The Magic Gun; Real Israeli Democracy; Controlling The Temple Mount; Let The Polls Speak

Happiness is a Magic Gun: By Moshe Feiglin

13 Shvat, 5767 Feb. 1, 2007 Translated from Ma'ariv's NRG Website The peaceful townspeople hoped that the new sheriff would succeed; all his predecessors had failed. Time and again, bands of robbers would attack the town, shoot in every direction, murder, rob and get away unharmed. All the people responsible for the town's security had promised to make peace with the robbers. This made it impossible to defeat them. It was like a collective mental illness. The townspeople, after all, had built the town in an attempt to create a new, normal identity for themselves. They wanted to be just an ordinary town and live in peace with their neighbors. But the neighbors didn't like the townspeople's new identity. They fought them constantly. And so, the town couldn't triumph. Triumph would mean that there was no peace. Without peace, the town could not be an ordinary place. So the townspeople decided that it was "impossible to defeat terror," and tried to solve the problem with protective walls, separation fences and roadblocks. No doubt about it; it was a type of mental illness. The situation went from bad to worse. So the townspeople blamed the residents of the isolated houses at the edge of the town. "They upset the robbers," the sheriffs explained to the townspeople. "It's their fault that we don't have peace with the robbers. Why should we die for them, anyway?" So instead of fighting the robbers, every new sheriff would fight the townspeople who lived at the edge of town. The last sheriff went one step farther. He even demolished all the isolated houses at the edge of town and threw all the poor townspeople who lived there to the dogs. The regular townspeople were very impressed with the brave sheriff's glorious victory and elected him for an additional term in office by a large majority. But then the brave sheriff had a stroke. A new sheriff replaced him. He had already learned how to be popular in the peaceful town. "My predecessor bravely disengaged from a few isolated houses," he said. "But I will be much braver than him. I will have the entire town converge into the Town Square!" The robbers got the idea and vigorously attacked all the remaining houses in town. This time they did more than rob and plunder; they also abducted some of the townspeople before getting away. The new sheriff tried to prove to the townspeople that he could protect them from the borders of the Town Square. He tried to fight the robbers according to accepted town practice -- from the plasma screen in his office. The robbers laughed and laughed. They went to live at the edge of town, where the isolated townspeople used to live. From there, they would shoot at the frightened townspeople whenever they pleased. The new sheriff even shot back. After a month, though, the new sheriff understood that he could simply not win. So he announced that he won and stopped shooting. The robbers also stopped shooting. What did they care? The hostages were still in their hands, and they needed to rest and re-supply, anyway. The Magic Gun The new sheriff had a serious problem. The townspeople no longer had faith in him. He had become the laughingstock of the town. His loyal aides explained that he must present some sort of solution. If not, they warned, the fate of his career would be sealed. "Do not fear," said the sheriff to the weary and frightened townspeople. "We are working on the perfect solution. We have an unbeatable plan to protect you." While the townspeople gazed on in astonishment, the sheriff demonstrated his new Magic Gun solution. "The Magic Gun will allow us to make peace with the robbers -- even if they don't stop shooting. When the next robber comes," the sheriff enthusiastically explained, "we will do nothing to endanger peace. When the robber will provoke the townspeople, I won't even have to leave my office. That could endanger the normalization of our relations with them, you understand." "When the robber waves his gun, I will explain that it is nothing more than a water gun. That will prevent unnecessary friction. And when the robber will point his gun straight at the heart of a little towns-girl, I will be able to continue my daily nap. And when the robber pulls the trigger, I will just turn over in my bed." "But," the sheriff excitedly added, "when the bullet leaves the gun, everything will change. The Magic Gun will rapidly identify the flying bullet. It will jump from my belt, even while I'm still sleeping, home-in on the robber's gun, shoot a magic bullet at the robber's bullet and destroy it in mid-air. The robber will not be harmed at all, and that way we will be able to continue with our peaceful neighborly relations." The townspeople were very excited. Finally, somebody had found the way to make true peace. Finally, they could be an ordinary town, like everyone else. There was one Nuisance there who tried to ask what would happen if the robbers would shoot more than one bullet at a time. He even reminded the townspeople that recently, the sheriff had given the robbers automatic guns. "Furthermore," the Nuisance added, "every magic bullet costs one trillion dollars. Even if the magic works, after one round of robbers' bullets, we will have to leave our town to find food for our children!" The townspeople got very angry at the Nuisance. On their television, they repeatedly displayed the amazing new technology that was behind the Magic Gun. They were in no mood to let a few warmongering Nuisances ruin their dream of being ordinary townspeople. They let out their anger on some of the Nuisances' settlements and gave the good and pragmatic robbers more money and automatic weapons so that they could fight the bad, religious robbers. And so, the perfect solution was finally found to restore peace and quiet to the town. Finally, the townspeople could blend in normally with their surroundings. The robbers robbed and murdered, the sheriff ruled in his sleep, the Nuisances were gotten rid of, the townspeople paid for the Magic Gun and all the damages incurred-- and everyone lived happily ever after.

Districts for a Democratic Israel

Translated and excerpted from Moshe Feiglin's book, "The War of Dreams." A true democracy cannot exist when the public's representatives are not dependant on the voters. In 97% of the world's democracies, including countries the size of Israel, the election method is based on voting districts. The elected official knows his voters and has to work hard to maintain their faith in him. This method strengthens the community framework and delegates authority and responsibility to the local government. Israel's founders -- the Labor Mapai and its satellites -- talked about democracy, but they didn't really mean it. The method that they imposed upon us is centralized and turns the entire country into one large district. This method is unique to Israel. It gives the central government all the power, but no responsibility. Imagine that every district in Israel would know in advance that it would receive a proportionate allocation of the national budget in addition to a percentage of local taxes. The residents of the Bnei Brak district could, for example, decide what portion of their budget they would like to allocate to large families; the residents of Ramat Aviv could decide how much to allocate to human rights parades; the residents of the south could decide how much to allocate to the Negev Law. This proposal is not only possible; it is critical. It also correlates with the basic Jewish approach toward community life (the tribal division, if you will). Division into voting districts applies to every facet of our national lives. The community should appoint its local police chief; it should decide which streets will be opened and closed to traffic on Shabbat; if there will be longer school days in the district and at the expense of what. Since most Israelis want to remain Jews, this will strengthen the Jewish identity of the state and democracy will flourish. The Left -- a small minority that controls the country by using the centralized method to its benefit -- will lose its power. That is also the reason that the "Big Brothers" of the elite will do all they can to thwart this proposal. The continued control of the elites depends on Israel's continued centralized democracy. But do not worry. In the end, the nation will triumph. The only question is at what price. Who is the Sovereign on the Temple Mount? "He who rules the Mount rules the Land" wrote Uri Tzvi Greenberg. This week, we had another painful reminder of this fact. Once again, Israel's government caved in to Arab threats of violence and international pressure, indefinitely postponing construction work on the Mugrabim Bridge at the foot of the Temple Mount. Israel's surrender of its sovereignty on the Temple Mount triggers its collapse throughout the country. Unhappily, the State of Israel was not established to realize the historical goals of the Nation of Israel. Its declared purpose was to be a safe haven for the nation that would be just like all other nations. But when the Nation of Israel attempts to be just an ordinary nation, it cannot even provide itself with safety, and its sovereignty is lost. Now, like sixty years ago, Israel is facing the threat of destruction. Ostensibly, the country was founded for this very moment. But what is Israel's solution to Iran's nuclear threats? What is the significant difference between Olmert's solution and Netanyahu's? The entire spectrum of Israeli consciousness -- from Right to Left, is incapable of suggesting anything more than turning to the international community for help. Once again, we hope and pray that the American and British warplanes will bomb Auschwitz. A government that is incapable of retaining its sovereignty over Israel's heart -- the TempleMount -- loses the remnants of its sovereignty and its ability to defend its people and its country. You can turn the State of Jews into the Jewish State. Now is the Time! Join Manhigut Yehudit Today Joining Manhigut Yehudit is much more than just a donation. Now you're part of the team! Learn about our special Members Club Making Headway This week's poll on the Arutz 7 website asked readers to choose their favorite candidate for Prime Minister. The results of over 2000 votes are as follows: Moshe Feiglin: 37.9% Aryeh Eldad: 33.1% Binyamin Netanyahu: 21.1% Avigdor Leiberman: 7.9% True, this poll would certainly have had different results if it had been taken on a website visited by a wider spectrum of Israeli voters. But it does give us a fairly accurate picture of where the Jewish Majority is holding. And that picture is very encouraging: For one, we see that the voters are fed up with the eternal candidates that the political system re-cooks from one election to the next. This phenomenon seems to be common to most of the Israeli public. Secondly, important headway has been made in the leadership consciousness of the Jewish Majority. Lieberman and Netanyahu, both considered "Rightists", lag way behind in this poll. The Jewish Majority voters do not see them as worthy candidates. Both Moshe Feiglin and Aryeh Eldad, on the other hand, enjoy the support of 30% to 40% of the Arutz 7 voters. Obviously, these numbers do not reflect Israeli society as a whole. But for the first time, we can see that the Jewish Majority has begun to throw off the shackles of inferiority that it has traditionally felt toward the "real Israelis" of the Left. Bibi, who reverts time and again to Leftist policies, is no longer their man. They are looking for a fresh, new leader who can provide Israel with honest and comprehensive solutions. Moshe Feiglin and Aryeh Eldad have earned the confidence of the Jewish Majority. It would be interesting to see the results of a race between them. There is just one problem, though. Aryeh Eldad is not running for Prime Minister. He has always sufficed himself with influencing the Prime Minister from his sectoral-party Knesset seat. Of the four candidates in the poll, only two -- Moshe Feiglin and Binyamin Netanyahu -- are in the real race for Prime Minister. If we would assume that the votes for Eldad and Lieberman would be split more or less equally between the two candidates in the leadership arena, we would still remain with a ratio of 60:40 in Moshe Feiglin's favor. Clearly, Manhigut Yehudit's leadership drive has made a real breakthrough in the Jewish Majority's consciousness. Ten years ago, most voters would have been frightened to leave the familiarity of the conventional candidate -- no matter how much he had betrayed them in the past. When we finally manage to break through the iron wall of inferiority consciousness with which the Jewish Majority is afflicted, a true symbiosis between basic Jewish culture and national leadership will be created. And when that happens, how many people will continue to vote for the National Religious Party or for the National Union? How many will stay with Lieberman or with Shas? The religious and nationalist satellite parties will become irrelevant and will automatically attach themselves to the Jewish Majority's umbrella party -- Jewish Israel -- under the leadership of the Likud. With G-d's help, this party will lead Israel to its destiny. Now You can Vote Which candidate would you prefer for Prime Minister? Unlike the Arutz 7 poll, Manhigut Yehudit's poll includes only those National Camp candidates who are in the leadership arena: Moshe Feiglin and Binyamin Netanyahu. So who do you choose? Moshe Feiglin or Binyamin Netanyahu Click here to vote now and see what others are thinking!

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