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Kahane Says Jdl Will Seek to Infiltrate Major Jewish Groups

October 22, 1976
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Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League, announced yesterday the beginning of a new “strategy” for the JDL: the infiltration of “major Jewish establishment groups” in the United States by trained Jewish activists who “will then take these groups over ideologically.”

Addressing a press conference at the Summit Hotel; Kahane, who arrived here Monday night, said that this is the reason he joined the National Religious Party in Israel a few days ago. According to Kahane, the JDL will shortly establish a group named “Circle” with the purpose of “indoctrinating American Jews and then make them join the establishment.” He said that it has become clear to him that “the era of the small Jewish group (such as the JDL), which was so effective in the past, is over now.”

Kahane, who is on a 10-week speaking tour across the country, also disclosed that following his joining the NRP he plans to join the Religious Zionist Organization of America because “by being a member I can be represented in the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.”

ANOTHER PURPOSE OF VISIT

Another purpose for his visit here, Kahane said, is to call upon American Jewry “to start massive demonstrations” against both President Ford and Democratic Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter. “It is quite clear that both Carter and Ford are liars,” he said, adding that in 1977 American policy will be “the same no matter who is President: to force Israel to make vast concessions in return for nothing.”

Kahane said that in the course of his speaking tour he will stress to any American Jew “that he is obligated to differ from the government of Israel,” because “the government of Israel is not the State of Israel.” He said his “dream” is to see at least 5000 American Jews in front of the Israeli Consulate here shouting, “Not one inch,” meaning that Israel should not yield any of the territories taken in the Six-Day War. He said this can be effective since the Israeli government is “extremely sensitive” to the opinion of American Jews.

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