Throughout Israel’s history, Zionist fringe religious parties have been able to win electoral victories that have allowed them to gain a substantial share of the country’s political decision-making power, but their success has been limited.
The staggering 17 seats won by the extremist religious party Shas in the 1999 elections marked a turning point in the history of these parties. Its ideological roots go back to Abraham Isaac Cook and his son Zvi Yehuda. Israeli historian Ilan Pappe has called the Kuk family’s ideological influence a “fusion of arbitrary messianism and violence.”
Over the years, these religious parties have struggled on several fronts. namely, an inability to unite party members, an inability to appeal to the mainstream of Israeli society, and an inability to strike a balance between messianic political discourse and language that is not necessarily action. . Israel’s Western allies are hopeful.
Although much of the financial and political support for Israeli extremists comes from the United States and, to a lesser extent, Europe, the U.S. government has been clear about its public perception of religious extremism in Israel. The Kach Party, which is banned in the United States, can be seen as a modern manifestation of the Kuks and Israel’s earlier religious Zionist ideologues.
The group’s founder, Meir Kahane, was assassinated in November 1990, shortly after the extremist rabbi, who had incited much violence against innocent Palestinians over the years, gave another hateful speech in Manhattan.
Kahane’s death sparked a campaign of violence by his followers, including the American doctor who shot dead dozens of Palestinian Muslim worshipers at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in 1994. Baruch Goldstein was also included. The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces during protests against the massacre was roughly the same as the number killed by Goldstein earlier in the day. This is a tragic but perfect illustration of the relationship between the state of Israel and violent settlers operating as part of a larger state. agenda.
The Ibrahimi Mosque massacre marked a turning point in the history of religious Zionism. Rather than being marginalized by the supposedly more liberal Zionists, they gained power and ultimately political influence within the Israeli state.
Goldstein himself has become a hero, and his tomb in Kiryat Arba, the West Bank’s most radical illegal settlement, is now a popular shrine and place of pilgrimage for thousands of Israelis. Particularly impressive is that Goldstein’s shrine is built across from Meir Kahane Memorial Park. This indicates a clear ideological connection between these individuals, groups, and their funders.
In recent years, however, the traditional role played by Israel’s religious Zionists has begun to change, leading to the election of Itamar Ben Gvir to the Israeli parliament in 2021, ultimately leading to his role as Minister of National Security. will be held from December 2022.
Ben Gvir is a Kahane follower. “In the end, it seems to me that “Rabbi Kahane” was about love. But unlike Kahane, Ben Gvir was a man who was deeply involved in the settlement movement and the almost daily raids on al-Aqsa. He was dissatisfied with the role of religious Zionists as cheerleaders and occasional attacks on Palestinians. He wanted to be at the center of political power in Israel.
It is an interesting debate whether Ben Gvir achieved his position as a direct result of the success of Religious Zionism’s grassroots efforts, or because the political situation in Israel itself changed in his favor. The truth may lie somewhere in between. The historic failure of Israel’s so-called political left, the Labor Party, has propelled in recent years the relatively unfamiliar phenomenon of a political centrism.
Meanwhile, Israel’s traditionally right-wing Likud party has weakened, in part because it has failed to appeal to the growing, young, religious Zionist base. But it is also to blame for a series of splits that occurred as a result of Ariel Sharon’s dissolution of his party and the creation of Kadima in 2005 (the party itself dissolved in 2015).
To survive, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has redefined his party as the most radical version in history. In this way, he began to attract religious Zionists in the hope of bridging the gap created by infighting within Likud. In doing so, Prime Minister Netanyahu gave religious Zionists a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
After the Oct. 7 Al-Aqsa flood operation, and in the early days of the massacre of Israelis in Gaza, Ben Gvir launched the National Guard, which he had tried to form before the war but failed. Thanks to Ben Gvir, Israel is now – in the words of opposition leader Yair Lapid – a country with “private militias.”
In March, Ben Gvir announced that 100,000 gun permits had been handed over to his supporters since October 7. It was during this period that the United States began imposing sanctions on several individuals associated with the Israeli settler extremist movement. Wrist-scratching considering the tremendous damage that has already been done and the large-scale acts of violence that will occur in the months and years to come.
Unlike Prime Minister Netanyahu, Prime Minister Ben Gvir’s thoughts are not limited to a desire to hold a specific position within the government. Israeli religious extremists are calling for a fundamental and irreversible shift in Israeli politics.
Relatively recent moves to change the relationship between the judiciary and the executive branch were as important to these extremists as they were to Netanyahu himself. While the latter defended this effort to protect themselves from legal liability, Ben Gvir’s supporters supported it for other reasons. In other words, they wanted to be able to control the government and military without accountability or oversight.
Religious Zionists in Israel are fighting a long war independent of any particular election, individual, or government coalition. They are redefining the nation and its ideology. And they are winning.
Needless to say, Ben Gvir and his threat to overthrow the Netanyahu coalition government are the main drivers of the genocide in Gaza.
If Kahane were still alive, he would be proud of his men. The ideology of radical rabbis, once marginalized and hated, is now the bedrock of Israeli politics.
