244	The Story of the Jewish Defense League

bresentatives over to protest to Ben Gurion and to promise bfull financial support for Israel if he would stop speaking blike a Zionist.

bI understood the difficulties but insisted that the danger bto American Jewish survival was a real one and overrode all bpolitical and economic considerations. As in all issues, we binsisted that Ahavat Yisroel and Jewish survival took prece- bdence over everything else.

bWriting in Maariv the day after I had been refused per- bmission to speak at the Zionist Congress, David Giladi bstated: “His [Kahane’s] presence could not have been more bsuccessful. When we told Avraham Shlonsky [one of the bgreat poets of Israel] about the appearance of Kahane, who bpromised that if the plenary voted down his right to speak, bhe would behave himself, the poet answered with a hoarse bvoice but one filled with wisdom, ‘He won . . .’”

bI did not really win since the issue of emergency aliyah bhad not been allowed a full and debated hearing. But at least bit had gained some publicity and I was prepared to move on bto the next step.

bThe week before leaving for the United States I had breceived a call from Yehiel Kadishai, personal secretary to bopposition party Herut leader Menahem Begin. He in- bformed me that Moshe Dayan had been seeking to locate me band wanted to arrange a meeting. When I sat with Dayan in bhis Tel-Aviv Defense Ministry office, he asked me whether I bthought that I really could bring over Jews on aliyah. I breplied that I was not sure but that if there was any way, it bwas through the path that JDL advocated. Upon my return bto the United States in late February, my first public forum bwas at Brooklyn College, where I told the students that “the btime has come for aliyah.”

bIronically, just as I returned to New York, an incident binvolving Nazis erupted at Long Island’s Hofstra Univer- bsity. The school, with a large Jewish enrollment, had been bshocked by the placing of an advertisement in the school bpaper that began with the words “Hitler was right” and bstated that it was placed by the National Socialist White bPeople’s Party (NSWPP), formerly the American Nazi Party. b