"Kahane is the Jew of Israel"

(With apologies to Yoko)

I once read that Jews are sort of a "litmus test"- that is, you can judge a society based on how it treats the Jews living within it. (I suppose this might hold true of any minority, but it probably fits Jews best for various reasons- history of persecution, etc.)

Anyway, I've decided that Kahanists are a similar litmus test for Israeli politicians and American journalists. They're so universally condemned and despised, it's easy to fall into the defaming masses. If I see someone falling into that, I know I don't like him.

For example, Jeffrey Goldberg keeps up his baseless accusations against the Israeli Right- for which he's already been lauded by Gary Rosenblatt- in today's Times. (As with Chaim Strauchler and Yossi Klein Halevi, he's discovered that the true ticket to success comes from attacking Kahanists, better if you were once one of them.) The article, of course, is quite disgusting, once again dealing in innuendo without foundation. (Is that redundant?) The Kahanists, and Israeli right-wingers in general, particularly the evil American ones, want to kill Sharon, blow up the Dome of the Rock. "I have met dozens more who would not sit shiva," he writes, "certainly not for the Dome, but not for their prime minister, either."

I imagine he means "sit shiva" in a figurative sense. (The Times assumes the phrase need not be explained for its kike readership.) Jeffrey, you yold, want to know how to get me not to "sit shiva" for you? Write an article advocating more administrative detentions. Yup, there it is, right in the article: "Let's lock up more Kahanists without cause!" (I doubt many Times readers know what "administrative detention" is, but to define it would probably result in many of them being turned off from it, and so it, too, is left unexplained.) The Times, of course, wouldn't even advocate such a thing for Al Qaeda members in Guantanamo Bay, but it's thrilled to print this piece.

Oh, and then there's his- and surprise! Abe Foxman's- ridiculous call for "the rabbis" to do something. He doesn't elaborate, because it's a nonsensical call.

As for Israeli politicians, some, ironically from the left, protest such tactics. The right, fearful they'd lose support to Kahanists, always took the lead in banning them. And now the latest right-wing "savior," Effie Eitam, has come out for the detentions. His main reason? Not that Sharon is at risk, but that it "could cause untold harm to the entire right-wing camp". Oh, that's nice. His precious party is at risk, so let's lock up some more people.

You keep people from voting for the party of their choice, you have the same tired old faces in control year after year, you lock people up without cause, you should be worrying.

Edited to add one item to that last list: You threaten to expel them from their homes. Or is Goldberg suggesting that if the US government decided to expel him from his (Upper West Side, I bet) home, he'd meekly go along with it?