In 1984, Meir Kahane was elected to the Knesset. The racist who preached transfer was met with a public response that today seems sickly healthy.
When he would enter the Knesset to give a speech, some of the Knesset members would leave. The then-Israel Broadcasting Authority established special regulations designed to limit his media coverage. The Knesset's regulations were changed to prohibit him from proposing racist bills, and the Knesset Basic Law was amended specifically for him to (successfully) block him from running for another seat.
The ruling party, Likud, was involved in all of these moves, of course, even though the competition between the blocs was no less difficult then than it is today (those were the days of the unity government and rotation).
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In the 2015 elections, Kahane's successor, Baruch Marzel, ran. Fifth on the list was a man named Amital Barali, who refused an order during the disengagement, was in prison, and has already announced that he will continue to preach about it.
The holy movement is supported by the rabbinical elite, the great instigators, but the public response is quite poor. It started with a cowardly ruling, there's no other way to call it, by the Supreme Court.
How will the esteemed judges, who have not yet published their reasons, explain that Kahane was disqualified and his spiritual twin, Marzel, was not?
And if fear grips the Supreme Court justices, what good is it to us to blame the politicians?
There is really no reason to expect anything from Marzel's party chairman, MK Eli Yishai. Yishai is undoubtedly one of the least impressive politicians who have worked here and one of the most cynical of them. He has already announced that after the elections the factions will split.
In other words, I will personally bring this abomination into the Knesset, give it immunity, and then the flood will follow. That is, a ministerial position in Netanyahu's government, of course.
There were seemingly a little more expectations from his number 2 on the patchwork list called 'Together.' MK Yoni Shtavun, it turns out, is further proof of the inverse correlation between bravery on the battlefield – Shtavun received the Chief of Staff's Medal for his performance in the Battle of Bint Jbeil – and civic bravery. Shtavun, a refugee from the 'Jewish Home', had already experienced a slight taste of this group of extremists firsthand, when a debate broke out early on about the composition of the list, but even that did not deter him.
The prime minister recently disqualified one of the Israel Prize judges for signing a petition encouraging refusal. His defense minister backed him.
In the previous elections, Netanyahu claimed that he would not include Bennett in his government because he said something that implied legitimizing refusal. Will Netanyahu and Ya'alon agree to sit with the racist Marzel and the refusal rally in the coalition?
In all scenarios for forming a coalition, it is customary to automatically count Yishai's crazy party with Netanyahu.
The Prime Minister is silent.
He stopped answering questions in general, and yet, will the Likud sit down with Marzel? And it is said that the faction will split, so Netanyahu will bring into his coalition those who allowed this moral stain to enter the Knesset? Will he reward Yishai for his loyalty in the role of minister and turn a blind eye to the fact that he brought in the representative of the group that shames us all every day?
The media could also be a little less passive towards the phenomenon.
In general, there is no reason to interview Eli Yishai. He doesn't answer questions anyway. Not long ago, journalist Hanoch Daum spent a good few hours on him for his program "The Settler." A few hundred questions later, Daum also realized that Yishai wouldn't say anything, not because he didn't want to, he simply couldn't.
If we're interviewing him, or his party's activities, maybe we should at least focus on the fact that Friday is single-handedly responsible for the return of Kahanism to the Knesset?
How do you do it?
Take a look at an interview with Hanin Zoabi. Yeshi doesn't deserve better treatment.
• The article was published in Haaretz.'
