                Who Really Murdered Rabbi Kahane?
                        January 9, 1992

       Rabbi Kahane made a name for himself by establishing the JDL in New York and
developing an international reputation for it as a violent Jewish power group.  His clever
manipulation of the media and daring exploits catapulted him into the limelight all over the
world.  
       When he made aliyah, the people of Israel already expected to see him get involved
in politics here.  His continued efforts to create press events were less successful in Israel then
they were in the United States, none the less, his already well earned reputation coupled with
his persistent efforts to create his own legitimate political party eventually landed him a seat in
the Knesset.
       To any honest observer, Kach, like JDL before it, was a one man show.  He had
followers and several good people, but the party revolved around him.  He was the star player,
the vote getter and the fund raiser.  He himself believed that he would be murdered as that was
the only way to stop him.  
       Given the fact that in the last several years, despite alleged hit lists on Jewish
figures, no recorded attempts have been made to assassinate such figures, one must consider
seriously what the motive was in the Kahane assassination.  It seems obvious to me that the
primary motivation for the murder of Rabbi Kahane was to take him off the political agenda in
Israel.  His population was soaring on a broad basis and presented a threat to Likud as well as
to the small right wing parties.  
       Acknowledging the fact that the threat of the rapidly growing support for the Kach
Party in Israel was a deep worry to Yitzchak Shamir, and that Rabbi Kahane was, for all
intents and purposes, the sum total of Kach, what easier way could there be to eliminate this
threat than to create the impression that an Arab murdered the Kach leader in the United
States?  Did not the former Mossad head have the tools necessary for an effective deception? 
       With Kahane out of the way there is no serious political challenge for the Likud
faction.  This is clearly seen in the splintering up of what was left of Kach into tiny cliques of
aimless youngsters desperately trying to pick up the pieces but going nowhere.  There is no
evidence of anything resembling a new Kach leader a year after the assassination, and the one
who gained the most from this state of affairs is clearly Yitzchak Shamir.
        I will never be convinced that this Nosair character just woke up one morning and
decided to murder Rabbi Kahane.  I believe that he was manipulated by the Mossad, several
times removed, in a very efficient professionally executed assassination. 