By Alan D. Miller
Dear Mr. Kaplan,
I assume that by "multitudinous archives" you are referring to your "News and Commentary" section. I did not find the links to the kahanist organizations in that section, but on your "Rogues Gallery" page, which is accessible from the sidebar on your homepage. See http://www.dafka.org/Gallery.asp.
A search of your "News and Commentary" section for "masada2000.org" (a Kahanist site) uncovered eight articles. Two of these articles seem to have been added very recently, after you sent me the message, below, to which I am replying. One of these articles, entitled "The Treasonous Left" (http://www.dafka.org/NewsGen.asp?S=4&PageID=579), is reminicent of the incitement that preceded Rabin's assassination.
That article, in turn, links to a page entitled "Yitzhak Rabin (swinging from the gallows in Hades)". See: http://www.masada2000.org/yitzhak.html. That page has the following to say about Rabin's murderer: "A good Jewish life is a terrible thing to waste... especially when he looks a bit like Jerry Seinfeld! The gunman, Yigal Amir, was a 25 year old third year law student at Bar-Ilan University. And now that single gunshot to Yitzhak's chest undoubtedly has cut short a promising legal career. We need more good Jewish lawyers... and I don't mean the William Kunstler and Stanley Cohen types who defend Arab murderers of True Jewish Heroes like Rabbi Meir Kahane!"
If I expect Muslim organizations to distance themselves from HAMAS and Islamic Jihad, I must also expect Jewish organizations to distance themselves from the memory of Rabbi Kahane, yemach shemo. From what I can see on your website, it does not appear that you have done so. Removal of these links and an unequivocal condemnation of Kahanism would be much more persuasive than an equivocal denial of affiliation with the Kahane movement.
With regards to your claim that DAFKA is student-led: I wrote only that it would be appropriate to deny DAFKA affiliation if it is not led by students, but gave no opinion as to whether those charges were true. You claim that the accusations of non-students running things are false. So perhaps we can agree that it is appropriate for Hillel to deny affiliation to groups led by non-students. But why is it that you, and not the student leaders of DAFKA, have been the one most actively protesting Hillel's decision?
From: "Lee Kaplan"
To: questions@zionist.org
Subject: Your comments on DAFKA
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2003 12:26:54 -0800
Mr. Miller;
As an attorney you of all people should know better than base accusations on hearsay. Your comments about why you think DAFKA should not be part of Hillel,
that it is run by "non-students", are not true. The group has always been run by students at Cal. The accusations of non-students running things were started by leftists within Hillel in order to stifle the active opinions of DAFKA students with whom they did not agree. DAFKA was removed from the Hillel website, and DAFKA students were never even queried about the false accusation before being removed. Had the leftist students in Hillel asked DAFKA's student members about their assertions they would have found them false.
In addition, your accusations of Kahanist influences is both ignorant and also based on innuendo. The fact you found a link in our multitudinous archives to a Kahanist article does not mean we ourselves are part of the Kahane movement or Kach. But if we were, as an attorney I find your attempt to limit someone else's right to an opinion different from yours, particularly a group of Jews supporting Israel's safety from terror and absolute right to exist, particularly fascist. The only one committing an insult to the Jewish community is yourself, not DAFKA or its members, and you owe all of us at DAFKA an apology.
DAFKA is now being reinstated in Berkeley Hillel. The Jewish community rose overwhelmingly to our defense because they understood the group was removed by a bunch of radical kids who wanted to keep other kids from supporting Israel in a pro-active manner that did not fit their way of doing things, as well as a leftist group that quietly works with the Palestinians on campus to weaken Israel's ability to protect itself. Get your facts straight next time. The same clique that removed DAFKA also denied ZOA the right to join Berkeley Hillel. Now both proIsrael groups are back in. Some "Zionist" you are, siding with those who want to silence
proZionist groups. You can verify my comments by speaking to Julie Sager, campus coordinator at ZOA.
As a professional, I would expect you to run this reply to your slanderous and ill-informed comments about our group.
Lee Kaplan
National Director
DAFKA