A crackdown on Jewish ultranationalism in Israel

Americans might well, given their constitutional guarantees of human rights and due process, be nervous about the actions currently being taken by Israel against certain domestic Jewish ultranationalists, but I certainly commend them for their willingness to go after such people:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_ISRAEL_PALESTINIANS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-08-09-08-21-05

It shows the even-handedness of which Israel is capable at its best, which is rare-to-nonexistent in the region more generally.  Moreover, courts in Israel have, on more than one occasion, found for Palestinians, Muslim and Christian, against the Israeli government.  Jurists there do believe in the rule of law.  Unfortunately, I can’t think of many analogous cases in the countries surrounding Israel.  The courts in most of the adjacent states simply serve as administrative departments of their respective regimes, rubber-stamping the current leader’s will.

Thanks to Darren Zechiel for bringing this item to my attention.

The image above shows a monument to Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was assassinated by a Palestinian gunman in Manhattan on 5 November 2000.   An icon of today’s Jewish ultranationalists, he advocated the effective expulsion of Arabs (and Mormons!) from Israel.  Significantly, the park and the monument are located in Kiryat Arba, a Jewish settlement with an interesting history situated in occupied Palestinian territory near Hebron.  The fact that the inscription is only in Hebrew plainly indicates which specific segment of Israeli tourism constitutes its intended audience.

Here’s the rough translation of the Hebrew supplied at Wikimedia Commons, from which I obtained the photograph: