The man who wants to take over the Zionist Organization of America is further to the right and more of a warmonger than the most right-wing government Israel has ever had.

The Zionist Organization of America was one of the first major Jewish-American umbrella organizations to support the nascent State of Israel. From Louis Brandeis to current president Morton Klein, the organization has seen ideological shifts – and with them varying levels of support. It’s safe to say that the organization’s heyday is long gone.

Morton Klein has headed the organization for the last 20 years and this year, his leadership is being challenged by one Steve Goldberg. The challenger, as I’ll call Goldberg, appears to be even more of an extremist than the man he hopes to make his predecessor – and is certainly further to the right politically than Israel’s own government.

Five takeaways from Goldberg’s ‘campaign video’ (below):

1. Goldberg boasts of representing the Jewish Defense League (JDL), which was founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane. Like Kahane’s other movements, the JDL was classified by the FBI as a domestic terror group for its attacks against Muslims in the United States.

2. Goldberg wants Israel to annex the entire West Bank, a proposition that even the current far-right Israeli government itself shot down just today [Sunday].

3. Goldberg says he believes a two-state solution would be “morally wrong and strategically stupid,” putting him directly at odds with Israel’s current leadership (at least on paper).

4. According to Goldberg, who apparently takes cues from his former client Kahane, Palestine is not Palestine; Jordan is Palestine.

5. When it comes to the Iranian nuclear program and efforts to stop it, Goldberg asserts, “only military action is going to stop Iran from going nuclear … Israel needs to take preemptive military action.” Let’s remember that even Benjamin ‘Bomb Iran’ Netanyahu argues that sanctions should be backed by “a threat” of military force. By saying military action is the only way, Mr. Goldberg is openly defining himself as a warmonger.

h/t Jeremy Elster

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