The Revolution Rollercoaster

By Rob Muchnick, Manhigut Yehudit US Director

This week has taken us through the gamut of emotions. Monday the Likud had its election to determine its list for the upcoming Knesset and Moshe Feiglin, the president of Manhigut Yehudit, was deemed to have won the 20th slot. I use the word “deemed” because nothing in this struggle is as it seems. Even though we expected Moshe to finish in a higher spot, we were overjoyed at this placement, as the 20th slot was the last “realistic” slot available for “national” candidates. If Moshe finished behind the next national candidate, under the Likud’s complicated system he would have been bumped down to the 37th slot. As pre-election polls showed the Likud scheduled to win 30-37 seats, the 20th slot was almost a sure bet to propel Moshe into the next Knesset at the upcoming general election on February 10th while the 37th slot was very iffy.

Pre-election polls had shown Moshe finishing somewhere between slots 5-12, so what happened to push him down to number 20? In the interests of setting the record straight, the answer is the arsenal of dirty tricks employed by Likud chairman Bibi Netanyahu who did everything he could to keep Moshe off the Likud’s list. After the Likud’s Central Committee adopted its voting procedures, Bibi changed the rules so that each voter would choose 14 “national” candidates instead of 10, and 2 of them had to be for the “olim” (new immigrant) slots, instead of only voting for the olim slots if one wanted to do so. Before this change, our 2 olim candidates were favored to win both slots. After this change, they had virtually no chance to defeat Bibi’s candidates, and Moshe Feiglin had a mathematically smaller chance to gain a realistic spot due to Bibi’s machinations. It did not end here. Bibi reduced the number of voting locations from over 200 down to 91 by eliminating locations in all areas where Moshe was known to have strong support, forcing voters to travel up to an hour to get to a voting booth. In other places where Moshe had strength, the number of voting machines per location were drastically reduced. In Kiryat Arba there was only 1 machine for 400 voters. As the system was new and complicated, people took up to 15 minutes to vote. If you do the math, it’s obvious that not everyone there could have voted. Moshe’s supporters had to travel long distances, and in many cases had to wait on lines of 3 hours or more in order to vote.

So we were overjoyed to gain the 20th slot, however precarious it was. Bibi saw this, too, and one of his cronies filed a bogus claim with the Likud court trying to move Moshe down to number 36 because of a patently false technical reason. Yesterday this Likud court - obviously highly politicized - voted in favor of Bibi and moved Moshe down to number 36.

After the decision was announced, Feiglin told Channel 2 news that "anyone who saw the tremendous pressure Netanyahu applied, and all his tricks, which violated all law and justice, can safely assume that the committee, which is made up primarily of politicians, could not withstand that kind of pressure."

In addition to pushing Moshe down to a less certain spot, 2 other “anti-disengagement” former Knesset Members (MKs) were pushed down past Moshe. One of these two MKs, Michael Ratzon, has stated that he will appeal this decision to Israel’s Supreme Court. If his appeal is successful, this would reinstate Moshe to the number 20 position as well. However, Moshe announced that he had no plans to personally appeal the decision, saying that he did not have faith in Israel's justice system.

Why would someone not have faith in the Supreme Court? Because it, too, is highly politicized and is without any concern for Jewish values. In 2005, the Court stated that Ariel Sharon’s Disengagement from Gaza (read “Expulsion”) violated the human and civil rights of those Jews being thrown out of their homes. The court then stated that the Expulsion was legal anyway because since these evictees lived where they live, they were not entitled to have any human or civil rights. Please read that statement again. It’s almost beyond belief.

Moshe does not want to grant any legitimacy to this court. He added the following biting statement: “I don’t want to me an MK because of the Supreme Court. I want to be an MK because of the people.” Feiglin added that he wasn't worried, saying that "we are winners. We will make it so that the Likud will get more than 40 seats in the elections and we will rescue the public from the scorched earth left behind by Kadima."

We need YOUR help so that the Likud gains over 40 seats, and so that Moshe and the 18 other Manhigut Yehudit-endorsed candidates (all opposed to concessions on the Land of Israel) make it into the Knesset. If this happens, we’ll force Bibi to form the traditional Likud coalition - meaning that he’ll have to partner with parties generally opposed to land concessions - instead of letting him form a coalition with Kadima and Labor (as he stated that he wants to do) who will push him hard to make these concessions and further the suicidal Oslo process.

So, to wrap up the week, dear readers, do not despair. Moshe has shown that the Jewish Revolution that we’ve been talking about is well under way, and it has been standing firm in the face of the barrage of dirty tricks from a former Prime Minister who has used his unlimited resources in an attempt to keep us away from the reins of power at all costs. Why has he done this? Because Moshe Feiglin will not play his game. Because Moshe Feiglin wants to inject the Jewish spark into the state of Israel. Because Moshe Feiglin stands for the Jewish People, the Land of Israel, and the G-d of Israel. And because he can not be bargained with. This unflinching resoluteness scares the powers that be - whether they are left-wing or “so-called right-wing”. Moshe Feiglin threatens to show the public that these “leaders have no clothes on”, and he threatens their hegemony. That is why Bibi must keep Moshe Feiglin out of the Knesset at all costs.

This saga has not played itself out. There is a long way to go. G-d willing, Moshe Feiglin will soon be in the Knesset as the first step toward fixing the Jewish state, and then fulfilling our goal of “perfecting the world in the Kingdom of the Almighty.”