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<div class="header reader-header" style="display: block;"
dir="ltr"> <font size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/trumps-envoys-enable-israels-worst-extremists/24636">https://electronicintifada.net/content/trumps-envoys-enable-israels-worst-extremists/24636</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Trump's envoys enable Israel's worst
extremists</h1>
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<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/david-sheen">David
Sheen</a></span> <span class="field field-publisher">-</span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2018-06-13T06:32:00+00:00">13 June 2018</span></span>
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<figure id="file-64721"><source media="(min-width:
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<p>When US ambassador to Israel David Friedman <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/u-s-ambassador-to-israel-pictured-with-image-of-jerusalem-third-temple-replacing-muslim-mosques-1.6112357">received
a framed photograph</a> of the Old City of Jerusalem
last month it confirmed something obvious: Donald
Trump’s envoys don’t just support the positions of
Israel’s far-right government but stand even further
to the right of it.</p>
<p>The picture showed the Dome of the Rock and the
al-Aqsa mosque photoshopped out and replaced with a
Jewish temple.</p>
<p>In the photo, <a
href="https://www.kikar.co.il/abroad/278113.html">first
published</a> by the Israeli news site <em>Kikar
HaShabbat</em>, Friedman is seen grinning from ear
to ear while being presented with the framed image,
just days after he presided over the US moving its
embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.</p>
<p>Friedman appears to be delighted at the erasure of
the al-Aqsa compound, among the most monumental
architecture in historic Palestine, one of the
principal sites revered by Muslims all over the world
and an iconic symbol of Palestinian identity and
nationalism.</p>
<p>The doctored image represents the fantasies of
followers of the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/temple-movement">Temple
movement</a>, messianic Jewish extremists who seek
the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/these-are-israeli-leaders-who-want-destroy-al-aqsa/21166">destruction
of the al-Aqsa compound</a> and its replacement with
a Jewish temple where they would conduct ritual animal
sacrifice of around 10,000 animals at a time on Jewish
holy days.</p>
<p>The group’s religious supporters believe building the
temple will speed up the transition of Israel’s system
of government from a mostly secular ethnocracy that
privileges Jews, into total theocracy, where Orthodox
Judaism is the only law of the land.</p>
<p>The movement’s secular supporters would lose many
liberties under a Jewish theocracy, but they campaign
for the construction of a Jewish temple regardless,
believing it would mean slam-dunking on the
Palestinian national movement once and for all.</p>
<p>The chief rabbi of the Temple movement, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/yisrael-ariel">Yisrael
Ariel</a>, formerly served as the deputy of the late
Israeli arch-racist <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/meir-kahane">Meir
Kahane</a> in the 1980s when he was a member of the
Knesset, Israel’s parliament.</p>
<p>Over the years, Ariel has held fast to Kahane’s
genocidal views. In 2015, he called to assassinate
then-US President Barack Obama, and for a Jewish army
to conquer the entire Middle East, including Iran and
Turkey, destroying all mosques and churches and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/video-temple-movement-rabbi-proselytizes-genocide/14870">killing
all Muslims and Christians</a> who do not renounce
their religions.</p>
<p>After Friedman’s picture was published, the US
embassy to Israel insisted that – despite appearances
to the contrary – the photo did not represent any
change in Washington’s official stance on al-Aqsa,
stating, “The US policy is absolutely clear: we
support the status quo on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple
Mount.”</p>
<p>The embassy also claimed that Friedman “was not aware
of the image thrust in front of him when the photo was
taken.”</p>
<p>But the Temple movement is so certain that the
current US administration does in fact quietly support
its maximalist goals that it recently <a
href="http://en.hamikdash.org.il/about/we-need-your-support/the-temple-coin/">minted
a coin</a> in honor of Trump.</p>
<p>The coin bears Trump’s face, alongside that of Cyrus
the Great, a king of ancient Persia who Jewish
tradition holds allowed the construction of a temple
on the same spot about 2,500 years ago.</p>
<p>As for Friedman, it would not be out of character for
him to support a movement led by supporters of Kahane
who want to turn Israel into a total theocracy.</p>
<p>Just days before the US embassy move, it emerged that
until the moment he was appointed US ambassador to
Israel, Friedman headed a group – American Friends of
Beit El Yeshiva Center – that funded the far-right
Israeli organization <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-did-trump-s-israel-envoy-support-a-radical-right-kahanist-group-1.6073226">Komemiut</a>.</p>
<p>The family foundation of Jared Kushner, Trump’s
son-in-law and senior advisor, has <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-kushner-foundation-donated-to-west-bank-settlement-projects-1.5469828">also</a>
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/group-headed-trumps-israel-envoy-pick-sued-war-crimes">donated</a>
to the Friedman-headed group that funded the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-will-collapse-unless-africans-and-palestinians-are-expelled-fenced-says">fanatical
Komemiut</a>.</p>
<p>Komemiut’s chief rabbi is <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/dov-lior">Dov
Lior</a>, who regularly <a
href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/237804">eulogizes</a>
Meir Kahane at the memorials held annually in his
honor.</p>
<p>Lior is also a <a
href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14168618">supporter</a>
of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/kings-torah"><em>The
King’s Torah</em></a> – a religious text that
permits Jews to murder non-Jews, even children, if one
suspects that they may grow up to pose a threat to
Jews.</p>
<p>The Kushners even made a donation to the Od Yosef
Chai Yeshiva, a religious seminary in the occupied
West Bank whose head rabbi <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/yitzhak-shapira">Yitzhak
Shapira</a> had authored <em>The King’s Torah</em>.</p>
<p>Lior, notably, is one of the rabbis who <a
href="http://articles.latimes.com/1995-11-13/news/mn-2621_1_rabbi-meir-kahane">issued
religious edicts</a> that made Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin fair game for the assassin who
shot him dead in November 1995 because he had signed
the Oslo agreements with the Palestine Liberation
Organization.</p>
<h2>Far-right ideology goes mainstream</h2>
<p>The ideology of Israel’s far-right is gradually being
adopted by the mainstream.</p>
<p>But if Friedman and Kushner have been supporting
Israel’s most racist rabbis, they have not acted alone
in this.</p>
<p>Yisrael Ariel’s Temple Institute receives funding
from Israel’s education ministry to <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-how-religious-kids-learn-about-the-third-temple-1.5415514">teach
Jewish youth</a>, religious and secular, about
Jewish temples, past and future.</p>
<p>Dov Lior’s Komemiut movement has hosted at its
conferences not only government lawmakers and
ministers, but also opposition lawmakers from the
supposedly centrist parties Labor, Zionist Union and
Yesh Atid, as well as <a
href="http://www.komemiut.org/articles.asp?id=199">former</a>
and <a
href="http://www.komemiut.org/articles.asp?id=200">current</a>
judges of Israel’s high court.</p>
<p>And the Derech Chaim movement, headed by founder of
the Kushner-funded Od Yosef Chai seminary, is now <a
href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/224789">supporting
legislation</a> that would neuter that very high
court, stripping it of the ability – which the court
seldom uses anyway – to nullify laws that discriminate
against Palestinians, other non-Jews and minority
groups in general.</p>
<p>The fact that Trump’s envoys to Israel are signaling
their support for these extremist groups, who all
aspire to replace the al-Aqsa mosque with a Jewish
temple, is indeed worrying. But it is especially
unsettling when one considers that until relatively
recently, these beliefs were nearly absent from the
mainstream political discourse, even in Israel.</p>
<p>Just a few years ago, the Temple movement’s chief
advocate in the Knesset was <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/moshe-feiglin">Moshe
Feiglin</a>, considered a far-right extremist.</p>
<p>In 1997, Feiglin was <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/1.4751745">convicted
of incitement</a> because of the violent protests
the movement he led engaged in prior to the
assassination of Rabin, and for calling for actions
against Palestinians.</p>
<p>But in more recent years, Feiglin and his followers
worked from within the ruling Likud Party to promote
his goals, including support for a Jewish temple.</p>
<p>And while he lost four Likud leadership races to
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Feiglin’s
presence in the party – and his promotion to deputy
speaker of the Knesset – legitimized the most extreme
sentiments of Israel’s far right.</p>
<p>During Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza in the summer
of 2014, Feiglin – then deputy speaker – called for
the “<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/concentrate-and-exterminate-israel-parliament-deputy-speakers-gaza-genocide-plan">conquest
of the entire Gaza Strip, and annihilation of all
fighting forces and their supporters</a>.”</p>
<p>He called for the Palestinian civilian population to
be deprived of water and electricity, “concentrated”
in tent encampments along the Egyptian border and then
expelled.</p>
<p>Increasingly frustrated at his inability to unseat
Netanyahu, Feiglin eventually started his own
political party in 2015, Zehut.</p>
<p>There have been no elections since he formed the
party, and <a
href="https://www.srugim.co.il/208729-%D7%9E%D7%A4%D7%9C%D7%92%D7%AA-%D7%96%D7%94%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%AA%D7%A7%D7%91%D7%9C-6-%D7%9E%D7%A0%D7%93%D7%98%D7%99%D7%9D">polls
indicate</a> Zehut would struggle to break the
minimum threshold to enter the Knesset if it ran on
its own.</p>
<p>But Feiglin’s efforts to pull Netanyahu’s Likud Party
even further to the right were wildly successful.</p>
<p>In recent years, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/these-are-israeli-leaders-who-want-destroy-al-aqsa/21166">multiple
ministers</a> in Netanyahu’s government have
publicly embraced the goals of the Temple movement.</p>
<p>Just two weeks ago, Israel’s Jerusalem affairs
minister <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/zeev-elkin">Zeev
Elkin</a>, also <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-the-next-mayor-of-the-middle-east-s-powder-keg-1.6097097">vying
to become Israel’s next mayor of Jerusalem</a>,
announced the launch of a new government body to <a
href="https://www.inn.co.il/News/News.aspx/372822">promote
Temple movement propaganda</a>, or <em>hasbara</em>.</p>
<p>The new body reportedly has the blessing of
Netanyahu.</p>
<p>Now that Feiglin’s fanatical fantasies are receiving
a tailwind from top Israeli officials, and even from
Trump’s ambassador David Friedman, it might be prudent
to take note of Feiglin’s current activities, as they
could very well foretell Israel’s trajectory, if its
reactionary leaders are left to their own devices.</p>
<h2>Campaign video portrays politician slaying
Palestinians</h2>
<p>To be fair, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/incitement">incitement</a>
against Palestinian people, their leaders and others
defending their rights has long been a staple of
Israeli political discourse.</p>
<p>In 2015, for example, Avigdor Lieberman – then
Israel’s foreign minister and today its defense
minister – called for Palestinian citizens of Israel
who he deemed disloyal to the state <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israeli-foreign-minister-calls-beheading-palestinians">to
be decapitated</a>.</p>
<p>But anti-Palestinian provocations recently hit a new
low, with incitement to murder moving from the verbal
domain to video.</p>
<p>In a new campaign video, Zehut’s Moshe Feiglin is
depicted killing Palestinians, as well as Israelis and
others whom he considers insufficiently hawkish.</p>
<p>The six-minute video, which has since been taken
offline, depicts Feiglin as a swordsman, hacking and
slashing through a legion of enemies, including
Palestinian member of the Knesset <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ahmed-tibi">Ahmad
Tibi</a> and a series of characters with flags
labelling them as the embodiment of Palestine, the
European Union and the United Nations.</p>
<p>Feiglin is also portrayed slaying characters meant to
represent liberal Zionist Israeli organizations, such
as the New Israel Fund and Women of the Wall.</p>
<p>A character representing the left-leaning Israeli
newspaper <em>Haaretz</em> is also killed by
decapitation, and the death blow is delivered by a
soldier with the face of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu.</p>
<p>Viewers are not left wondering whether this wanton
killing should mostly fall on Feiglin’s shoulders.</p>
<p>The video also depicts Feiglin delivering his
political manifesto to his soldiers assembled for
battle. One of the gladiators – who include popular
pundits from Israel’s far-right – is heard shouting
back to Feiglin, “We are with you, sire! For freedom –
to the death!”</p>
<p>The film was uploaded on 18 May by the Facebook page
“Make Israel Great Again,” an account belonging to
Feiglin’s Zehut party, but it had already been removed
by 23 May.</p>
<p>It is unclear whether the video was taken down
because its fight sequences contain unlicensed footage
from a Hollywood feature film, 2014’s <em>300: Rise
of an Empire</em>, or because the video could
constitute incitement to violence.</p>
<p>Other <a
href="https://twitter.com/AliAbunimah/status/1004080003363901440">postings</a>
on the same page clearly incite the killing of
Palestinian political leaders.</p>
<p>While Israel is <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-mostly-arabs-indicted-for-online-incitement-1.5437492">quick
to convict</a> Palestinians it accuses of
“incitement” over innocuous Facebook <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israel-uses-facebook-likes-convict-astrophysicist-incitement">postings</a>
including <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-convicts-poet-dareen-tatour">poems</a>,
Jewish citizens are hardly ever charged with the
crime, much less convicted, although the Internet, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/israelis-facebook">especially
Facebook</a> is <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/how-facebook-protects-israel">chock
full</a> of their calls to visit suffering and pain
on Palestinians.</p>
<p>As such, Feiglin is unlikely to suffer any negative
repercussions over the video.</p>
<p>But if Israeli support for far-right opinions only
increased during the Obama administration, how long
will it be before Feiglin’s message to murder
Palestinians and and their alleged allies becomes
normalized with Trump in the White House and the likes
of Friedman and Kushner leading US policy on Israel?</p>
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