Welcome To The Party, Bibi

By Jason Gold

Better late than never, eh Bibi? Come on in. Contenders to the right, pretenders to the left. So where do you fit in? Suddenly in an epiphany, you have discovered the value of Jewish education? So pray tell, what exactly were you doing while your erstwhile fellow Likudnik continued the tradition of gutting the education ministry in Sharon's last stand with the Likud? Yes, yes I know you were busy running the finance ministry and you actually did a fairly decent job of it as the economy will now testify. However, you left much undone, such as not breaking the Histadrut when you had the chance (did you think Peretz and his hoods would vote for you?) and as shown in the infamous photo below, voting for the hitnakut of Gush Katif and then resigning from the government when it suited your political purposes.

You are an excellent spokesperson. You were a solid finance minister. You were a disaster as PM and would be so again. Your decisions on Chevron haunt us to this day including the murder of Shalhevet Pass. Your inability to stand up to Clinton at Wye and to at least come home with Jonathan Pollard shows a serious lack of backbone. Your failure to get Israel off the narcotic of US aid money shows serious follow through issues. Your political zigzagging is all the more painful when one considers the promise that you had. Yes, you had the ability to be one of Israel's greatest leaders and all you are missing is one small thing. A thing called emunah, yiras shamayim, or as we here in Manhigut Yehudit call it, Jewish Identity. Yes, Jewish education is a key ingredient in MY's platform, Bibi. Obviously you were paying attention to Feiglin as he closed in on you from nowhere in the last Likud primaries. Obviously you were so terrified of him, you resorted to all sorts of dirty little tricks to try to get him thrown out of the party before realizing that you would end up alienating Sharansky, Edelstein and a large block of Likudniks that back Feiglin.

So now that MY controls the largest solid block of voters in Likud, what will you do this time? Will you try to fight a fair fight against Feiglin? Will you even have the courage to debate him? Will you try to convince people that you truly have discovered Jewish Identity so that other pretenders will claim that they can "influence" you from behind the scenes? What about the current boosha of Har Habayit Bibi? What about "more painful concessions" Bibi? What about the massive corruption Bibi? Which murderer's hand will you shake this time Bibi? You see, the people are starting to slowly come out of their anesthetized state. Maybe that's why in a recent poll of Israeli voters, almost 2/3 said that you, Livni, and Olmert were all non-choices. If you can convince people that you truly have changed and that you now have more than the typical Israeli hack politician's 12 hour planning horizon, then perhaps you deserve to be PM. Then again, maybe not, although if the people actually vote you in, then perhaps they deserve what they will get. I find it amazing that you somehow manage to induce amnesia in a significant number of people including some otherwise superb journalists that would actually back you.

So do us a favor Bibi. Let Moshe run the Likud and then the country. Be the finance minister or Ambassador to the UN or anywhere else that you can get your picture on the news and slice up ignorant, bigoted, BBC reporters because that is what you are good at. You are not a leader. As your secular Likudnik Moshe Peled said, secular leadership is no longer appropriate for Israel. And just as importantly, whether or not they agree or disagree with him, you will never get the reaction from the Israeli "little guy" that Feiglin invokes. That reaction? "Ish Yashar."

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