A Pro-Israel A Charity For The Transfer Of Arabs

The New Kahane Social Network

Special Report

By The D.C. Investigative Journalism Collective
July 2011, Pages 32-33
Courtesy Of "The Washington Report On Middle East Affairs"

The late Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the violent Jewish Defense League and the militantly anti-Arab Zionist political party Kach, was quite clear about the tactics he found most effective. In a quote circulated around the Internet by Kahanist activist Barbara Ginsberg, Kahane wrote:

What led to the creation of a Jewish state, if not violence?

How much good did non-violence do for the Jews of the Holocaust? Of course violence helps. It helps to force an issue onto the headlines and consciousness of the world. It makes people talk about the issue. And then, if the violence is accompanied by clever propaganda, it helps remarkably well and that the confused object of your violence does not know how to deal with you and your violence, why—of course—you continue and escalate that violence.

More than 20 years after his assassination, Kahane's vision of an exclusively Jewish religious state, born through violence and free of Arabs, continues to attract supporters. While few if any would call themselves members of Kach or its offshoot Kahane Chai, since the two groups have been declared illegal by the U.S. and Israel, today's Kahanists remain active players in the Israeli settlement movement, promoting violence against Arabs as well as against any Israeli government steps toward a peace settlement.

Moreover, an analysis of the Kahanist presence on social networks such as Facebook reveals that, contrary to U.S. policy, their continuing efforts to drive Arabs from Israeli-controlled territory are still being subsidized by American taxpayers.

Friends in High Places

Members of Facebook's network of Kahanist friends include politicians such as New York City Assemblyman Dov Hikind and Israeli Knesset member Michael Ben Ari. Kahanist activists also have used their Facebook accounts to connect with the mainstream media. Pro-settler media organizations such as Aaron Klein's WorldNet Daily, Yesha Bulletin Enews, and Israel Newswire operate deeply within the Kahanist network. In apparent violation of U.S. statutes outlawing material support for terrorism, Facebook networking in effect allows Kahanists to, in the words of the U.S. State Department, "retain the capability and intent to engage in terrorist activity," in addition to serving as a free public relations agency.

Kahanist activists have used Facebook to connect with elected national U.S. leaders: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), who has made 14 trips to Israel, was listed in December 2010 as Facebook friends with both Kahane Chai leader David Ha'Ivry and Kach leader Baruch Marzel.

Facebook records document Kahanist networks that reach not only to the halls of power in Washington, DC, but deep into the West Bank, where armed settlers command the heights atop Palestinian lands, behind barbed wire fences, guard towers, and the 24-hour protection of Israel's military. One Kahane "friend" of prominent members of Kahane Chai, designated a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) by the U.S. State Department, is Eliyokim Cohen, a former resident of Framingham, Massachussetts.

Cohen writes on his Facebook page:

Hashem gave the Jews the Land of Israel, so I packed up my golf clubs and moved to the Holy Land, more specifically to Judea and Samaria, heart of the Jewish Homeland...now I am an OCCUPIER by day and a THORN in the "peace" process by night...Shalom

U.S. Kahanist Support Networks

Two major groups of Kahanist extremists maintain active support networks in the U.S.: elements associated with Kach, under Marzel's leadership, in the southern West Bank settlements piercing the Palestinian population center of Hebron; and those associated with Kahane Chai, under the leadership of activists such as Yekutiel Guzofsky and Ha'Ivry, based in the settlement of Kfar Tapuach in the heart of the northern West Bank, near the Palestinian population center of Nablus.

According to a 2004 State Department administrative record, Israel's Hebrew-language newspaper Yediot Ahronot reported that police had raided the outlawed Kach party office and found "two discs, one in Hebrew and one in English," aimed at bringing the movement's message to potential supporters and benefactors. On the disc intended for foreign audiences, the narrator says: "Hebron resident Barukh Marzel heads the organization and participates in public events and activities by day and night."

In January 2011 the Israeli daily Haaretz reported a campaign among Marzel supporters to lobby Facebook to block the pages of Israeli leftists and peace groups. "I have heard people praising this initiative for the past couple of days," Marzel told the newspaper, "but there is a small problem—I don't know what this facebook is."

In fact, however, Marzel has his own Hebrew-language Facebook page. In December 2010—before he spoke to Haaretz—he listed more than 5,000 friends, including Representative Cantor. Marzel's friend list has since been hidden.

Chaim Ben Pesach, aka Victor Vancier, is a former leader of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) who served a federal prison sentence for carrying out bombings in the U.S. He currently heads the Jewish Task Force (JTF), broadcasting militant right-wing radio programs in the U.S. which often include racist anti-Black and anti-Arab diatribes. Ben Pesach's Web site, <www.jtf.org>, has a page actively seeking donations "to better assist the heroic Jewish families living on the hilltop communities of Judea and Samaria."

A comparison of Marzel's and Ben Pesach's Facebook pages reveals an extensive network of mutual friends who are also "friends" of the late Rabbi Kahane. Among the most deeply networked Kahanists is one Avroham Nissan Ben Aharon, friends with Ben Pesach, Marzel and other core Kahane Chai activists, who lists Marzel's Facebook page under his activities. Ben Aharon's profile photo shows him standing in front of a banner advertising "americancoinexpress.com," a rare coin store with several storefronts in Las Vegas. The chain's founder, Andrew Rosenberg, has a Facebook page with equally extensive Kahanist friend links. Ben Aharon lists his favorite quote as "A friend is worth more then [sic] gold."

According to the administrative record cited above, the State Department sent certified letters to two individuals it considered to be U.S. representatives of Kahane Chai, Mike Guzofsky and Fern Sidman. In a 2006 Court of Appeals opinion affirming Kach and Kahane Chai's continuing designation as FTOs (see Jan./Feb. 2007 Washington Report, p. 19), Chief Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg refers to Guzofsky as "the chameleon-like leader of Kahane Chai." In keeping with that description, Guzofsky goes by two names on Facebook, Mike and Yekutiel. Guzofsky's Kahanist network is connected to his "Yekutiel" identity.

Sidman, while very tightly networked in the Kahanist movement, is unusual in that she is not a "friend" of Kahane's profile. Her network includes such prominent names as New York City's Hikind, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton and anti-Muslim scholar Daniel Pipes—who, while closely networked to the inner circle of Kahanists, are not self-identified as Kahanists through being "friends" with Kahane.

In contrast, Israeli MK Ben Ari is a "friend" of Kahane, as well as of the prominent Kahanists in the network. Because of his support of Kahanist ideology, Dr. Ben Ari claims, he has been denied a travel visa and entry to the United States. Ben Ari claimed to the 5 Towns Jewish Times that "Ambassador George Mitchell has personally interceded in my request for a visa and has made certain that it is not issued."

This is the same Ben Ari who chairs the Knesset committee established to look into the funding of Israeli human rights organizations and left-leaning NGOs that have been critical of Israeli government actions, particularly in the occupied Palestinian territories.

A Charity for the Transfer of Arabs

Looking more deeply at the most heavily networked Kahanists reveals a handful of individuals in addition to Sidman and Guzofsky. One is Joel Busner, also known to his Facebook friends as Yosef Ben Tzion, director of the anti-Arab, U.S.-tax-exempt charity B'Ahavat Yisrael (For Love of Israel), whose tax filings report grants of $522,000 from 2004-2008. In an interview with Sidman published on the settler news site Arutz Sheva 

(<www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/140335>), Busner is unequivocal in his support for the "transfer" of Arabs from Israeli territory: "Because we are not in a government position we can't force or compensate the Arabs to leave voluntarily at this point. However, we can set examples and get the ball rolling."

Ben Tzion/Busner has used B'Ahavat Yisrael as a platform to support the Kahanist movement for years. In 2003, he published an article on one of the organization's Web sites (<www.byisrael.net/ariel-shakran>) criticizing Ariel Sharon for his opposition to the Kahanists. The article's title, "Ariel Shakran!" may be a misspelling of "shukran," the Arabic word for thank you—an attempt to associate Sharon with Arabs.

The following year, in another article on the same Web site seeking donations to support radical settlers, Busner again railed against the Israeli government for perceived injustices against Kahanists. Defending Kach leader Noam Federman, linked to a failed bombing attack on a Jerusalem schoolyard the previous year, Busner wrote:

"A government that can destroy synagogues and imprison a Jewish father of 7 children indefinitely without trial (Noam Federman) has no problem throwing its citizens out of their homes. The barometer has been set. What was once a poorly kept secret is now out in the open. The official security policy of the current Israeli government is, 'What will the Gentiles say?'"

These articles, it is worth noting, were written at a time when the U.S. State Department believed Kahane Chai to be making threats against then-Prime Minister Sharon.

Busner's B'Ahavat Yisrael raises funds for settler groups by sponsoring speaking tours in the U.S., where tax-exempt donations are solicited by the U.S. group "Friends of Bahavat Yisrael." Kahane Chai activist Sidman advertised a recent speaking tour by Nathan Eisner to promote their campaign to "Save the Galilee" from Arabs living in northern Israel. Eisner's Facebook page reports that he lives in a settlement in the northern West Bank, and advertises a page that calls for the death of U.S. President Barack Obama.

Eisner's first stop on his 2011 tour was Toronto, where he was hosted by Kahanist insider Meir Halevi Weinstein's Jewish Defense League of Canada. Blogwrath.com (<www.blogwrath.com/israel/the-battle-for-galilee/897/#more-897>) has provided a synopsis of Eisner's presentation, which opened with a video repeating the discredited Zionist claim that there were no Palestinian Arabs prior to Jewish settlement in Palestine. Following a defense of wanton shooting at Palestinians, Blogwrath concludes by noting, "Often the noble efforts of a small group of people turn into powerful waves that change societies and governments. That's why B'Ahavat Yisrael deserves any support it can get."

In Brooklyn earlier this year, half a dozen carloads of people arrived to attend a presentation by the B'Ahavat Israel "team" at a kosher Chinese restaurant just blocks from the charity's "headquarters," a P.O. box at the "American Mail Depot." The last scheduled event on Eisner's tour was a February breakfast in Sunrise, Florida.

Most recently, on April 14, 2011 yet another new Facebook organization page was created, this one titled "Supporters of Rav Meir Kahane."

The DC Investigative Journalism Collective can be contacted at <dcinvestigate@yahoo.com>.