Never been a Kahanist, but I like your style so I'll be your first commentator. I think the answer is that there are no possible means to achieve the two goals you laid out. Even if you somehow got a Kahanist dictator in power, he would probably fall short of both, for the following reasons:
Maimonidean Halakhic state – a system like this can’t be imposed (even by force) without a critical mass of the people to buy in ideologically, 30-40% at minimum. It can’t work with a population that is half hilonim and where most of the rest are either galuti hareidim or mesortim/datiim that are basically total hellenists by kahanist standards.
So you would need a massive kiruv/reeducation effort to get enough people to both become frum and also adopt the right Torah ideas. If you try to do this as an open “extremist” you are going to scare off most of your potential audience. If you try to put on a friendlier face and sell people a watered down version, you will be indistinguishable from the Tzohars of the world and run into the same failures.
Not sure what the path forward here can possibly be.
Kicking out the Arabs - you have to admit that actually doing this runs at least some risk of getting South Africa-style sanctions. I’ve never heard a good Kahanist plan for this scenario - from what I can tell Rav Kahane always just said it wouldn’t happen. But since he died, the “international community” has massively sanctioned Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Burma and now Russia, and apartheid in South Africa itself collapsed under sanctions. All bigger economies than Israel. There is zero reason to think they won’t do it to us too if we do actual ethnic cleansing.
And unlike those countries, we aren’t built for sanctions. We don’t have significant natural resources and hardly produce any of our own food, steel, fuel. We usually start to run low on bombs after a month of limited operations in Gaza. If we are cut off from the international economy, how long would it be before we are out of everything and unable to fight a war?
Maybe you’ll say we can import from Russia and China if the West cuts us off. But they can just as easily side with Iran and Syria, why wouldn’t they?
Whatever problems we have with the Arabs, this scenario would be worse. Without a good plan to deal with the worst case, no rational leader will take the risk. So I don't see it happening, no matter who is in power, without some massive global geopolitical and economic changes that are way beyond our control.
Maybe you have good responses to these challenges, I’ll be interested to read them. But if you don’t, you are basically an engineer analyzing why an airliner failed to reach the moon.
As for your objection about the religious community being corrupted - that is correct. If Moshiach appeared tomorrow most Rabbis would be upset because they would lose their comfortable positions of prominence in the Diaspora, etc. Hypocrisy needs to be called out and changes made in religious leadership. This is every bit as important, and more so, as changes in political leadership.
A Sanhedrin needs to be formed. It takes One (person or otherwise) to begin the process.
There is a Moshiach ben Joseph that precedes Moshiach according to most opinions. It is unclear exactly when the Sanhedrin will be formed in this process, or whether the Temple will be begun before or after Moshiach. I claim no special expertise on this subject.
But if you are working towards a goal that includes a Halachic state as a conclusion, by definition it cannot exist without a Sanhedrin.
Of course it seems unobtainable now. If it didn't we wouldn't need HBKH.
What do you think about Ben Ari? From all the kahanists, he seems to be the most reasonable and knowledgeable - that’s why he probably couldn’t get into the Knesset.
Never been a Kahanist, but I like your style so I'll be your first commentator. I think the answer is that there are no possible means to achieve the two goals you laid out. Even if you somehow got a Kahanist dictator in power, he would probably fall short of both, for the following reasons:
Maimonidean Halakhic state – a system like this can’t be imposed (even by force) without a critical mass of the people to buy in ideologically, 30-40% at minimum. It can’t work with a population that is half hilonim and where most of the rest are either galuti hareidim or mesortim/datiim that are basically total hellenists by kahanist standards.
So you would need a massive kiruv/reeducation effort to get enough people to both become frum and also adopt the right Torah ideas. If you try to do this as an open “extremist” you are going to scare off most of your potential audience. If you try to put on a friendlier face and sell people a watered down version, you will be indistinguishable from the Tzohars of the world and run into the same failures.
Not sure what the path forward here can possibly be.
Kicking out the Arabs - you have to admit that actually doing this runs at least some risk of getting South Africa-style sanctions. I’ve never heard a good Kahanist plan for this scenario - from what I can tell Rav Kahane always just said it wouldn’t happen. But since he died, the “international community” has massively sanctioned Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Burma and now Russia, and apartheid in South Africa itself collapsed under sanctions. All bigger economies than Israel. There is zero reason to think they won’t do it to us too if we do actual ethnic cleansing.
And unlike those countries, we aren’t built for sanctions. We don’t have significant natural resources and hardly produce any of our own food, steel, fuel. We usually start to run low on bombs after a month of limited operations in Gaza. If we are cut off from the international economy, how long would it be before we are out of everything and unable to fight a war?
Maybe you’ll say we can import from Russia and China if the West cuts us off. But they can just as easily side with Iran and Syria, why wouldn’t they?
Whatever problems we have with the Arabs, this scenario would be worse. Without a good plan to deal with the worst case, no rational leader will take the risk. So I don't see it happening, no matter who is in power, without some massive global geopolitical and economic changes that are way beyond our control.
Maybe you have good responses to these challenges, I’ll be interested to read them. But if you don’t, you are basically an engineer analyzing why an airliner failed to reach the moon.
As for your objection about the religious community being corrupted - that is correct. If Moshiach appeared tomorrow most Rabbis would be upset because they would lose their comfortable positions of prominence in the Diaspora, etc. Hypocrisy needs to be called out and changes made in religious leadership. This is every bit as important, and more so, as changes in political leadership.
A Sanhedrin needs to be formed. It takes One (person or otherwise) to begin the process.
There is a Moshiach ben Joseph that precedes Moshiach according to most opinions. It is unclear exactly when the Sanhedrin will be formed in this process, or whether the Temple will be begun before or after Moshiach. I claim no special expertise on this subject.
But if you are working towards a goal that includes a Halachic state as a conclusion, by definition it cannot exist without a Sanhedrin.
Of course it seems unobtainable now. If it didn't we wouldn't need HBKH.
Seems to me, if serious, the first real step would be to reconvene the Sanhedrin.
What do you think about Ben Ari? From all the kahanists, he seems to be the most reasonable and knowledgeable - that’s why he probably couldn’t get into the Knesset.