By Jason Gold
This past Monday evening, I was privileged, along with 350 other forward thinking American Jews, to see the future leader of Israel at the annual US Manhigut Yehudit dinner. Watching and listening to Moshe Feiglin, I couldn't help but reflect back to when I first met him and comparing and contrasting the man who stood at the lectern with the man I met some eight years ago. The man in front of me was as focused as always but now more polished and eloquent. His political life has been shaped by significant gains as well as past mistakes made and by recent personal upheaval with the near-death and now slow but steady miraculous recovery (thank G-d) of his son. Yet, despite the nicer suit and tie and better command of the English language, the message has not changed nor has the mission wavered. The delivery is different, no more personal attacks on any Israeli politician; more on what the true Jewish state will look like; but the message stays on point even when discussing the gut-wrenching massacre of the Fogel family at Itamar. It is clear to see that his stature has risen in Israel as has his power base in the Likud. It is also clear that this man will be Prime Minister of Israel sooner than most people think.
Most of all, during the dinner I felt hope. Not Obama-style "hope and change" nonsense but real hope for the future leadership of Israel; a leadership that will restore Jewish pride and have a state based on Jewish values. And so with that, I direct the following message to all my Jewish brothers and sisters in the Diaspora that I have been speaking to about Manhigut Yehudit all these years who have been hesitant to jump on board the Feiglin bandwagon: I realize that for whatever reason you feel it is necessary to throw your money at the same recycled politicians be they right or left but who all end up doing the left's bidding (see Sharon, Bibi I, Bibi II). I realize that you also think that leaders of the small parties on the right like Ketzeleh or Aryeh Eldad, who have both done some great things for the National Religious camp, will actually make a difference politically, or that Avigdor Lieberman will actually care about preserving the Jewish character of the state after he creates an Arab state in Judea & Samaria (as he states on his website that he will do). I realize you think that Bibi is really brilliant and that he must have a secret plan that he is cleverly disguising as a sellout of Yesha and Yerushalayim.
Will you continue the self-delusion with any or all of the above while avoiding getting involved by convincing yourselves that "Feiglin doesn't have a chance". It has been said that if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for everything. Now is the time to take a stand for Israel and the Jewish People. The only way to do this is to support Feiglin. Be part of the solution and not part of the problem. You can keep marginalizing Manhigut Yehudit, but understand no one is laughing at Moshe Feiglin anymore. Keep wringing your hands on why babies are slaughtered in their beds and why bombs are going off in bus kiosks and why the South is being used for target practice and why nothing is being done. Look in fear at the events going on in the Arab countries that has a G-dless Israeli leadership quaking in its collective shoes. Or perhaps try to do something to change the current culture. Try to at least help bring in leadership that can lead and articulate our G-d-given right to all of the Land of Israel. If Sarah Palin can do it and rightly tell us to stop apologizing for everything we do, then why can't our own leadership do the same? I challenge you to help me and many others change the paradigm. I challenge you to have the real audacity or chutzpah of hope for the Land of Israel. May we all see very soon the rise of the true Jewish State of Israel.
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