it's another thing to support the policies of Bibi Netanyahu and the fundamentalist Jewish-Israel coalition behind him.

I'd like to see/hear/read about more people supporting Israel without Netanyahu, Trump, and others who divide Jews as "good" and "bad" depending upon their implicit support of the latter. One is not synonymous with the other.

He is also calling out Hollywood's hypocrisy in showing zero support for Israel in their struggle with both Hamas and Netanyahu's fundamentalist coalition, which, BTW, is as Jewish-Israeli as Musk is American.

There are tens of thousands Israelis protesting Netanyahu's government in Israel, on an amazingly sustained basis. I would also like to hear more about them and what they stand for. Sadly, the fact that you don't hear from or about them has to do with the media not covering them in any serious way. And I am not at all convinced that this is a mere oversight.

It's disgusting. N should have resigned for letting Israel being so unprepared for Oct. 7th. A new leader would have resulted in a totally different outcome. Sad.

Rapaport used to be anti-Trump but has now become a full-fledged Trumper.

This is the guy Rapaport thinks was "always right".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meir_Kahane

Founder of the Israeli political party Kach—whose legacy continues to influence militant and far-right political groups active today in Israel—he was convicted of multiple acts of terrorism in the United States and in Israel.

In 1968, he founded the Jewish Defense League (JDL). Several JDL members, including Kahane, were subsequently convicted of acts related to domestic terrorism, including leading the attack on the Soviet United Nations mission in 1975. Later that same year, Kahane was convicted of conspiring to kidnap a Soviet diplomat, bomb the Iraqi embassy in Washington, and ship arms abroad from Israel.

In 1971, Kahane moved to Israel and became a citizen, where he initiated protests calling for the expulsion of both Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians of the Israeli-occupied territories, which led to his arrest dozens of times. In 1980, Kahane was arrested for the 62nd time since his emigration, and he was jailed for six months for planning armed attacks against Palestinians.

During his lifetime Kahane publicized his Kahanism ideology throughout the United States. In Israel, he proposed enforcing halakha (Jewish law) as codified by Maimonides and hoped that Israel would eventually adopt it as state law. While serving in the Knesset in the mid-1980s Kahane proposed numerous laws, none of which passed, to emphasize Judaism in public schools, reduce Israel's bureaucracy, forbid sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews, separate Jewish and Arab neighborhoods, and end cultural meetings between Jewish and Arab students.

In 1966, Kahane, under the alias of Michael King and while already married, had an affair and became engaged to marry the 21-year-old model Gloria Jean D'Argenio (who used the stage name Estelle Donna Evans). Kahane sent a letter to D'Argenio in which he unilaterally ended their relationship. D'Argenio was never aware of Kahane's real identity and at the time she received the letter, she had been expecting him to marry her in two days and had recently learned she was pregnant by him. Upon receiving the letter, D'Argenio jumped off the Queensboro Bridge and died of her injuries the next day. In 2008, Kahane's wife dismissed the incident as lacking proof.

After D'Argenio's death, Kahane started the Estelle Donna Evans Foundation in her name. Kahane claimed D'Argenio had been his former secretary in his failed consulting operation, had died of cancer, and that her "well-to-do" family had endowed the foundation. In reality, the money was used to fund the JDL, including supplies for bombings and Kahane's lavish travel.

He even attempted to acquire and grow biological weapons to use on a Soviet military installation.

A number of the JDL's members and leaders, including Kahane, were convicted of acts related to domestic terrorism. In 1971, Kahane was sentenced to a suspended five-year prison sentence and fined $5,000 for conspiring to manufacture explosives. In 1975, Kahane was arrested for leading the attack on the Soviet United Nations mission and injuring two officers, but he was released after being given summonses for disorderly conduct. Later the same year, Kahane was accused of conspiring to kidnap a Soviet diplomat, bomb the Iraqi embassy in Washington, and ship arms abroad from Israel. He was convicted of violating his probation for the 1971 bombing conviction and was sentenced to one year in prison.

Kahane argued that there was a glory in Jewish destiny, which came through the observance of the Torah and halakha (Jewish law). He observed, "Democracy and Judaism are not the same thing." Kahane was of the view a Jewish state and a Western democracy were incompatible, since Western democracy is religion-blind, and a Jewish state is religion-oriented by its very name. He also said that "you cannot have Zionism and democracy at the same ... Western democracy has to be ruled out. For me, that's cut and dried: There's no question of setting up democracy in Israel, because democracy means equal rights for all, irrespective of racial or religious origins.

Last edited Wed Apr 2, 2025, 04:25 PM - Edit history (1)

A tiny portion of your criticism, likely based entirely on a five-second statement in a one-minute social media clip, a statement, given the context of this clip, not likely to reflect the entirety of Rapaport's political stance, is of Michael Rapaport. But hell, I will go with you: fuck Rapaport and his praise of Kahane, however over the top it may be.

With all the verbiage expended on the above, which you are not likely to find disagreement with, you have yet to address the content of the quote in the excerpt cited in the OP.

Any thoughts on that?