The Knesset: is it open to racists?

GEOFF SIFRIN

For power’s sake, politicians do foolish things that can be exploited against them. In the Western world, the most potent accusation that can be hurled against a society today is that it is racist. Political leaders need to tread very carefully in this territory; whether true or not, the stain of the accusation remains.

Black populist politicians in South Africa who hate Israel would be delighted to get a story from reputable sources questioning whether Israelis are racist. Boycott Divestment Sanctions South Africa, which has lost a lot of its punch recently, would revel in this and blow it sky-high.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave it some of this weaponry in deciding to merge two right-wing parties for the upcoming Israeli elections. The one is completely acceptable, but the other is so militantly extreme and racist, it has provoked massive reaction among Jews worldwide, particularly Americans.

Netanyahu couldn’t have predicted the virulence of the reaction, both for and against his move. Eminent rabbis in America and Israel are at each other’s throats. His opponents have said, “Shame on you!” for joining hands with despicable people.

Where do South African Jews stand? Must they take a position? As this country tries to heal its racial wounds, which easily provoke volatile reactions, this Zionist community is moderately right-wing in Jewish affairs.

Jewish leaders say forcefully that they want to live in harmony with others, including Arabs if they make peace with Israel, and declare support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But when Israel’s most fervent proponents are arguing so intensely about its nature, which way should they turn?

According to Netanyahu’s plan, Israeli national religious party, The Jewish Home, will merge with the extremist party, Jewish Power, which embraces the ideology of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, the head of the Jewish Defence League founded in 1968. Kahane’s party, Kach, was designated a terrorist group by Israel and the United States in 1994 for its violent, racially motivated actions. Its blunt platform was to expel all Arabs brutally from Israel in a way that makes people in the Western world recoil.

It perpetrated violent acts in different countries, and Kahane received jail sentences in America and Israel. His spectre has hung over Jewish affairs ever since, influencing modern Jewish far-right groups and promoting further violence, including in July 2003, when the Shin Bet said “the threat to the life of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had grown”, and “there was a threat from several dozen Kahanist extremists”.

Although Netanyahu’s motives were politically legitimate – to strengthen the right-wing bloc in the Knesset, rather than directly supporting Kach – it will not be judged this way by the world. Netanyahu feared that without the Kahanists joining it, The Jewish Home might not reach the electoral threshold to form a right-wing majority bloc.

An urgent statement by South African Jews on this issue would be important, even just to deflect the accusation here that they support the Kahanists. Militant racism is part of South Africa’s history. It is dangerous for that genie to be let out of its bottle. Not only Israel must take great care in this regard, the ball is also in the court of Jewish leaders in South Africa and elsewhere.