black@pundit.DEC (America first, without apologies.) (10/22/85)
Well, People, I have to say I never thought I'd see the day I'd have to
go to bat in favor of Meir Kahane. But here goes.
This morning's Boston Globe describes a couple of rather disgusting
incidents in Cambridge and Newton. Kahane is in town as part of a twelve-city
fund drive for his Kach Party, the Zionist political party he leads in Israel.
Last night (Monday, 21 Oct), Kahane spoke at Congregation Beth El in
Newton, Massachusetts. Newton police reported a number of death threats
against Kahane, and there were an estimated 125 demonstrators outside the
temple. This morning, he was refused entry into the Charles Hotel in
Cambridge, where he was to rebut his detractors.
Kahane has the right to speak in this country, just the same as anybody
else. He has the right to not be threatened with death; he has the right to
confront and rebut his detractors. NOBODY in this country has the right to
refuse him to speak in a public forum.
We all may not agree with him, but the last time I checked, Freedom of
Speech is still in the US Constitution.
--Don Black
"...dec-vax!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-pundit!black"
VAXmail: PUNDIT::BLACK
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"...the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that dis-
regards the Eternal Order of Rules and Right, which Heaven itself has
ordained."
--George Washington, First Inaugural Address, 1789
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Posted: Tue 22-Oct-1985 12:43
To: ROLL::RHEA::DECWRL::"net.politics"jpexg@mit-hermes.ARPA (John Purbrick) (10/27/85)
I won't > him, but Don Black posted an article about how Meir Kahane, in the Boston area, was first picketed and then denied entry at another meeting. As I recall, the 2nd meeting was called by Kahane's opponents and he tried to join it to explain his position, so it was a case of "This microphone's mine." Recall, though, how a few years back the American Nazi Party wanted to march in Skokie, Ill., a village with a large Jewish poulation. There was quite a debate about it, but basically the law says anyone, however obnoxious, has the right to speak, provided they don't advocate the commission of a crime. Anyway, Kahane was heard at the synagogue; the pickets also got their chance to be heard; that's "robust debate". Kahane, speaking to the _Globe's_ reporter, was very calm and reasonable. (Yes, he _was_!) He said that Zionism and democracy are on a collision course in Israel, that in 30 years Israeli Arabs and Palestinians will have a commanding number of votes in Israel and that the sooner Israel faces up to this, the better. His solution, of course, is to get rid of the Arabs, but he wasn't really pushing this--he was more challenging people to suggest any other way of keeping Israel Jewish. Anyone for partition?