I have never seen the exact number of members and I don't think anyone really knows but Kahane garnered over 26k votes in one election [a big number in a small country] and was elected to the Knesset.
The terrorist org was small. It was also a political party. Not everyone that voted for the party was a terrorist just like not everyone that supports Hammas or the PLO is a terrorist.
Suffice to say, the numbers you posted seem a little light.
Kahane supported terrorism as early as the early '70s. It wasn't until 1994 that Israel got around to banning them.
Because it wasn't until 1994 that they committed a large terrorist act. If a few Democrats or Republicans committed a couple of murders for political reasons the US wouldn't ban them. (If we can ban political parties in the US) or put them on a list of terrorist groups. But if the US parties planned and organized the killings of dozens then they might be considered terrorist orgs, rather then organizations that have a few murderers in them.
Sorry, I don't buy your argument. First of all, if one the national parties in the US murdered only one person in a terrorist act, its very likely they would be banned. What I suspect is that the Kahane org. did some of the dirty work that Israel could not do as a gov't. It was only when they did something on a big scale and seemed out of control, then Israel was forced to act.
In any case, my original point stands. Prior to the formation of Israel, there were Zionist terrorists org. And since Israel's independence, there have continued to be other terrorists groups led by Israelis. While not as active as Palestinian terrorists, they then are not fighting for their freedom either.
ted |