Everyone in the world is aware of the actions of extremist Muslims and everyone in America (if not the world) is aware of the actions of extremist Christians. I am unaware of any movements from their Jewish counterparts that would be similar. Can someone please let me know if there are radical Jews running around somewhere and what the are doing that is so extreme?
This might be a General Question but since it involves religion, I thought it would be safer to stick it in here.
Well, one of 'em assassinated the Israeli Prime minister in 1995, and periodically one starts machine-gunning Palestinians for no apparent reason. From what I’ve seen, the ultra-extreme Jews tend not to organize major terrorist attacks, though. Rather, they go nuts one at a time. In some, they’re like the Montana Freemen. Wacky, to be sure, and many members are individually dangerous, but they’re not organized enough to be a major force in the region; just a hugely annoying nuisance.
Define “extremist”? In my mind that could be just about any Zionist. I suspect you are thinking way more extreme than that. I’ve known Republicans who thought the “religious right” were kooks.
Wasn’t there some kind of bomb plot a few years ago in LA by an extremist Jewish organization to blow up mosques?
Yeah, a couple of leaders in the Jewish Defense League was behind it. I just googled & found, ironically, that one of them was killed in prison just two weeks ago. Earl Kruger- http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/11/05/krugel.ap/; Irv Rubin had died in prison earlier.
JDL assessment by the ADL
http://www.adl.org/extremism/jdl_chron.asp
Founder Rabbi Meir Kahane, for a while a Knesset member in Israel who called for the expulsion of all Arabs & Palestinians from Israel, was assassinated in NYC in 1990 by an Arab extremist.
Judaism, so far as I know, does not seem to have much of a tradition of forced conversions of, or militant opposition to, non-adherents as do some groups that call themselves Christian or Muslim. Closest in character, I suppose, would be those Zionists who, if I understand correctly believe they have the right to own specific land because distant ancestors may have lived on it. Since they (mostly) have achieved their goals, there is less scope for carrying out outrages in support of their positions.
As long as we’re on the subject, where are the extremist Buddhists?
In Israel, there are also the extremist religious Jews who throw rocks at people on the Sabbath who are doing things that they don’t approve of like driving. And, when women have tried to go up to the Western Wall, they’ve been attacked similarly by these extremist religious Jews. I know that the more secular Israeli Jews bitterly dislike these religious Jews and even their somewhat less extremist counterparts who try to accomplish their goals politically but have still made certain aspects of life very unpleasant for the rest of Israeli Jews. (E.g., I know lots of the more secular Jews choose to get married outside of Israel because of the laws that the religious Jews have managed to get enacted governing marriages.)
Having a barbecue.
I believe this is correct. Israel has so high concentration of extremist Jews that it doesn’t leave many anywhere else. If there are any Jews with extremist tendencies in Europe or America, most of them are pretty sure to emigrate to Israel sooner or later, leaving only non-extremists behind. And in Israel itself there isn’t much of the coordinated extremist-fun to do these days, so they mostly resort to minor activities like throwing rocks on Sabbath violators.
Back in 1940s when there wasn’t the state of Israel yet, Zionist terrorism was much more abundant and high-profile. Famous Jewish terrorist groups in Palestine of that period are Irgun and Lehi who also murdered the UN mediator Folke Bernadotte, a Swedish diplomat. This assassination is particularly notorious since Bernadotte had formerly rescued high number of Jews, possibly over 10 000, from Nazis during the Holocaust (while the Lehi group had attempted collaboration with Germany against the English). This has led many anti-semites to remark as how Jews show their gratitude, and conversely many European Jews to question the righteousness of Zionist agenda and the foundation of the Israeli nation as a militaristic and even fanatical pursuit.
Eurograff, I’m under the impression you’re Finnish.
Was the foundation of the Finnish nation a militaristic and even fanatical pursuit?
(feel free to replace “Finnland” with some other country if you like in the above question)
Yes, it was. It even involved a bloody civil war between two Finnish factions, both committing serious atrocities.
I wasn’t trying to imply any moral judgement on the foundation of Israel, just giving some history there. Nor do the bloody actions of 1940s mean that Israel would not have right to exist today, just like Finland does.
I however suspect that the OP was refering to extremist “Jews” in the sense of religiously motivated people. Which wasn’t the case of most of these Zionist extremists.