No Israeli was particularly surprised to hear Rabbi Meir Kahane extolling Allen Goodman after his wanton shooting in the Dome of the Rock mosque as a "hero who tried to liberate the Temple Mount from the hands the foreigners." Since 1971, the Brooklyn-born Kahane, 49, has become as familiar a figure in Israel for his extreme right-wing views as he was in New York City in the late 1960s, when he founded the Jewish Defense League. Kahane seeks to drive all Palestinians out of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. "I want to remove the Arabs of Israel because I do not want to kill them every week as they grow and riot," he once wrote.
Kahane's organization in Israel is called Kach, and its violent tactics are similar to those that characterized the J.D.L.'s activities in the U.S. Kahane says the group is financed by American sympathizers. "I think there is a great deal of co vert support in the U.S. and in Israel— much more than people think," Kahane told TIME.
Many of his Kahane members are young Americans recruited in the U.S. or when they visit Israel.
Kach vigilante squads have smashed cars belonging to Arabs, broken into their homes and beaten up res idents. Kahane openly applauds vandalism against Christian and Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. Kach members are believed to have daubed swastikas and smeared excrement on the Inter national Christian Embassy, a pro-Israeli organization, and to have damaged cars belonging to U.N. personnel.
Many Israelis are angered by the seeming impunity with which Kahane and other extremists have been allowed to operate in volatile situations.
As Arabs demonstrated in the West Bank, for example, Kahane turned up in uniform for reserve duty in the city of Ramallah. He indiscriminately arrested Arabs and journalists. Last week Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek, himself a victim of Kach hate mail, demanded that the government crack down on what he called "violently extremist Jews who give the impression that they are above the law merely because they are Jewish."