Power) on a mainstream 
party list in advance of the April 
9, 2019, national elections demon-
strates the level of concern with 
which American Jews and pro-Israel 
groups view this development and 
its implications — both in Israel and 
abroad — for how Israel’
s democrat-
ic society deals with extremism and 
respect for minorities.
The leaders of Otzma Yehudit are 
self-identified disciples of U.S.-born 
Rabbi Meir Kahane, who preached 
a radical form of Jewish national-
ism that promoted unabashed and 
virulent anti-Arab racism, violence 
and political extremism. While he 
was alive, ADL and the vast majority 
of American Jewish organizations 
(including the Jewish Federation 
of Metropolitan Detroit) and lead-
ers roundly condemned Kahane 
and the organizations he founded 
including the Jewish Defense League 
(JDL) and Kach Party, seeing his 
extremism and hate as anathema to 
Judaism and democratic values. 
It was the same in Israel. For 
example, upon Kahane’
s election to 
the Knesset, Israeli Prime Minister 
Yitzhak Shamir and his Likud party 
rejected Kahane’
s bigotry and made 
it a point to leave the parliament 
hall when Kahane rose to speak. 
Ultimately, Kahane’
s racist activi-
ties led to the banning of his Kach 
Party from the Knesset and it was 
made illegal under Israeli law, which 
remains in effect to this day.
Kahane’
s extreme worldview 
didn’
t die out following his assassi-
nation in 1990. Baruch Goldstein, 
the Jewish extremist who murdered 
29 Palestinian worshippers in cold 
blood in Hebron in 1994, was a dis-
ciple of his, as was Yigal Amir, the 
Jewish law student who murdered 
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak 
Rabin in 1995. Horrifyingly, both 
Goldstein’
s and Amir’
s actions were 

met with defense and even praise by 
a number of rabbis and other lead-
ers in Israel and the U.S., including 
some who currently make up the 
Otzma party.
In recent years, many in Israel and 
within the American Jewish com-
munity have called out the hateful 
rhetoric and policies of the figures 
now leading the Otzma Party, but 
fundamentally viewed them in the 
same light as political figures on the 
far left who condemned Zionism 
and supported terrorism, essentially 
as fringe entities within Israel’
s lively 
democratic spectrum.
That all changed when, thanks 
to Prime Minister Benjamin 
Netanyahu’
s orchestration, the 
national-religious Jewish Home 
Party announced a merger agree-
ment with Otzma Yehudit, ensuring 
that this newly formed union will 
likely pass the threshold to enter 
Knesset. As part of the union, 
Otzma Yehudit will get as many as 
two Knesset seats. In exchange for 
the unified party’
s joining a right-
wing Likud-led coalition govern-
ment following the April elections, 
Netanyahu has reportedly offered 
the Jewish Home two government 
ministries.
It is this decision, which in the 
interest of political expediency, 
ignores the hateful and extrem-
ist views and policies of Otzma 
Yehudit, and brings Kahane-inspired 
leadership from exile into the main-
stream Israeli discourse, that led to 
the extraordinary reaction in Israel 

and from the American Jewish com-
munity.
ADL and others in the American 
Jewish community consistently 
speak out against U.S. leaders and 
officials, whether on the left or 
right of the political spectrum, 
who enable anti-Semitic and other 
hateful bigotry and rhetoric. The 
Jewish community has stood up 
and spoken out against the inclu-
sion of extremist far-right political 
parties in European governments 
like Austria. We must do the same 
and use our moral voice to speak 
out against the mainstreaming of 
Otzma within Israel. A future Israeli 
government that includes Otzma or 
its political affiliates will challenge 
Israel’
s founding values of respect 
and equality for all its citizens.
In the ongoing fight against hate 
in the world, one of the true tests 
for success is whether or not one is 
ready to take on haters in one’
s own 
community.
We can only hope that Prime 
Minister Netanyahu, the array of 
Israel’
s political parties and the 
Israeli voting public, recognize the 
dangers of mainstreaming Otzma 
Yehudit. Failure to do so will have 
repercussions for Diaspora-Israel 
relations, for Israel’
s Arab and other 
minority communities, and certainly 
to the overall health and cohesion of 
Israel’
s democratic society. ■

This was first published on the ADL Blog 

on Feb. 28, 2019.

commentary
 
The Dangers of Mainstreaming Otzma Yehudit, 
Israel’s Jewish Power Party

Michael Ben Ari, leader of the Otzma Yehudit party, is seen outside the Israeli Elections 

Committee, Feb. 21, 2019. 

YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90, JTA.ORG

Other Voices

• “It’
s strange, troubling and hypocritical that 
the ADL, AIPAC, the AJC and the Israel Policy 
Forum condemned the technical merger of two 
small right-wing pro-Israeli political parties, Otzma 
Yehudit (Jewish Strength) and Bayit Yehudi (Jewish 
Home), but remained silent about mergers of 
anti-Israel Arab parties led by Arab Knesset mem-
bers who oppose the Jewish state’
s existence and 
engage in outright treacherous conduct, including 
assisting Palestinian Arab terrorists and inciting 
anti-Jewish terror,” the Zionist Organization of 
America said in a statement. 

• The Republican Jewish Coalition said it has a 
longstanding policy of not commenting on internal 
Israeli politics. 
• Writer Yossi Klein Halevi of the Shalom 
Hartman Institute says the recent actions by the 
Prime Minister is a “desecration of Israel.” (Times 
of Israel)

• Israeli political analyst Haviv Rettig Gur 
writes that “for Netanyahu to fight publicly for 
openly racist parties to enter the Knesset is a new 
level of compromise in his long-running game to 
remain at the top.” (Times of Israel) 

• Michael Koplow says: “If you have a problem 
with American politicians who embrace or even 
tolerate Farrakhan, but you dismiss Netanyahu’
s 
latest with a shrug and an eye roll, your right to 
complain about racism and extremism is shot.” 
(The Forward)

• Noah Siegel, U.S. Foreign Service officer in Tel 
Aviv, writes, “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 
crossed every moral line for political gain in 
Israeli politics when he brokered a merger of 
the religious nationalist Jewish Home party with 
Otzma Yehudit, the racist successor to the Kach 
and Kahane Chai parties, who advocated for the 
“transfer” of Arabs from Israel and the occupied 
territories. This completes the near total rehabili-
tation of Kahanists into mainstream Israeli politics, 
despite the fact that Otzma’
s leader, Michael Ben 
Ari, has been banned from entering the United 
States for nearly a decade because of his links to 
terrorism.” (JTA.org)

• American Jewish Committee statement: 
“The views of Otzma Yehudit are reprehensible. 
They do not reflect the core values that are the 
very foundation of the State of Israel. The party 
might conceivably gain enough votes to enter the 
next Knesset and potentially even become part of 
the governing coalition. Historically, the views of 
extremist parties, reflecting the extreme left or the 
extreme right, have been firmly rejected by main-
stream parties, even if the electoral process of 
Israel’
s robust democracy has enabled their pres-
ence, however small, in the Knesset. Ultimately, 
it is up to Israel’
s Central Elections Commission 
to determine, as it has done in the past, wheth-
er Otzma Yehudit can be listed on the ballot on 
Election Day.” 
See related story on page 31.

