The Bridge: A Letter to Manhigut Yehudit Members

By Moshe Feiglin

Dear Friends,

When Manhigut Yehudit set out - and especially after we joined the Likud and I declared my candidacy for the head of the Likud, many experts warned us that we were jumping into a shark's pool. "Either they will eat you alive," they predicted, "or you will become one of them."

Thank G-d, we did not heed the warnings, and today, ten years later, we have not been eaten alive and we have not turned into ordinary politicians. Even though I am not a Knesset Member, I am identified as such more than the real MKs and ministers. We are simultaneously both inside and outside the "shark's pool" (which, by the way, contains many friendly sharks, as well). We are positioned in a way that makes it hard for the sharks to sink their teeth into us. Unless we forget what we are doing in the pool, in the first place. When that happens, we become vulnerable to all the rules of the pool and are unceremoniously eaten.

When we set out, the idea of a faith-based prime ministerial candidate seemed preposterous. We were perceived as a naive group that was playing make-believe against all odds. But now, ten years later, we can safely claim success. Faith-based candidacy for the role of prime minister has become part of the political scene in Israel, we achieved second place in the last primaries for head of the Likud and the fierce opposition to my candidacy proved to all just how serious of a threat we are to the existing political culture.

Manhigut Yehudit's initial and sole focus was on public awareness. Our message reached the religious-nationalist sector, but not far beyond it. When we joined the Likud, the gates to the entire Nation of Israel were opened to us. The more progress we made in the Likud, the more attention our message received. There is no doubt about it - it was right to join the Likud.

However, the dynamics of our political progress sometimes blurred the fact that for us, politics is nothing but a means to an end. Our goal is to change the public mindset. But Israel's national mentality cannot extricate itself from its dead end without a new awareness that comes from outside it.

So was it a mistake to enter politics? Maybe we should have remained a strictly ideological movement? But on the other hand, we would not have been able to influence the broad public outside politics and outside the Likud. It is confusing, but that is just the point. Manhigut Yehudit is the bridge between the existing reality and the future reality. On one hand we are firmly planted on both banks. On the other hand, when we shift our weight from one bank to the next, the entire bridge shakes.

At the present, it seems that we have exhausted the political bank. It is now time for us to re-focus on energies on the ideological bank. This means that we will minimize our criticism of the existing reality and invest all our energies into creating an ideological alternative.

We must propose specific alternatives to the public - show them how with a solid base of Jewish consciousness, we would successfully navigate the crises that our country faces. The first step is to create an independent ideological platform that will describe the proposed authentic Jewish State in fascinating terms - and to publicize it in universities and colleges, and not just within the national-religious sector.

The goal that we have set for ourselves is revolutionary; no less difficult than the goals we have taken upon ourselves until now. But if we succeed, the bridge that we have begun to build from the current reality to the authentically Jewish State - will be completed.