Where's Feiglin???

"Since Bibi threw Feiglin out, you have disappeared."
"Where's Feiglin? Bibi sold us out, what is Feiglin doing?"

These questions are not new. We heard them when Sharon announced his plans for the Expulsion. We hear them every time the Likud takes power and its leader immediately turns his back on his voters and does all that he can to give the Land of Israel to our enemies. On one hand, these questions reflect expectations. But on the other hand, they reflect disappointment. We are pleased that a large segment of society has leadership expectations of Manhigut Yehudit. But clearly, just as the Opposition in the Knesset can not influence the government decisions, so the Opposition inside the Likud is also limited.
What we do not understand is the disappointment.

Manhigut Yehudit had no illusions about Binyamin Netanyahu. We also warned the public about his intentions before the elections. Not one of us believed in Bibi or voted for Bibi. We joined the Likud and encouraged people to vote for the party despite Bibi and against Bibi!

The person who understood this better than anybody else was Bibi, himself. That is why he fought Feiglin even though he knew that he would lose mandates as a result. Netanyahu preferred a small Likud, without Feiglinites inside and without rightist parties in his coalition. Bibi fought with all the tools at his disposal to prevent Feiglin from gaining power and legitimacy inside the Likud. In other words, Netanyahu understood that when Feiglin's people registered and voted for the Likud - it may have been good for the Likud. But it was bad for Bibi.

Netanyahu's battle against Feiglin was a bit too successful and caused the Likud to lose to Kadimah. At that point, Feiglin, in media interviews, called for the President to appoint Tzippy Livni, whose party got the most votes, to put together a coalition. In other words, we made a complete separation between the Likud, that we wanted to bolster, and Bibi, who we had warned everyone about and who we did not help in any way. We certainly did not depend on him.

The only reason that, for the first time in the history of the State, the current Prime Minister is not the leader of the largest party is because the religious and rightist parties endorsed Netanyahu for the role. Peres was smart enough to understand that Netanyahu would provide him with what he was looking for - much more easily than Tzippy Livni - and called upon Netanyahu to put together a coalition.

It wasn't the Likud voters who gave Netanyahu the power to destroy. It was the endorsements from the Jewish Home, the NU, Lieberman, Shas, et al.

So why did we vote Likud?
We voted Likud because it is the political base for our efforts to create Jewish leadership for Israel. It is hard to imagine where the idea of Jewish leadership for Israel would have been today if we had not connected it to the leadership tool of the National Camp - the Likud. This affiliation connected our ideas to political reality and made them relevant.

Simply put, our relative power in the Likud Central Committee and Likud institutions will increase because people in Yesha and Jerusalem voted Likud. But there is something much more important than that. The people who voted Likud got out of the sectorial box and joined the rest of Am Yisrael. That is the place to which we are trying to lead an entire public.

But who wants to be part of the terrible Likud?
Due to the fact that the majority in Israel is rightist/nationalist/traditional and the Likud is the leadership tool of this national majority, the prime minister will almost always come from this party. The question is only if the faith-based public will take part and influence the voting for head of the Likud and most likely for prime minister. We can always get angry and leave the game. That is just what Bibi wants us to do.

Is it possible that one day, we will change our minds and leave the Likud?
As we have always explained, the answer to that question is "yes." There is nothing holy about the Likud. On the day that we reach the conclusion that the Likud is no longer the leadership tool of the nationalist camp - we will have no reason to remain in the party. However, as long as the Likud is the political home of the majority of the traditional/nationalist public in Israel, and as long as it is the leadership tool of this public, then we - who strive to lead the national camp and the State - will continue to work through the Likud.

But in the meantime, Bibi is destroying everything!
It is important to understand: We are doing and will do all that we can to guard the Land of Israel. And we cannot write about everything that we do in the weekly update. But that is not the purpose of our joining the Likud. All the protests and political maneuvers that the right has carried out until now in its attempt to guard the Land of Israel have not helped. There were always elections, the Likud won and then its leader betrayed his voters and continued to abandon the Land to our enemies. In other words, the only real solution is to replace the leadership that is not committed to faith and is incapable of guarding the Land of Israel with faith -based nationalist leadership.

You Failed!
Our goal is to create faith-based leadership for Israel. The measure of our success or failure is if we have progressed toward that goal or not. It is not our main goal to be in the Knesset or the government or to save Yehuda and Shomron. Our goal is to lead Israel. We measure ourselves against the graph of our progress toward this goal over the years. And while we have also attempted to save the Land of Israel, we have failed to achieve that goal.

There is no doubt that the position of those loyal to the Land of Israel - and Manhigut Yehudit is certainly in that group - is currently at a low point. Bibi, with great cunning, is careful not to pull the rope too tightly. He is not giving the right a clear picture, as Sharon did before the Expulsion. He is not destroying (much) - he simply freezes. Benny Begin is at his side, explaining that it is only for 10 months. The Golan Law has already been postponed twice by the government. Everyone understands that the only possible explanation for this behavior is the intention to surrender it. But in the meantime, everything is just talk. It is the tip of a colossal iceberg, that everyone knows is there, but nobody wants to admit exists. When we will wake up to Netanyahu's real intentions, they will be a fait accompli. The world will already be heavily involved and the Israeli public will be convinced that it is impossible to change. Sharon announced his plans for the Expulsion and worked on them for two years to make it happen. That was a clarion call for all the rightist forces to begin their battle. But Bibi is working quietly. He does not announce his Abandonment Plan. But he is working all the time to make it happen.

At this point, Manhigut Yehudit does not have enough political power to stop Netanyahu. But the wheel of political fortune keeps turning - and in Israel it turns quickly. It is completely likely that once again it will turn out that those people who registered for the Likud will be in the right place at the right time to determine the fate of the settlements and of the State.

It is important to remember! Political success as with the Likud referendum on Gush Katif, and even success in getting elected to the Knesset, do not significantly change the political situation. We have never suffered from a lack of rightist MKs and ministers in the Knesset. As long as the leadership of the State remains in the hands of leaders who do not have G-d in their midst, nothing will stop the destruction of the Land.