Manhigut Yehudit in the News: Jerusalem Post

Click on picture for the JPost video of the event
JPost: Likud's far right appeals to Anglos

Sep. 23, 2009
Josiah Daniel Ryan , THE JERUSALEM POST

Execute prisoners on Hamas's negotiation list until captive soldier Gilad Schalit is released, shut down Army Radio and win the top spot in the Likud leadership.
That's how Shmuel Sackett and Moshe Zalman Feiglin, the founders of far-Right Likud faction Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership), marketed their party to a group of English-speaking immigrants in Jerusalem on Tuesday night.

"Each one of you has a role to play in changing the direction of the Jewish nation," said Feiglin. "Our alternative is going to win, and it's going to lead Israel."
The only question, he said, "is how long it will take and how much suffering we will go through before it happens. There is no other way. It may sound bombastic, but Israel has no chance of surviving without Jewish Leadership."
Feiglin fielded a series of questions from the audience of about 25, most of whom said in a quick poll that they were already registered Likud members.

In response to a question about how he would deal with the Schalit issue as prime minister, Feiglin said he would immediately execute half of the prisoners named in Hamas's negotiation list and execute another one each day Schalit was not released.
"We have atomic bombs, and we cannot rescue a soldier 10 kilometers away?" asked Feiglin. "We take a list of what they want and simply kill half of them, and every day he is not released, we kill another one. If they kill him, then you attack, and you make sure there is not one Hamas leader who stays alive."

In response to a question about how to control the "left-wing media," Feiglin said he would not touch privately owned newspapers, but that he would refuse to speak to several outlets, eject members of his party who did and shut down Army Radio.
"There's no reason why we should pay for a station that is a totally leftist radio station," said Feiglin.

But both Feiglin and Sackett made it clear that they were recruiting immigrants to Likud and that despite conflicts within the party's central leadership, they would not endorse splintering into further factions.
"In order to leave tonight, you have to sign up and join Likud," said Sackett, adding, "We will never start another political party. The right wing has way too many parties as it is. To splinter more is ridiculous."

Feiglin and Sackett cut their teeth in national politics opposing the Oslo Accords, which Feiglin said he blamed for the 9/11 attacks in the US and the suicide bombings that followed in Israel.

The Facebook page that advertised the gathering in Jerusalem's Katamon neighborhood touted Feiglin "as Bibi's biggest political threat," and in his remarks Feiglin said Netanyahu and the media feared him.

"We know it's real from the way Netanyahu is afraid of us and the way the media is afraid of us," he declared.