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Last update - 22:36 03/02/2009
Elections 2009 / Haaretz exclusive: Avigdor Lieberman said to be ex-member of banned radical Kach movement
By Lily Galili, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Elections 2009, Israel News 

Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman was once a member of the
outlawed far-right party Kach, the movement's former secretary general revealed on Tuesday.


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Yossi Dayan said he issued Lieberman, a prime ministerial candidate whose current electoral campaign against Israeli Arabs has provoked outrage, with a party membership card when he was still a new immigrant to Israel.

"I don't recall to what extent he was active in the movement, but if he denies [this], I am ready to testify in any forum that Lieberman was indeed a member for a short amount of time," said Dayan.

Kach was banned from running for the Knesset in 1988 for inciting to racism.

Ultra-nationalist activist Avigdor Eskin, meanwhile, remembers meeting Lieberman at Kahane's office on Ussishkin Street in Jerusalem. "I remember this very well, because I arrived there one day after I immigrated to Israel in 1979," he said.

Eskin came to public attention for having boasted of holding a pulsa dinura ceremony prior to 1995 assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. The ceremony, believed to be of kabbalistic origin, is aimed at conferring a death curse on the subject.

"Kahane saw him as a good guy. I also thought back then that he was not a Kach man ideologically, unless the only measure of this is the question of whether you like Arabs. According to what I remember, he handed out the movements' publications among its small student group in the Hebrew University," Eskin said.

He added that he met Lieberman in Kahane's office a number of times, but to the best of his knowledge the Yisrael Beiteinu chairman was only involved in Kach for a number of months.

Yisrael Beiteinu relayed in response to the Haaretz report that, "We are not dealing with this orchestrated provocation. The success of Yisrael Beiteinu has created among its opponents a great quantity of lies and fabrications, which the political and media establishment knew beforehand."

The revelation came one day after Israel's most recognizable television anchor, Haim Yavin, branded Lieberman as "Kahane's successor," a reference to the murdered extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane, who headed Kach movement.

Former Kach members, for their part, actually reject the Kahane comparison. "He is a poor imitation of Kahane," one said. Dayan, who was close to Kahane for over a decade, is disgusted by it.

"Not everyone who speaks against Arabs is a Kahane," he said. "[Lieberman] can take a few elements, but to be Kahane is a whole doctrine. Nevertheless, I'm happy that he's saying what he's saying, because without a radical solution to the problem of Arabs in Israel it can't be good here."



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      1.   lieberman, kach member? 13:19  |  jacqueline yaffe 03/02/09
      2.   Big Deal!! 13:22  |  Ben 03/02/09
      3.   So what 13:26  |  Shmuel 03/02/09
      4.   A big boost for Lieberman 13:27  |  Mark Lincoln 03/02/09
      5.   It couldn`t be better!! 13:38  |  Bernie 03/02/09
      6.   Lieberman a racist? 13:40  |  Philipp 03/02/09
      7.   "Get Lieberman Week" 13:47  |  Robert Haymond 03/02/09
      8.   We all knew that Lieberman was the rights bad boy... 13:48  |  Natallie Durson 03/02/09
      9.   If Haaretz is scared of him, he must be a winner! 13:52  |  Vered, Israel 03/02/09
      10.   This makes him even more valid a candidate 13:56  |  Allon 03/02/09
      11.   Now I can safely Vote for Lieberman 13:57  |  Scott Lawrence 03/02/09
      12.   Left wing media attacks on Lieberman will gain him seats! 14:03  |  martin knopfman 03/02/09
      13.   Haaretz exclusive 14:12  |  Voice of Reason 03/02/09
      14.   Go Lieberman 14:14  |  Marcel 03/02/09
      15.   liberman my love 14:16  |  habilp 03/02/09
      16.   Headline Frothing 14:18  |  Yisrael Medad 03/02/09
      17.   Lieberman Has the left terrified he is gaining a following 14:19  |  Levi 03/02/09
      18.   Racism 14:21  |  Erik 03/02/09
      19.   Why is it that ex Soviets who Claimed AntiSemitism, Become 14:29  |  Monitor 03/02/09
      20.   Liberman 14:32  |  Gabriel 03/02/09
      21.   Lieberman, Jörg Haider, David Duke, Jean-Marie Le Pen 14:35  |  Lou 03/02/09
      22.   NO ONE CARES 14:35  |  Nephtaly 03/02/09
      23.   So he is supporting a terrorist organization 14:36  |  Realist 03/02/09
      24.   Somewhat trustworthy 14:37  |  Paul 03/02/09
      25.   Ban Lieberman from the US 14:39  |  W 03/02/09
      26.   Any way I can vote fior Lieberman? 14:49  |  Sam Klien 03/02/09
      27.   Avigdor Eskin is probably the last hope 18:49  |  Vladimir 03/02/09
      28.   #21 19:05  |  j10 03/02/09
      29.   What the hell are you doing? You`re helping him!!!! 19:21  |  Northern 03/02/09
      30.   I hope Israelis vote for an extremist such as LIEberman.... 19:26  |  JustMe 03/02/09
      31.   Who cares? Abbas with his No Shoa PhD is obviously more radical 19:32  |  Tomer 03/02/09
      32.   WOW! 19:33  |  Janice 03/02/09
      33.   Solution to Problems, Huh? 19:39  |  Pete 03/02/09
      34.   Each country has its fascists....... 19:46  |  Daniel 03/02/09
      35.   Ramat Aviv hates lieberman because he was a kahanaist and zionist 20:02  |  Tzpie Chen-Meir 03/02/09
      36.   Shows Libermann`s great forsight! Meir Kahane proved right. 20:07  |  Once a moderate jew 03/02/09
      37.   Leftists & Haaretz last minute smear campaign against Lieberman- 20:08  |  common sense 03/02/09
      38.   no surprise there 21:56  |  Paul Freedman 03/02/09
      39.   it`s called self-delusion 22:06  |  Moshe 03/02/09
      40.   It`s funny 23:51  |  Peter 03/02/09
      41.   Actually it doesn`t matter an iota... 00:08  |  Esther 04/02/09
      42.   lieberman 07:17  |  dani.a 04/02/09
      43.   tell me your kidding 07:25  |  Rob Bennett 04/02/09
      44.   IMAGINE THAT! lieberman an ex-member of kach? 10:03  |  eric 04/02/09
      45.   Lieberman: The man who never mince his words. 04:09  |  Akram Zekaria 05/02/09
      46.   Americans for Lieberman 15:30  |  American in NY 05/02/09
      47.   Rabbi Kahane 23:04  |  Eugene Kravis 05/02/09
      48.   Right on! 22:47  |  Eli 07/02/09
      49.   The message is clear 22:56  |  Eli 07/02/09
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