Benjamin Netanyahu, the long serving and now indicted Prime Minister has serious opposition in this year’s election – a coalition of two strong center or center-left parties. His party, Likud, did a shocking thing. It created a coalition with a small party, Otzmar Yehudit (Jewish Power) that is the moral and ideological descendant of Kach. Israel had outlawed the Kach political party for its racism and terrorism. Kach was founded by Meir Kahane of the Jewish Defense League.
Netanyahu’s and Likud’s coalition with Otzmar Yehudit resembles an American political party inviting a renamed KKK to join them. Leading Congressional Democratic supporters of Israel, Orthodox Rabbis in Israel, AIPAC, an organization that lobbies Congress for Israel, the Anti Defamation League (ADL), and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations have denounced Likud’s decision to form this coalition. In Israel, the body that disqualified Kach may consider disqualifying Otzmar Yehudit. In the US, we don’t disqualify political parties. We disqualify parties by not voting for their representatives. While these powerful American Jewish organizations denounce Likut and Netanyahu, where are the Republicans, anyway?