Double Standards in the US

On Friday, December 22, 2000, Washington Post (Page A32) wrote an editorial on the double standards by which US government treats its Arab and Jewish citizens. Kahane Chai, a Jewish Nationalist organization, was listed along with the LTTE in 1997 as a foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department. Although fundraising on US soil by organizations in this list is prohibited, Kahane Chai collects funds with impunity.

Washington Post - Editorial

Terrorism and Fundraising

SOMETIMES IT'S HARD not to sympathize with complaints by Arab Americans that they bear the brunt of anti-terrorism enforcement in this country -- especially after one examines the Web site of the Kahane movement. The site, www.kahane.org, is devoted to the teachings of the late Meir Kahane, the radical Jewish nationalist who advocated expelling Arabs from Israel. His tiny movement is now led by his son, Binyamin Kahane, and Kahane-linked groups such as Kach and Kanahe Chai have been designated by the State Department as foreign terrorist organizations for which domestic fundraising is prohibited. That puts the movement in the company of such groups as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah. Its adherents have been responsible for serious acts of violence in the Israeli-occupied territories. Yet the Web site, run by Kahane followers in Brooklyn, openly invites viewers to "make a donation" and attend a dinner for the Kahane Memorial Fund, at a cost of $100 per person.

Lest anyone doubt that the group is simply a front for Kahane Chai, Michael Guzofsky, one of the group's leaders, helpfully told the New York Times that "if we can't be Kach or Kahane Chai we will be simply Kahane." Unlike Arabs accused of raising money for foreign terrorist groups, who have been locked up for long periods based on secret evidence and faced deportation proceedings, Mr. Guzofsky seems entirely unafraid of the law: "We operate openly and have nothing to hide." The Times reports further that Israeli leaders of Kach and Kahane Chai have come and gone from this country freely in recent years.

We have long had concerns about the constitutionality of the fundraising ban, which was passed as part of the 1996 antiterrorism law and which courts have upheld so far. Some groups that engage in terrorism also engage in other activities, many of which are protected by the First Amendment. The Kahane movement, for example, publishes a magazine and an e-mail newsletter, with which the government shouldn't interfere. But as long as the ban is law, there can't be different standards for Arab and non-Arab terrorist groups. It's hard to imagine that a self-described front group for Hezbollah could set up a fundraising Web site in this country, boast about it in a major newspaper and invite prominent leaders of its movement to this country. The Justice Department owes an explanation.

US State Department description of Kahane Chai

Kach* and Kahane Chai*

Description: Stated goal is to restore the biblical state of Israel. Kach (founded by radical Israeli-American Rabbi Meir Kahane) and its offshoot Kahane Chai, which means "Kahane Lives" (founded by Meir Kahane's son Binyamin following his father's assassination in the United States), were declared to be terrorist organizations in March 1994 by the Israeli Cabinet under the 1948 Terrorism Law. This followed the groups' statements in support of Dr. Baruch Goldstein's attack in February 1994 on the al-Ibrahimi Mosque--Goldstein was affiliated with Kach--and their verbal attacks on the Israeli Government.

Activities: Organize protests against the Israeli Government. Harass and threaten Palestinians in Hebron and the West Bank. Groups have threatened to attack Arabs, Palestinians, and Israeli Government officials. They also claimed responsibility for several shooting attacks on West Bank Palestinians in which four persons were killed and two were wounded in 1993.

Strength: Unknown.

Location/Area of Operation: Israel and West Bank settlements, particularly Qiryat Arba' in Hebron.