"I Would have Won": An Interview with Moshe Feiglin

Translated from the Mayim News website
28 Shvat 5769 (Feb. 22, '09)

"I Would have Won"

"The Right won the elections," says Moshe Feiglin, "but Netanyahu and the Likud lost." In Feiglin's opinion, there is one person responsible for the "unimpressive" election results: Binyamin Netanyahu. "If I would have been at the head of the Likud, we would have won without a doubt," claims the chief intra-party opposition to Netanyahu.

Feiglin has good reason to be upset with Netanyahu. Bibi pulled all the tricks - some even say dirty tricks - to force Feiglin off the Likud roster. The Likud members elected Feiglin to the 20th slot, but he was forced down to 36th slot on the Likud roster by Netanyahu's ex-advisor Ofir Okunis. But Feiglin is Feiglin. He doesn't give up.

As you see it, the Right won despite Binyamin Netanyahu?

I think that that is a good definition. Yes.

What were Netanyahu's mistakes?

I am not interested in criticizing Bibi. He is not the issue. Netanyahu represents something much more essential than his own self. The Right has always had a problem. Even when it wins the elections, the Left remains in control. That is because the Right has no real alternative to the Left's agenda. In the recent elections the right wing grew, but its ruling party lost. Netanyahu has a major role in this defeat. Everyone who follows politics in Israel knows that support for the Likud began to decline when Netanyahu began his campaign against me.

Why is Bibi fighting against you?

What we have seen in these elections is the attempt to create a political alternative to the Left. But there is no real fundamental alternative - except for what I represent in the Likud.

What do you say about journalist Shalom Yerushalmi's claim that Netanyahu purposely didn't campaign hard so that the more rightist and Manhigut Yehudit candidates placed lower on the roster would not get into the Knesset?

Yerushalmi made front page headlines with his scoop. His source was Likud candidates for ministerial positions. I think that what he wrote is true. Netanyahu himself said basically the same thing. He was interviewed by Channel 10's Lior Shlein the day before the elections and he stated the following: Give me 35 mandates - that will be just fine with me.

Should Netanyahu be replaced?

Netanyahu has lost three times: In the elections of '99 the Likud under Netanyahu plunged from 32 to 19 mandates.
In the elections of '05, the Likud under Netanyahu nose-dived from 38 mandates to just 12. And now, from wall-to-wall predictions of a clear victory for the Likud, Netanyahu has led the party to defeat.

The first defeat could possibly be explained as the result of extreme media bias against Netanyahu. The second defeat could possibly be explained by the fact that Sharon had just created the Kadimah party. But this time, the elections victory was already in Netanyahu's pocket. He was leading Kadimah in the polls by double digits. Kadimah was disintegrating and looked like it had no chance. There was not one political analyst who dared to predict that it would win more seats than the Likud. I think Netanyahu should draw his own conclusions.

Do you think that if you were at the helm of the Likud the results would have been better?

I have no doubt. Even if a broom had been at the helm of the Likud, the results would have been better. This defeat is so resounding because Netanyahu's battle against me did so much damage to the Likud. He has turned himself into the perennial loser - the Shimon Peres of the Likud.

Toward the end of the elections Netanyahu signed an agreement with religious nationalist Effie Eitam. It looks like he realized that he must turn more to the Right and not only to the Center.

It was a pathetic move - especially when made with Effie Eitam, who Netanyahu did not allow to run in the Likud primaries.

So Netanyahu didn't really want the Religious Zionists to join the Likud?

That's how it looks. The public is not that stupid.

How do you explain Lieberman's success?

If you look at the graph that shows the mean average of the pre-election polls for the months preceding voting day, you will see a fascinating mirror image. At the beginning of December, the Likud was nearing 40 mandates and was at its apex, while Lieberman was at his low with approximately eight mandates. When the Likud falls, Lieberman gains and vice versa. What happened on December 1st? Netanyahu came out against me in public. At that point, the Likud began its decline. The lost votes went to Lieberman. It is the same pool of voters. Not only that. When Netanyahu forced me down to 36th place a new party was (re)born - the National Union party. What Netanyahu essentially did was to move the right bloc out of the Likud and into Lieberman and National Union.

Did the Religious Zionist parties succeed in the elections?

If I were not in the Likud, I wouldn't vote at all. There is no democracy in Israel, so its politics have no real significance. That is why the sectoral parties are irrelevant. The Israeli citizen has no real way to influence his fate. True, the politicians vie for his vote. He can choose between candidates, but he cannot choose between ideas - and that is what is important. In other words, Israel's democracy is actually a fiction. Currently, the only idea with substance developing within the political system is the Jewish Leadership agenda. This agenda can only develop in the Likud. The Manhigut Yehudit bid for leadership is the only reason that Israel may still be called a democracy. If it would not exist, I would not vote for any party.

What are you going to do now?

I am continuing on the very same path. As far as I am concerned, it makes no difference if Netanyahu will manage to put together a rightist coalition or a national unity government. I am not involved. We are suffering from national paralysis. The Jewish majority that should be leading this country according to its values has no leadership tool, because its ruling party lost. The only way to stop the collapse is for the ruling party to establish a true alternative to the Left: New leadership with a Jewish-national agenda that will lead this country. Otherwise, the situation will continue to deteriorate. It makes no difference how much the right bloc increased.