"Never, ever deal with terrorists. Hunt them down and, more important, mercilessly punish those states and groups that fund, arm, support, or simply allow their territories to be used by the terrorists with impunity"
About this Quote
Kahane’s line isn’t a policy memo so much as a moral dare: it demands that the listener choose purity over pragmatism, vengeance over negotiation, absolutes over messy tradeoffs. “Never, ever” is the tell. The repetition isn’t just emphasis; it’s a preemptive strike against the very idea of diplomacy, treating any bargaining as contamination. Terrorism, in this framing, isn’t a tactic to be contained or deterred but an existential stain to be scrubbed out.
The second move is where the subtext hardens. He shifts from “terrorists” to the wider ecology that makes terrorism possible, then stretches that circle until it can include almost anyone: states and groups that “fund, arm, support,” and finally those that “simply allow their territories to be used.” That last clause quietly expands culpability from intention to circumstance, from active sponsorship to failure of control. It’s a rhetorical trapdoor: once “allow” counts as complicity, punishment can be justified even when evidence is ambiguous or governance is weak.
Context matters because Kahane, a hardline cleric and political agitator, built a worldview around ethnic security, collective responsibility, and the belief that liberal restraint is self-deception. The quote carries that signature: it replaces legal proportionality with “mercilessly,” a word chosen to make cruelty sound like clarity. The intent isn’t only to deter attackers; it’s to normalize a doctrine where force becomes the primary language of legitimacy, and where collateral political targets are not a bug but the point.
The second move is where the subtext hardens. He shifts from “terrorists” to the wider ecology that makes terrorism possible, then stretches that circle until it can include almost anyone: states and groups that “fund, arm, support,” and finally those that “simply allow their territories to be used.” That last clause quietly expands culpability from intention to circumstance, from active sponsorship to failure of control. It’s a rhetorical trapdoor: once “allow” counts as complicity, punishment can be justified even when evidence is ambiguous or governance is weak.
Context matters because Kahane, a hardline cleric and political agitator, built a worldview around ethnic security, collective responsibility, and the belief that liberal restraint is self-deception. The quote carries that signature: it replaces legal proportionality with “mercilessly,” a word chosen to make cruelty sound like clarity. The intent isn’t only to deter attackers; it’s to normalize a doctrine where force becomes the primary language of legitimacy, and where collateral political targets are not a bug but the point.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
|---|
More Quotes by Meir
Add to List
