Kakh Party

Kakh has a picture of a closed fist next to it that is a right-wing, racist and extremist (in terms of religious and ethnic) party and it has obvious fascist tendencies that was formed in 1973 by rabbi Meir Kahana, who emigrated to Israel in 1971; he is president of "Jewish defense League", which was formed in 1968 in the United States.
Kakh's attitude, or to be more precisely, their leader, Kahana is a combination of religious thoughts, extreme hatred toward Arabs and fascist thoughts from the right-wing racist American movements. Kakh Party was the first political party in Israel's history that has clearly raised slogan of expelling Palestinians (including the Palestinians of 1948 who have Israeli citizenship, or those who were living in the occupied territories during the 1967 war) from around the so-called land of Israel.
Kakh Party after forming first attacked the Philistines in 1948, and by trying to embitter the lives of Jews and hostile sentiments against them, tried to provide backgrounds of evicting them from Israel. Kakh's propaganda attacks against the Palestinian people were very vulgar and obscene. The attacks culminated in the first half of the eighties. At the time Kahana, leader of the Kakh, began to manage demonstrations in the Arab towns and villages in order to stimulate their inhabitants' emotions and also to attract the attention of Jewish voters to him and his party. These demonstrations have always led to clashes with Arabs and that is why Israeli officials banned Kahana from entering Arab towns and villages due to feeling fear of continuation of these demonstrations.
In the second half of the eighties, Kakh reduced its activities in the occupied territories in 1948 and set the West Bank as the main focus of the activities. Most of the supporters and fans of Kakh are in the West Bank and headquarters of the party is in Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba near Al-khalil. Two armed organizations' clandestine operations included attacks on individuals, destruction of property, destroying the trees and destruction of farms and the assassination of a number of Arabs. The two organizations are "Committee providing roads" and "government of Judah" that the first one was made in 1986 and second one was made in 1989. Of course, the first organization is more dangerous and the number of its members is estimated to be several hundred and most of them are based in Kiryat Arba town. The residents are equipped with fast vehicles and advanced communication equipment and they have several caches of weapons and explosives at their disposal. Two other secret organizations were called the T.n.t (or terrorism against terrorism) and Sikarkym (or dagger holders), and the operations of the two organizations were also attributed to the palace. The first organization was against the Arabs and the second one was against some Jewish people who defended peace with the Arabs, which had been involved for a short time.
Kahana was candidate in parliamentary elections in 1973, 1977 and 1981, but he was not a member of the Knesset. But with the changing political situation and the value principles in Israel after Likud coming to power in 1977, and at the same time with strengthening the position of Jewish right-wings and increasing feelings of hostility against Arabs, Party's public base was developed, and as a result, when Kahana was a candidate for membership in the Knesset in elections of 1984, was able to gain the votes of 26 thousand eligible to become a member of the Knesset. His membership, according to his racist opinions and fascist acts, was a political scandal for Israel and that is why the Knesset by legislation of a law prevented participation of parties, which advocated racial discrimination and hostile feelings of some people against others in the elections. According to the law Israel's Supreme Court prevented participation of the Party of Kakh in the 1988 elections.
In November 1990, Kakh lost its leader. At the time, Kahana wanted to raise funds for his party in the United States, and one of American citizens (Egyptian) killed him in New York City. By Kahana's death, Kakh palace lost the main source of its power because Kahana was theorist, the caller, collector of the donations, the main decision maker and major stimulus to the activities of the party. Shortly after the murder of Kahana, Kakh was divided into two factions. The first one was "Kakh> and the second one was known as < live Kahana >. Neither of them can be called as a party but they are in fact the secret terrorist organizations. Base of the "Kakh" front is remained in Kiryat Arba settlement, while "Live Kahana" established its headquarters in the city of Nablus in the Jewish settlement of Kofar Tabvah. The Kakh front is more alive and more dangerous than Live Kahana and the number of its registered members is several hundred people and the fans are more than a few thousand people. Supreme Leader of the wing is formed from Baruch Mrzyl as president, Nuam Federman as spokesman and Tiran Bullock as head of . Kahana faction led by Benjamin Kahana (son of Meyir Kahana) is not strong and its members are only a few dozen people.
At dawn of February 25th 1994, Baruch Gvldshtayn, doctor and reserve officer in the Israeli army and a member of the Kakh, entered the tomb of Prophet Abraham in Al-Khalil and he committed a heinous crime. Goldstein shot dozens of worshiper Muslims and killed and injured them. Following the crime, the Israeli government took "Kakh" and "live Kahana" into account as two terrorist organizations and declared their activities as illegal actions.
The government also ordered the arrest of five leaders of the Kakh and issued confiscation order of personal weapon of some members of the party.
Generally Center and public base of the Kakh Party is made of a number of poor and uneducated, unhappy people with the regime and enemy of the Arabs. There is a significant number of the American immigrant with the characteristics of religious intolerance, hostility toward non-Jews and are believers in the savior of the Apocalypse among the party's leaders and members.
Shas party
Shas (guardians of Sephardic Torah) is a fundamentalist religious party. The party was founded shortly before the elections in 1984 by Sephardic members of Agudat Israel party and encourage of Rabbi Alyyrz Shakh and Rabbi Ufarya Joseph (former Chief Rabbi of the Oriental Jews). The two mentioned rabbis encouraged forming Shas party as a protest against the dominance of Ashkenazi (Western Jews) over Agudat Israel party and non-payment of an appropriate share in the institutions and electoral list of the party to Sephardics.
In the 1984 elections, Shas could win 4 seats in the Knesset while only 2 seats in the Knesset elections were belonged to Agudat Israel. And in the elections of 1988, 1992, six candidates of Shas entered the Knesset and this strengthened the position of the party. Consecutive success of Shas in elections describes the continue of active participation of Sephardic Jews in the political scene and more knowledge of them about their strong electoral position and strong keen of many of them for having a political party representing the Sephardic directly.
Shas participated in two cabinets of national unity that were formed in 1984 and 1988 and unlike Agudat Israel Party, it took part in the cabinet of Yitzhak Rabin, which was established in 1992. However, in 1994 and following prosecution of Arieh Dary, Sha' leader and Minister of State, in charge of unauthorized possession of state's assets, it withdrew the cabinet of Yitzhak Rabin.
In the half of 1990 and in the wake of the crisis which brought down the national unity cabinet in May 1990, a severe controversy between Shas' leaders about the coalition with Likud or Labor, the party shook violently. While Rabbi Shakh and Isaac Byrts (head of the party) called for a coalition with Likud, Rabbi Ufadio Yosef, chairman of the Ulema Council of Torah and other political party leaders invited to coalition with the Labor Party. Eventually the dispute led to a result that Rabbi Shakh unilaterally and without consideration ordered coalition with Likud. Although Shas acted according to the instructions, the instructions caused a gap in relations of Rabbi Shakh with other party leaders including Ufadya Youssef and Byrts. Later this gap became more and resulted in the Byrts' resign from Presidency of Shas shortly before the 1992 election and in 1992 and following participation of Shas in the Labor cabinet of Yitzhak Rabin, Rabbi Shakh cut his relations with the Party.
Religious and intellectual perspective and the overall goals of Shas party are similar to Agudat Israel. Both parties are trying to make government and society move based on the teachings of the Torah and Judaism (called Halakhah). In terms of the nature of the activities, Agudat Israel and Shas are similar to each other. Both parties emphasize on religious grounds, providing material interests of their citizens and serving affiliated institutions and organizations and they do not give great importance to issues of foreign policy and security, including issues of the occupied territories and standing towards the Palestinian people and the peaceful settlement of the Middle East conflict (see Agudat Israel).
Comparing with Agudat Israel, Shas is fully more prepared to cooperate with the more secular and non-religious parties and its political views are more moderate.
Shas has a wide electoral base, including many Jews, both religious and non-religious ones. Because from the perspective of Oriental Jews, Shas is something more than a purely religious party. Menahem Friedman, one of the leading researchers in the field of Israeli religious parties, states reasons for Shas' success and motivation of the voters in favor of the party as follows:
"Shas has done something that other parties have never been able to do so. The party has used both fundamentalism and sectarianism as tool of attracting the fans. Shas leads the Eastern fundamentalist however, it is not unaware of the advantage of weapon of sectarianism. Shas claims sectarianism which is linked to the customs and habits, and unlike what is customary in the world of fundamentalism, it does not require followers to do religious duties. Voters of Shas are not only fundamentalist but many of them do not even believe in the sanctity of the Sabbath, but what has fascinated them by this party is the propagation of the habits and copies. Shas has managed to evoke emotions and it could merge fundamentalism and sectarianism, and it used both of them as success measure.
In the eyes of traditionalists who immigrated from North Africa to Israel, Shas is not a religious party "but it is a symbol of traditions and love for the origin country and sweet pasts which disappeared in the realities of the Israeli government or have been solved".
"Council of Torah's scholars" is the highest religious and political organization of Shas and important decisions are taken by the council. Party and institutions' affairs and everyday decision making are carried out by delegation of the party in the Knesset and identified organs.
Shas' seats in the Knesset in different periods: the eleventh Knesset (1984) 4 seats; the twelfth Knesset (1988) 6 Knesset seats and thirteenth Knesset (1992) 6 seats.