The Jewish Leadership Blog

The Likud Primary and Shalom Aleichem’s Silverware

2012-01-30T20:54:00.001-05:00

By Tuvia Brodie

It has been said that the Yiddish writer Shalom Aleichem (born Shalom Rabinowitz, 1859-1916) once wrote that a Jew should always welcome a stranger into his home—but that he should also count his silverware after the stranger has departed. We might wish to take such wise advice today, especially when a candidate—Moshe Feiglin-- runs in a major primary election against a powerful incumbent –Benjamin Netanyahu—when that incumbent has already been quoted as exhorting his campaign organizers to make sure Mr. Feiglin gets less than twenty per cent of the vote (see Gil Ronen, Likud showdown looms: Feiglin rallies Yesha support, Arutz Sheva, January 12, 2012). Heaven Forbid anyone should think that an incumbent Israeli politician might pressure someone to commit questionable deeds on his behalf during or after an election vote. We will always assume that everyone who touches a ballot in this week’s Likud primary will naturally act honourably. We expect nothing less from Likud members. We believe in Likud. We favour Likud. We trust Likud.

But of course, we also trust Shalom Aleichem. Who can read his tales of Jewish peasantry and poverty and fail to be touched? Who does not respond to his wisdom and humor? So as we honor Likud while she prepares to vote for her next leader, let us also honour Shalom Aleichem by counting ‘silverware’ or, to use a more modern expression—monitor the voting process.

Everyone knows about counting silverware after a guest leaves. It’s simple. It’s easy. It can be done in the privacy of your own dining room. Monitoring an election is similar, except it isn’t so private. Manhigut Yehudit would be wise to be wise. Why leave hungry children in a candy store alone, unmonitored?

The monitoring process is not difficult. It requires that several volunteers deploy to each voting station, to watch for irregularities. Their goal would be to record and report the time and place of any irregularity, along with the names of those involved—and then make necessary phone calls to assure that all voting-place irregularities are corrected as soon as possible. They would be present at the opening of their assigned polling station to witness station preparations. Then they would remain throughout the voting schedule to observe the vote cast, the handling of ballots and ballot boxes, and the behaviour of station personnel.

Because monitors would take their positions before voting stations open, they will (in theory) be able to identify quickly—before voters show up--if a polling station has unexpectedly been moved from its announced location without prior public notification. In this way, monitors can help make certain that voters are not disenfranchised by decisions that essentially ‘hide’ a local voting station.

There have been whispers that last-minute voting place changes might have happened in Likud’s last primary. As a consequence, some votes possibly favouring one candidate might not have been cast, to the advantage of the other candidate. Since that might have annoyed the losing candidate, monitors this year would simply help Likud avoid such an occurrence two times in a row.

During the voting process, poll observers would make certain that voters can vote without restriction or harassment. After all, voters should not feel discriminated against or unreasonably prohibited from voting. Voters should expect that the voting station they are to travel to in order to vote will be reasonably close and accessible without unnecessary challenge or difficulty. Observers would validate that voting is open, accommodative, comfortable, secret and free.

As voting unfolds, monitors can watch to see that the voting process is run efficiently and fairly for all voters. Observers can record whether or not voting-place officials behave credibly and appropriately towards all voters, and remain impartial and helpful to all voters. Observers can also record and report any behaviour of polling-place officials that favours a particular candidate or suggests partisan advantage for one candidate over the other.

Finally, as ballot boxes are moved and then transported to counting places, monitors would follow behind, to track the ballot journey from voting booth to its final destination—the vote-counting. Manhigut Yehudit would be wise to request the presence of observers at that counting process—if such observers are not already part of it.

Naturally, the purpose of such monitoring is not punitive. It is not political. It is not intended to suggest foul play or fraud. Its purpose is to establish a verifiable transparency that will prompt the public to feel confident that all procedures have been followed properly. Both sides benefit from such transparency.

Besides, Shalom Aleichem has a point: nothing is better at proving people are honest than counting your silverware—or your votes.

The Great Debate: Shmuel Sackett on Moshe Feiglin and Manhigut Yehudit

2012-01-29T08:37:00.000-05:00

Don't miss this video from last Sunday's debate in Beit Shemesh. Click here or on image.

The Likud Primary—and Yair Lapid?

2012-01-29T08:26:00.002-05:00

By Tuvia Brodie

I do not know television personality Yair Lapid. I have never met him. I had never seen him on television. I have only seen photos of him—and yes, he is photogenic; or, if he isn’t photogenic, he certainly has a good photographer and a great make-up artist. Lucky man; I’m jealous. He has recently announced that he will enter politics, to run in the next national election. Even though he appears to have no political, leadership or civic experience, he apparently uses his good looks and TV fame to catapult into the spotlight. ‘Catapult into’ is a courageous concept for Israeli politics because Israel’s political stage seems crowded with big people with huge personalities and very sharp elbows. But how else would you characterize the impact of a neophyte who will—it is commonly said—put Kadima out of business?

It is a stunning example of power in the public arena: one man, with no political experience and few publicly revealed ideas, can threaten to shut down Israel’s second leading political Party, just on his looks and TV work! To put this into perspective, can you imagine an American TV personality—say, Jon Stewart or David Letterman—shutting down the Republican Party simply by running for President? In America, that would never happen: the political parties are more powerful than any media personality.

I’d like to meet Lapid’s photographer. Even his hairdresser would do. If that’s all it takes to make a splash in Israel, I could go far, especially with a make-up artist.

And yet, despite—or because of-- his reported lack of political experience, Lapid has said something worthwhile. As Arutz Sheva has reported ( Lapid Rules out joining Kadima, Eldad Benari, January 20, 2012), Lapid has posted on his Facebook page the statement that he will not join Kadima because Kadima politicians do not ‘have any idea what—if anything—they believe in’. Naturally, this may be a minority opinion—his own. But it has significant meaning for Likud members who will vote January 31 for their next head-of-Likud. They would be wise to listen to the inexperienced Lapid. If he’s right, Likud could be in trouble.

As some have already pointed out, the Israeli public wants leaders who believe in something and can communicate that belief. Lapid appears to understand this. He rejects Kadima because, he claims, they lack it. Likud voters, however, face the same issue. If they are not careful, they could create a Likud where Party leaders ‘do not know what—if anything—they believe in’—and, as Lapid has just suggested, the one thing this nation’s public does not crave is a politician who believes in nothing.

This is not public stupidity or one person’s opinion. It is an example of citizens’ understanding a universal truth which politicians may not appreciate. In America, there is a book entitled, ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,’ by Stephen Covey. It’s been in print since 1989, and is one of the most influential business books ever written. Part of the book highlights values-based decision-making, which teaches how to make decisions that are consistent with our ‘true-North’ values—principles that guide us without shifting because of expediency or opportunity. Decisions based on shifting values too often lead to inconsistent results (which satisfy no one) and frustration. This is what Lapid is telling us: to be successful, you must first believe in something bigger than you. It’s a universal truth; it’s what makes that American book so powerful.

Where is the threat to Likud? The Likud Platform is strongly pro-Israel. It takes a strong stance on Jerusalem (it belongs to Israel), Judea and Samaria (they are part of Israel’s ancestral homeland) and the Jordan River Valley (it must stay under Israel control). That’s so clear, one might borrow from Lapid’s Facebook statement (above) and ask, ‘Isn’t that clear enough?’

Yes, it is.

Nevertheless, Likud has a problem-- Mr. Netanyahu. He rejects everything Likud believes in. Now, he seeks an overwhelming vote of confidence from the January 31 primary (at least 81 per cent of total vote), to ensure that his control over Likud is absolute. This is where the risk is: if the Platform says one thing and Netanyahu does the opposite with impunity, then Likud becomes meaningless. What do Likud leaders believe in when they select a Head who rejects everything? Make no mistake: the leader who rejects everything believes in nothing; and the same is true for those who vote for him.

I know nothing about Yair Lapid. For all I know, he could get eaten alive in Israel’s political arena—and deserve it. But on this subject, he’s got it right. He understands that if you believe in nothing—or if you reject everything your ‘family’ believes-- you lose. This could not be clearer than in Lapid's own analysis of the upcoming Likud primaries at his coming out party. Lapid stated that a victory or strong showing by Moshe Feiglin (the only faith -based candidate and true-to-the-Likud values Likudnik) would move the Likud to the right where they would pick up more Knesset seats in the next national elections. To prevent this, he then urged Likud voters to vote for Mr. Netanyahu.

Is this what the Likud voter wants?

Israel Must Create an Exemplary Society

2012-01-26T19:18:00.000-05:00

Moshe Feiglin spoke this week in Tekoa. Click here or on the image for the video and English transcript.

Pharaoh's Defeat

2012-01-26T18:47:00.000-05:00

By Moshe Feiglin

And Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh; and he said to them: 'Go, serve Hashem your God; who exactly is going?' (From this week's Torah portion, Bo, Exodus 10:8)

The real issue debated in the exchange between Pharaoh, Moses and Aaron is Pharaoh's political/theological status. "The river is mine and I made myself," says Pharaoh, according to the Midrash. Modern man has repeated this statement in varying forms, many times over. I am the focal point of creation, it is my will that determines what will be and everything else is simply a narrative or other post-modern postulation.

Pharaoh's regime is the culmination of the worship of man. It is the complete opposite of the message of liberty with which the Creator, through the Nation of Israel, imbues humanity.

The threat of the plague of locusts begins to erode Pharaoh's self confidence. He is already willing to negotiate. And like a seasoned politician, he does all that he can to keep all the cards - political and theological - in his hands.
And Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh - Pharaoh speaks to Moses through an intermediary. He protects his regal distance and status.

'Go, serve Hashem your God - not the G-d of all G-ds, but your G-d.

Who exactly is going? - Pharaoh wants a report. He shows Moses and Aaron that the Jews are still under his jurisdiction.

After the plague of hail, the seasoned politician backs down a bit from his political stand, but not from his theology. His personal status has been challenged. But he still holds firmly to the idolatrous idea that G-d is the G-d of the Jews, alone. In other words, I - Pharaoh - am god. But there is another god with whom I have entered into a conflict: And Pharaoh hurried to call for Moses and Aaron and he said, ' I have sinned to Hashem your G-d and to you.' (Exodus 10:16)

After the plague of darkness, Pharaoh no longer insists that the G-d of the Jews is theirs alone. From here on in, the G-d of Israel is the One G-d:
And Pharaoh called Moses and he said, 'Go, worship G-d. Just leave your flocks and cattle behind. Your children will also go with you.' (Exodus 10:24)

With the last remnants of his strength, Pharaoh attempts to cling to his power. As the end approaches, the fading despot becomes very dangerous:
And Pharaoh said to him, 'Leave from before me. Just beware not to see my face again, for on the day that you see my face, you will die. (Exodus 10:28)

Now Pharaoh receives the blow most dangerous to any leader:
And G-d made the nation find favor in the eyes of Egypt. The man, Moses, was also very great in the land of Egypt and in the eyes of the servants of Pharaoh and the eyes of the nation. (Exodus 11:3)

It makes no difference who is sitting on the throne. What really matters is where the heart of the nation resides. From that point on, Moses can carry out a coup and rule the empire instead of Pharaoh:
And he called for Moses and Aaron in the night and he said, 'Arise and go out from my nation, all of you and the Children of Israel, and go to worship G-d, as you said. Your flocks and cattle shall be in your midst, take them, as you have said. Go out and bless me, as well.

Pharaoh's defeat - both political and theological - is complete. Get out and stop threatening my regime. And from wherever you will be, bless me as well - for your G-d is The G-d.

Shabbat Shalom

HaRav Nachman Kahana on Parashat Bo 5772

2012-01-26T18:45:00.001-05:00

BS"D

Parashat Bo 5772

At Moshe’s threat that the next plague would be a devastating attack of locusts Paro’s advisors appealed to him saying (10:7)

ויאמרו עבדי פרעה אליו עד מתי יהיה זה לנו למוקש שלח את האנשים ויעבדו את ה' א-להיהם הטרם תדע כי אבדה מצרים
"How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the LORD their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is lost?"

This one phrase, ‘Do you not yet realize that Egypt is lost?’ brought Paro to his knees, for it contains a dynamic socio-economic truth that transcends generations and societies, that people can be classified into two groups: Those who are dangerous and those who are grievously dangerous. The mundane dangerous ones are the "have nots" of the world whose ambition is to "have" something, but the more dangerous ones are those who "have" but are in "clear and present danger" of losing it all.

A demagogic leader can restrain a hungry man or a restless society by diverting their attention to a real or imaginary danger, or through the amusements of sports and the theater. But these superficial diversions are ineffectual in an affluent society where pending disaster threatens to engulf citizen and leader alike.

The Jewish slaves in Egypt would have been content had Paro restored to them the basic building material of straw to produce bricks, as the leaders said to Moshe after his failed first encounter with Paro. But for the royal entourage who were satiated with wealth, the very thought that the plagues might destroy their homes and fields, their livestock and the luxuries they were so used to, caused them to push the panic button and scream out to Paro, "Do you not yet realize that Egypt is lost!"

Civil war broke out between those Egyptians in whose interest it was for the Jews to remain slaves, versus the Egyptian first born who took Moshe’s warning of the pending tenth plague very seriously, as is stated in Tehilim 136:10.

Fast forward 3500 years. Today’s dire economic situation affects almost everyone on the planet. The "have nots" will continue not to have, and they will demonstrate "to occupy", scream, beg and then go to sleep on an empty stomach, as usual, but they will not be the ones to plunge the world into a third world war.

The grievously dangerous ones are those nations whose citizens go to bed with filled stomachs and fully packed refrigerators, but cannot sleep for fear that their jobs and health insurance are at jeopardy; their mortgage payments (and for religious Jews the day school expenses) are strangling; and their unpaid bills just keep piling up. The house, the car, the TV and all else were purchased with 10% down and the rest in 36 easy monthly payments. To lose these things is not an option, so desperate situations require desperate solutions.

Great episodes of history repeat themselves, just the names and places change.

Our rabbis informed us that during the plague of darkness, on the eve of the exodus, a deep ideological chasm divided the Jewish people. Eighty percent of the nation refused to leave, preferring to remain in Egypt in order to replace the indigenous Egyptian nation with a Jewish State on both sides of the Nile River. Twenty percent of the Jews prepared to leave the hated land of their subjugation with the aim of establishing a Jewish State on both sides of the Jordan River.

Today’s economic and political leaders in the lands of the Jewish galut know very well the true situation of their countries, and the pessimistic outlook for the coming decade or decades. When will they reach the point of "Do you not yet realize that... is lost"? No one can know, but it is not far off.

The same chasm that existed in Egypt between those who would not budge from their delusional safe financial and economic perches and those who wished to escape the evils of Egypt, exists today in the lands of the Jewish galut.

The recession "soon to be depression" plagued economies of Europe, and the 14+ trillion dollar national debt of the United States will be blamed not on the selfish materialistic nature of the people of those nations, but rather on the convenient and "time tested" scapegoat; the money grubbing, aggressive Jews in their midsts.

The galut’s bleak future will begin with limited civil unrest leading to riots and mass arrests. This will be followed by a phase of accusations about who is to blame for the economic woes and the disparity in the sharing of the nation’s wealth.

At some point, the Jews will face up to the reality that saving their lives is a bit more important than the long mahogany dining room table and overhanging chandeliers, and will call their travel agents for tickets to Eretz Yisrael, only to be told that there is a 10-month waiting list!

Then they will open to our parasha of Bo and read that when the time came for the Jewish people to leave Egypt, Hashem brought it about in circumstances of agtfeo - in great haste. And when the time of our generation’s "great haste" will arrive, I fear that very few of the Jews in the galut will merit a place on the "magic carpet," and they, like their forefathers, will leave with no more than a few dry matzot

The "Elders of the Negev" said (Tractate Tamid 32a):

איזהו חכם? הרואה את הנולד
Who is the wise man? He who can foresee the future.

How can one foresee the future? A prophet is informed of it by HaShem, but a wise man uses a formula to determine the future: the past + the present = the future. By comparing the factors of the present to those of the past, the wise man intuitively feels where the future lies.

I am often asked why I raise the scepter of fear in the galut rather than stressing the positive aspects of Eretz Yisrael? I answer that I do not want to be like the fool who wrote an approbation to the Book of Mishle (Proverbs) saying: "I too agree that King Solomon was a wise man".

Who am I to extol the sanctity of Eretz Yisrael? It is open for all to see, in the Torah, in the writings of the prophets, in the Mishna, Gemara and in the writings of our rabbis of all generations.

If in our time, the Satan let loose his pit bull called "yetzer hara" to obfuscate the thinking of certain religious leaders, and to induce their followers in the way of the 80% who did not want to follow Moshe Rabbeinu - that is their unfortunate choices in life.

We can only hope that HaShem will remove the blinders from the eyes of those religious leaders and from the eyes of their naive followers, before the curtain of history comes down on the galut in a brutal and final ending,

May HaShem have pity on His children and bring back our brothers and sisters home to Eretz Yisrael very very soon.

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana

The Likud Primary: why Moshe Feiglin Must Replace Benjamin Netanyahu

2012-01-25T09:45:00.002-05:00

By Tuvia Brodie

It is said that when Israelis vote Left they get a Leftist government, and when they vote Right they still get a Leftist government. Conventional wisdom says this happens because the Left is so powerful in Israel the only way a Prime Minister can survive is to lean Left. If this is true, Rightist Likud is cursed.

Is a Right-leaning Likud cursed because Israelis—and a Prime Minister--know that Left is the only way to go? Or is conventional wisdom wrong?

To answer these questions, remember that Israel has become more Right—and religious. For the first time in a very long time, the Right/religious exert a growing influence in Israeli politics. They demand steadfastness. They also have a candidate for head-of-Likud, Moshe Feiglin. Their growing influence, and the extent of Feiglin’s base, suggest that Israel’s future will be determined not simply by Likud—Israel’s most powerful political party—but by how ideological and political arguments play out within Likud. Daniel Levy (who uses the following words to argue a different case), writing in The Middle East Channel, January 17, 2011, calls this growing Right/religious influence a reality that would have appeared inconceivable to Israel’s (non-religious) founders. But its presence in Likud today is real; and that reality means that Feiglin has surprising strength. It also means that the Left’s hegemony has passed.

We certainly ignore Feiglin’s strength at our peril because history has changed us—and our leadership needs. First, religion in Israel is no longer the province of an unwanted minority. Also, Israel’s existence is so threatened that we no longer have the luxury of supporting an anti-Israel Leftist agenda. In a hostile world, Likud defends us with a strong pro-Israel advocacy. Likud attracts many who are both pro-Israel and religious just at a time when Leftists want to un-Jewish Israel. The Left insists that we become a multicultural smorgasbord that would destroy everything that a pro-Israel, increasingly religious Israel majority believes in. The Left opposes Israel’s majority. They know that. They also know that their hold on power is virtually over.

Why does a Likud leader want to turn Left? Likud has what Israel’s majority wants: a nationalist agenda. The Likud Platform has support from both religious and non-religious voters. More important, non-religious-but-Right Israelis see religious Jews working to defend Likud ideals. Religious nationalists gain respect with every headline against them. This respect grows because non-religious ‘centrists’ have been mugged by reality as the UN turns against Israel and the Left encourages Israel’s enemies. Those who stand most steadfast for Likud ideals are often the religious nationalist. This defense of Likud does not go unnoticed. To put this into context, Michael Zylberman, speaking of Gaza in an undated blog called, the guardian.blog, writes that ‘Every rocket fired into Israel from Gaza is like putting a leaflet for Likud into every letterbox in Israel;’ the same thing happens today with every Leftist decision to demolish homes of religious nationalists in Judea-Samaria: each destroyed home is another leaflet for Likud--but because Netanyahu rejects Likud when he allows this demolition, those ‘leaflets’ are not just for Likud, they are for Feiglin. That is Feiglin’s strength and his political lifeblood.

Feiglin does not lean Left. His message is clear. Likud members know where he stands. They also know how the world treats Israel—and how Mr. Netanyahu has reacted. He back-pedals. He chooses ‘Left’. Likud voters are mostly pro-Israel—by an overwhelming majority. Mr. Netanyahu’s rejection of Likud ideals to look Left does not sit well with this majority. Now a nationalist and religious Moshe Feiglin asks Likud for votes; suddenly, Likud has a leadership candidate who is steadfast and articulate. In a world that turns against Israel, Likud knows that Moshe Feiglin is pro-Israel and strong.

How will Likud vote on January 31? Clearly, the ideological line-in-the-sand has been drawn: Netanyahu and the Left versus Feiglin and Likud. Who stands a better chance of defending Israel in the battles to come—one who leans Left, or one who chooses Likud’s ideals?

Likud has to choose. Mr. Feiglin does not waffle or connive with the Left. He does not ignore Likud beliefs. He tells you what he believes. He speaks of his basic values—his religion and our land. You know him. You understand he is steadfast. You know that when the going gets tough—and it will, soon—he will know how to speak. He will know what is true. No one believes that he will lean Left under pressure.

This is why Mr. Feiglin must replace Mr. Netanyahu: the battles ahead will be too serious to waffle and connive. We will not survive by embracing what is anti-Likud. You know this. Mr Feiglin knows it. Mr Netanyahu does not, as his actions clearly demonstrate. Your choice, dear Likudnik, could not be more obvious.

United We Stand

2012-01-25T08:49:00.000-05:00

By Moshe Feiglin

1 Shevat, 5772
Jan. 25, '12

Translated from the Makor Rishon newspaper

If the pictures of last week's destroyed outposts had been of Bedouin villages or illegal houses in the Galilee, the whole country would have been up in arms. Leftist author Amos Oz would have run to build the destroyed homes with his own two hands, the media would have incessantly interviewed the children who were thrown out of their beds in the middle of the night and enraged Arabs would have ignited all the mixed Jewish/Arab towns throughout Israel.

But Jewish children in their pajamas standing in the freezing cold outside their destroyed houses; Torah scrolls crumpled in the mud amidst the ruins of synagogues none of that is 'news'.

There is no dearth of rivalry within the Left; both personal and ideological. But when they face off against the settlers and the Right, they present a united front. There are no 'extremists' in the Left. You can be funded by foreign governments to directly undermine your country and aid its declared enemies; you can organize violent demonstrations weekly, stoning IDF soldiers, injuring over 700 (!) soldiers and Border Police; you can refuse to serve in the army; you can break the law and riot as much as you want. If you are a leftist, fighting the Left's battle of disintegration and retreat you are in the consensus; you have a reserved seat at the round tables, in the universities, on television and ironically even at meetings with the settlers.

On the other hand, if you settle the Land of Israel with dedication, but not exactly according to the ideological nuances of one yeshiva or another you are alone. On the morning after the destruction, no Amos Oz or other spiritual leaders will be there for you. The rabbi of one sub-group will be afraid to come to encourage and lend legitimacy to the outpost of the other sub-group. And vice versa.

When the home of Nati Ozeri was destroyed along with all the belongings inside and his widow and small orphans were thrown out into the frozen Hebron night, I came with just a few people to help. No settler leader or spiritual guide was there. In my eyes, this is the underlying reason that those thousands who considered themselves firmly ensconced within the consensus and the law suffered the same hell just a few years later.

The fear of supporting the basic rights of the person whom we perceive as more extreme than we are paralyzes us all. One does not have to agree with the controversial book, Torat Hamelech or the 'price-tag' operations in order to stand with the families whose husbands were expelled from their homes by army orders originally reserved for terrorists and were then charged with spying.

As a resident of Samaria, I feel humiliated by the way we treat ourselves. Is it a surprise that we get the same treatment from the pogromchicks and Israeli society? The way that society relates to the settlers is simply a reflection of how we relate to ourselves. If the heads and rabbis of the settlement movement do not pick the Torah scroll out from the rubble and mud and rebuild Mitzpeh Avichai with their own hands their message is clear: Those people in the outposts are 'extremists', so the abomination that was perpetrated against them is legitimate. Why should the rest of the Israeli public think otherwise?
In the meantime, the evil winds are blowing and every week the militias in black show up in the middle of the night, biting off another house and another family.

When Ehud Barak sent the security forces to destroy Ramat Gilad, I came there to be with the residents of the outpost. Speaking before the large group that had assembled there, my assessment was that Netanyahu would not let it happen. "He has primaries in another month," I said. "He will not campaign for me. But as to the outposts that are not supported by the settler mainstream, Bibi calculates unfortunately correctly that he can destroy them now without causing himself any damage. So until January 31st you can all sleep soundly. Nobody will come to destroy your homes." It turns out that Barak had attempted to destroy Ramat Gilad without Netanyahu's knowledge; my assessment was correct.

The pressure on the Prime Minister before the Likud primaries may force him to authorize the law to 'legalize' the outposts before voting day. If that happens, it will turn out ex post facto that the fact that I am running against Netanyahu in the primaries has temporarily saved Migron and Givat Asaf.

But even if that happens, it will be just a temporary respite in the losing battle that the settlements have been waging ever since the Oslo Accords were signed. Today, nobody even remembers that Neveh Dekalim was built by the Labor party and Yitzhar by the Likud. Netanyahu has declared his intention to establish a 'Palestinian' state, every week Jewish families are thrown out of their homes, the only city being built in Judea or Samaria is the Arab Wahabi, and on their way to work, the settlers must drive through international border crossings.

The inability of the leaders of the Right and the settlement movement to give their full backing to the different sub-groups within and their inability to establish an ideological alternative to the direction in which Zionism is retreating plays into the hands of the Left and perpetuates the Oslo Accords.

Peace Now did not petition the court against Gush Katif and no legal problems threatened it. The evil winds that threatened Gush Katif are still threatening Ofra and Beit El, Migron and Givat Asaf with or without the law to legalize the outposts.

You Can Sleep Soundly Until Jan. 31

2012-01-25T08:22:00.001-05:00

This animated clip is going viral all across Israel.
Please watch it and forward it to all your friends especially in Israel.
The translated transcript is below.
Please remember that your help makes these projects possible.
www.MFLikud.com and click on "Donate."

Transcript:

Likud member Do you live in YESHA?
Wonderful.
Until Jan 31st you can continue to sleep quietly.
Until Jan 31st nobody will threaten you.
You have a house, a bed - you can continue to sleep.
How well will you sleep AFTER Jan 31st???
THAT is another question.

The people who prevented an additional building freeze,
And who battle against the decrees of Ehud Barak,
Are the MKs of Likud who were elected due to the influence of Feiglin.

On Jan 31st there will be primaries to elect the Chairman of Likud.
If Netanyahu receives a resounding victory,
MKs (Danny) Danon, (Tzippi) Hotoveli, (Zev) Elkin, (Yariv) Levine and their colleagues
Will no longer feel that they have the support of the Likud membership,
And Netanyahus dream of 2 States for 2 People will become a painful reality!

On the other hand
A strong showing by Moshe Feiglin will show that the faith-based and ideological camps in Likud
Are STRONG and UNITED
Which will give those MKs the backing and strength to continue fighting for settlement of the land
And the entire Land of Israel!

So remember what we said
Until Jan 31st you can continue to sleep quietly.
How will you sleep AFTER Jan 31st???

It is EXACTLY FOR THAT REASON why you are going to vote!!!

So, for settlement of the Land
Put MOSHE in the ballot box!

Moshe Feiglin v. Netanyahu: Last Exit to Jerusalem

2012-01-24T07:52:00.002-05:00

By Bernie Quigley

The following article, which discusses the global importance of next week's election for Likud Chairman between Moshe Feiglin and Benjamin Netanyahu, was written by Bernie Quigley, and originally appeared on The Hill's Pundits Blog on January 19, 2012.

Mr. Netanyahu stands for giving away Judea and Samaria - the biblical heartland of the Jewish People (a/k/a the 'West Bank') - to PLO/PA Arab terrorists who have direct ties to the Iranians and whose ancestors worked hand-in-hand with Adolf Hitler. The state he wishes to create will leave Israel with what famed Israeli diplomat Abba Eban called "Auschwitz Borders", as Israel will be reduced to being 9 miles wide and militarily indefensible. (For documentation of the PLO/PA's links as specified above, please visit www.HIRhome.com )

Moshe Feiglin stands for Israel annexing and settling all lands liberated during the war of 1967, for ending the taking of all foreign aid, and for Israeli leaders making their decisions by taking into account that Israel should be run according to Jewish values as opposed to by secular, globalist or humanist values.

Why must I, a cold-country New Englander and a solitary mountain dweller with a broken foot, be the only American to write about the upcoming election in Israel for leadership in the Likud, as critical to Israel’s destiny and to American interests in Israel as the fateful primary in South Carolina?

The Israeli paper Arutz Sheva reports that Moshe Feiglin, who is challenging Benjamin Netanyahu for leadership of Likud in the party's primaries two weeks from now, cited a favorable poll Tuesday morning as evidence that his chances of seriously embarrassing Netanyahu are high, and that a victory by Netanyahu is not a complete certainty: “In a poll conducted by polling company Ma’agar Mochot, about 26 percent of Likud members not affiliated with Feiglin's faction agreed that ‘it is important to vote for Moshe Feiglin in the upcoming primaries, even though it is clear that Binyamin Netanyahu will win, just so that the right wing inside Likud will gain strength.’ "

As Feiglin has written not long ago, this year for the first time there are more Jews living inside Israel than outside: "The exile is over."

European Jews have been returning to the source in Jerusalem since 1492. It has been a journey homeward, like a parallel event; a shadow journey of European Jewry joining in with the gentile world on the way here to New York City. But the last 500 yards of the journey, up the steps to Temple Mount, where Jews are arrested today and sometimes beaten by police for praying, is proving to be one of the most treacherous links of the journey.

The changes we face today in the United States are generational: Bush, Clinton generations moving out of the scene and carrying with them their generation gods, demons and furniture. Israel faces a similar generational change which portends Netanyahu and the American-dominated Israelis leaving the scene now or in the near future. That is why this race is critical.

These upcoming races move toward an auspicious future where Israel and the United States, alone or together in a different way than they are now, both enter light and air. Europe faces a different trajectory and different destiny; a journey that recedes from Yalta inauspiciously as capital flees to Asia. Bret Stephens, columnist of the Wall Street Journal, calls Europe’s state a “slow suicide.” But Israel and Europe have different destinies.

Ten years hence Americans will have new friends in Israel and Israel will have new American friends. There is no telling with Europe; moral descent of the world geist since Yalta can be seen not only in the collapsing economy but descending as well from the clarity and density of Hannah Arendt writing to the one-world voices today of Lady Gaga, Bono and Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats. Where can they possibly go from here?

As Stephens suggests in a recent column, the sinking of the cruise ship suggests Europe’s trajectory. Should be noted that the first harbinger of a plague in Europe in the 14th century came when a trade ship entered the port at Constantinople and everyone on board was found to be dead.

But that is not our fate and it will not be Israel’s. The generations will shift and rise in the upcoming election in Israel and in the races here in the coming year.

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international-affairs/205103-moshe-feiglin-v-netanyahu-last-exit-to-jerusalem

They're Not Laughing Anymore - An Interview with Moshe Feiglin

2012-01-24T07:41:00.000-05:00

January 23, 2012...

In advance of the election for Likud Chairman on Tuesday, January 31 between Moshe Feiglin and Benjamin Netanyahu, we bring you this in-depth interview which first appeared in the January 20th addition of Olam Katan, a religious Zionist publication. What follows is an original translation by World of Judaica.

Oftentimes it seemed that the hardest thing to listen to for the last 13 years has been his complete and utter seriousness while demanding “Faith-based leadership for Israel.” In the end, maybe this makes even us, the religious Zionists, nervous • Moshe Feiglin is running alone against Benjamin Netanyahu for leadership of the Likud. The results of these primaries, even if they don’t end in a victory for him, will still be enough to bring this man’s vision one step closer to reality • Moshe Feiglin answers all the questions you ever wanted to ask – to what extent he believes in his goal. How younger Knesset Members have overtaken him. Why is it that it’s hardest for religious people to come to terms with Jewish Leadership. What mistakes does he admit and what does he remain stubborn about • The Big Race

A long time ago they were sure that he would eventually give up, that the process had exhausted itself and that he himself already understood this. After the 2006 elections when the Likud won only 12 seats, the pundits mocked him saying that according to the “influence from within the centers of power” logic of Manhigut Yehudit, Feiglin now had to leave Likud and go to Kadima. After he failed to attain a Knesset seat in 2009, they came down hard on him. The religious columnists specifically lambasted him for his arrogance in running for the Likud leadership time and again, on the non-politically-correct “we have come to replace you” approach against the present Likud leadership. They claimed that Olmert became prime minister only because of him.

And despite all this, as the sand continues to blow, Moshe Feiglin (50) is back, running yet again, this time as the only candidate, this time against a sitting prime minister. In political terms this would be considered suicide, but that’s nothing for Feiglin. This is already his fourth time. The first time, 9 years ago, then again running against a sitting prime minister, he got 3.5% of the vote. Two years later he got 12.5%. In 2007, Likud had primaries once again, where he was granted nearly a quarter of the Likud vote. In Jerusalem, the biggest branch of the ruling party, he got nearly 40% of the vote. He could have even gotten a larger portion, but Netanyahu and his men made a herculean effort to bring their supporters to the polls in order to prevent Feiglin from winning the capital city. Not to mention that in other cities as well that are certainly not settlements, Feiglin achieved impressive results. In Gadera, for example, he got 38% of the vote. In Beit Shemesh, 31%. Yavne, 28%, and even in Haifa he reached 26% support.

They claim that only because of him and Manhigut Yehudit, Sharon decided to leave the Likud and establish Kadima. That Manhigut Yehudit was the only thing preventing the inventor of the concept of Disengagement from taking over Menahem Begin’s historic movement. For these primaries, by the way, he comes armed with surprisingly supportive statements from a Leftist icon, Avrum Burg. Burg, on the “Head to Head” television program on the Knesset channel, said last month that “The only man that presents a serious alternative, and puts forth an organized and relevant political philosophy that is worth contending with and presents a real challenge for us, is Moshe Feiglin.” The conversation we had was a bit harried, since Feiglin was invited to a political event in the Israeli Arab village of Bara. Many Likud voters he probably did not find there, but then again the man is trying to lead the whole country.

Two weeks before primaries where his raising his support level yet again is a real possibility, as the step he told us all to take 13 years ago – joining the Likud party – is making more and more waves in the religious Zionist sector, he is still convinced that a faith-based candidacy for leadership of the country is the only viable path capable of stopping the oncoming flood.

Q. Many have followed you into the Likud, and almost all of them have already overtaken you. Hotobeli, Edelstein, and Elkin are all religious Zionists that got close to the leadership thanks in no small part to Manhigut Yehudit voters. They found their way into the coalition table and they are very well liked, while you are excluded.

A. If I would have worked in the normal accepted manner that seeks to get immediate political dividends, no one would have overtaken me, but I insist on remembering the reason I joined the Likud in the first place. Not to be a Knesset Member or even a Minister, but to point the whole country toward one true, large and substantive goal. Light at the end of the tunnel, rather than a rearguard war that many good people in the religious Zionist community are fighting. For the sake of the truth, when I joined politics 13 years ago, there were already many knitted kippot in the crowd, with religious Knesset members and religiously observant ministers. In that sense, the situation has not changed all that much.

My eyes are turned towards the final goal, and because of this there are weights on my legs that may seem to weigh me down in a personal sense from attaining political posts. But in reality, these aren’t weights, but wings I am not willing to cut. I could have said that I would no longer run for the party leadership, that I already did what I had to do, but that would have made the whole revolution culminate in something of a new National Religious Party, this time within the Likud. While true that we did succeed in getting the faith-based public into the Likud, which is something very important that I do not belittle for a second, I will not allow a situation in which we are in the same sectorial politics, but this time within the ruling party. I’mnot interested in yet another knitted kippah in the Knesset, even if underneaththat kippah is the name of Moshe Feiglin. The goal is to lay out a faith-based alternative to lead Israel. This is a goal that cannot be accomplished without a conscious decision to run for the country’s leadership, so that the light will not be extinguished, so that there will still be light at the end of the tunnel.

It’s funny. People that fought against me from every podium when I joined the Likud are now in the Likud and continuing to fight me from within. Effi Etam (former leader of the National Religious Party) and Benny Elon (former member of the National Union) already admitted that I was right, but I’m sad to say that even after they’ve said this, many of us still do not have the courage to come and take the truth to its logical endpoint like I’m doing. I didn’t come to the Likud to save the settlements, even though it’s true that from within the Likud there is a stronger power base to accomplish this than there is in the sectorial parties.

They tell me, “You’re trying to fill shoes that are too big for you,” and I answer, “So come with me and then I’ll have bigger shoes!” The coming elections will be decided by 15,000 votes. The gap between me and Netanyahu last time was about 17,000 votes. If the people that tell me I’m trying to fill shoes that are too big for me would have joined Likud, I would have had no problem winning the party’s leadership by now. More than that though, there would have been no problem changing the entire direction of the Return to Zion from Zionism that keeps G-d out of the picture, to Zionism with the vision of “The Mountain of the Lord is the highest of all Mountains.” The settlement pioneers that ran to Judea and Samaria in the spirit of Rav Kook have been inundated with hardships and trudging through day-to-day affairs, and are incapable of putting forward such a vision.

But sometimes the arrogance of running against a sitting Prime Minister without even the success of first being elected a Knesset member makes for a very strange impression. Wouldn’t it be better to be satisfied with less declarations, superlatives and unwinnable candidacies and to focus in the meantime on less ambitious goals? We all want there to be Jewish leadership, but the way it’s being done seems too belligerent, a bit pompous.

Let’s not forget that thanks to great arrogance we have made great achievements like the wave of religious Zionists joining the Likud. Had I not dared to run for leadership of the party, such a change in consciousness would never have occurred. The language that changes consciousness is not spoken with lips, but with legs. We codified our vision in the “Lehat’hila” journal long before we joined the Likud, but until the point where we began to walk the walk of politics and put our hat in the leadership ring, it didn’t have any real effect on the nation’s consciousness. Many a good man before us tried to convince the right wing to join the Likud, and the fact is they only succeeded in signup up a few people. The fact is, they were not able to convince the public to follow them, and the reason is that the public follows a vision, and not simple tactical moves. Manhigut Yehudit put forward that vision, and from that moment people began to join the Likud through other avenues besides us as well.

Religious People with Little Faith

But nevertheless, do results not matter? After 13 years, you got to 24% of the party vote, and you have yet to become a Knesset member. At this rate it will take another 40 years to become the party leader. And even if theoretically you do beat Netanyahu one day, he’ll leave the party the same day and everyone will follow him. Everyone understands that the true Likud is no longer here.

When my family came to Israel 120 years ago, everyone was still in Belarus and shook their heads at that one rich Jew that decided to take his successful family to a barren wasteland. It was the craziest and most illogical thing to do. But at the end of the day, since it was the right thing to do, the realistic thing to do, that is to say it was G-d’s Will, because of that, we – his descendants – live here, and we all know what happened to those who stayed behind. We believe that the Third Return to Zion will not be undone, that the Holy One Blessed Be He isn’t joking around with us only to return us back to exile. And since the State of Israel will continue to exist, it cannot be anything but a State that fulfills the will of G-d. That is to say, and the end of the day, this country must have faith-based leadership. The only question is, what part will we take in this story.

Actually, I’m doing exactly what my grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather did, meaning what I believe the Will of G-d to be. Anyone who refuses to join us is, in practice, delaying the development of Jewish leadership for the State of Israel, he’s the one that is unrealistic, refusing to develop, he’s the one that I’m sad to say will pay the price. G-d wills that this country have Jewish leadership. There is no other possibility.

Who knows what G-d’s will is? The Holy One Blessed Be He also destroyed Gush Katif and brought us the Holocaust.

In truth, I don’t know how long it will take before our victory becomes actualized. Just like the Wright brothers who thought up the idea that a body heavier than air could fly, tried a hundred times to build it and they all crashed. But in the end it flew. And the very second it began to fly, all of the 100 failures became part of the ultimate success. Understand what kind of success it was when in the last primaries nearly a quarter of the Likud membership – not the NRP or the National Union – a quarter of the membership of the biggest political party in Israel voted for me. I surpassed all the senior ministers, Uzi Landau, Yisrael Katz…I surpassed Shaul Mofaz, which is why he left to Kadima.

For whatever reason, the Likudniks don’t ask themselves these types of questions you’re asking me. The ones who ask me, and weak of faith they are in this case, are specifically the religious ones, and I must say, it frustrates me to a great deal. There’s a process going on here where specifically the ones who are supposed to believe that “the redemption of Israel happens slowly but surely” find it difficult to understand for some reason. We’re in the middle of a necessarily inevitable victory, a process that can’t NOT win according to our worldview. If you’re a leftist and you think the country is going to be destroyed because of what we’re doing and that we’re promoting national disintegration and destruction, then fine. But if you understand that we are in the process of redemption, then I simply don’t understand how it’s possible NOT to understand the implications of my candidacy. Manhigut Yehudit is continually gaining strength, and even the Prime Minister is showing through his behavior how much he is stressed out by my progress.

Your book “Where There are No Men” is a book on the revolutionary period of your Zo Artzeinu Movement during the Oslo Accords. Maybe it was better back then, as a protest movement outside the political realm?

For me personally it was a lot more fun back then. It was fun being a child with no responsibility. There’s nothing easier than blocking a highway, sitting in jail and reaping the fruits of praise. My position in Zo Artzeinu was a springboard for me that I could have used for a soft landing into politics all for myself, but I understood that that wouldn’t accomplish a thing. We don’t lack knitted kippot in politics. We lack men with vision who are actually trying to achieve that vision, showing the public that its leaders are taking them in the wrong direction and showcase an alternative. It’s one or the other: Either we don’t have an alternative to the current reality, and then the question arises as to why we’re complaining about Barak, Sharon and the rest, or we have an alternative – and then it has to come together with contending for the leadership of the country.

I’ve learned this from the Israeli Left. The Leftists were never a majority in Israel, so how did it happen that their ideology set the Israeli reality? Very simple. They were not satisfied with putting up a bunch of settlements, meaning Kibbutzim and their own communities. The immediately translated their ideology into public policy and ran for leadership of the country. They had a leadership consciousness. By us, however, nothing of the sort has ever over crossed the boundary of private or local community-based belief to the point of national leadership. The Right does not lack protest movements. This is not what I was looking for. I was looking for a solution. A faith-based alternative to the whole process of collapse that we find ourselves in.

If the 3% of radical leftists were able to take control of the Zionist enterprise in the 20’s and 30’s because they had a vision, and then succeeded in directing the entire process of the Return to Zion to one that has no G-d, that leaves G-d aside, why aren’t we capable of initiating the reverse? The answer is that we don’t believe in ourselves enough. We don’t believe that our Torah is relevant, and worst of all – we don’t believe in the Nation of Israel and its uniqueness.

And I’m telling you that the Nation of Israel is waiting and anticipating this kind of message with baited breath. You see it in the music that is becoming more and more faith-based, in the culture that is turning into this, in the yearning for a return to family values…you have no idea how many times this comes up in the polls again and again. You see that the Nation of Israel wants to be Jewish, so why are we afraid of giving it to them, giving them leadership that can provide it? Why do we continually place ourselves in the role of barking at the passing convoy? Why are we afraid to think big?

They’re afraid? No, We’re Afraid.

I hear people say that there’s nothing to be worried about. That we just have to stand our ground in Judea and Samaria and we’ll fight tactical wars where we need to and we’ll vote for the least bad candidate and the situation will somehow work itself out in our favor. We saw in the Disengagement where such thinking leads. In an overall sense, we’re in a process of redemption, but in the immediate sense, the State of Israel is being led by forces that do not share our beliefs. Therefore, it follows necessarily that if there won’t be Jewish leadership, the Disengagement will have a bitter sequel. I’m not saying this in order to scare anybody, but from a very simple dialectical analysis. If you don’t present an alternative, there is a limit to how many fingers you can put in the dike in order to stop the raging waters.

What’s your opinion on Rabbinic leadership and the general leadership of the religious Zionist sector?

I respect them very much. They’re doing work one can only admire. It pains me a little that I’m seen as one who doesn’t know how to value the efforts of Torah-based groups, or love of Israel that organizations like Tzohar effectively demonstrate. It’s simply untrue. I know how to value and even admire these people.

On the other hand, I must say that I only say what I think is true. Of course with love, an embrace, but the truth must be spoken. I am against blurring identity in order to preserve unity. In Manhigut Yehudit I see declared secularists, even atheists, and on the other hand I see Ultra Orthodox. On either side, saying the truth doesn’t scare them. I learned that when you speak the truth with conviction and humility, it doesn’t scare people away. Those who really listen can value it.

What do you think about Yair Lapid joining politics?

He’s a ratings candidate. Shelli Yechimovich’s candidacy I saw in a positive light, since she expresses a coherent philosophy, even if it’s dangerous in my opinion, and the impression I get is that she actually believes what she says. This is a type of politics that is absent in Israel, and I do not see this in Lapid. I certainly don’t see it in Noam Shalit, a man that did not contribute a thing to Israeli society but exacted a terrible price from it, and he’s coming into politics off the back of the fact that he was able to take a lot. Lapid and Shalit symbolize bad politics in my opinion. I’m more comfortable talking with an ideological enemy with a consistent philosophy.

Netanyahu knows that the map with the correct destination the country has to go in and will in the end arrive at, is in my hands and yours. Journalists always ask me why he’s so afraid of me, and the answer is that this is exactly what he’s afraid of. He knows very well and understands the potential of Manhigut Yehudit, seemingly even better than all of my voters. The fact is that the public is divided between those that love me and those that deeply hate me, but nobody’s laughing at me. Deep down, the public knows that there’s something very, very real going on here.

The Likud Primary: a Reality Check and a Candidate’s Failure

2012-01-23T01:16:00.001-05:00

By Tuvia Brodie

Likud members who are eligible to vote in the upcoming Likud primary will step into the voting booth in less than ten days. These voters will decide who will be next head-of-Likud, Benjamin Netanyahu (the present Likud leader) or Moshe Feiglin, the single challenger to Mr. Netanyahu. Both men are known to Likud members. Both have identifiable philosophies. Both understand power—Mr Netanyahu as prime Minister, Mr. Feiglin as head of Manhigut Yehudit, the largest faction in Israel’s most powerful political party .

Today, we offer Likud voters a candidate’s ‘reality checklist’ for their January 31 vote. It is a list of ten questions, to help identify which candidate best represents Likud beliefs; the concepts embedded in these questions appear as both explicit--and implicit—ideals within the Party Platform. Since many in Israel believe that the new Likud head could also become Israel’s Prime Minister in the next national elections, we present this checklist as a tool to help you decide whom you want as Israel’s next Prime Minister.

We call this, “Ten Questions for Israel’s Future”. A simple scoring methodology is suggested below.

1. Do you want a Prime Minister who supports an Israeli High Court that is both aggressively Left and activist against the Likud Platform?

2. Do you want a Prime Minister who does not assert Israel’s eternal right to the Land of Israel when he faces those who would delegitimize the world’s only Jewish State?

3. Do you want a Prime Minister who does not appoint a Defense Minister who supports the Likud Platform?

4. Do you want a Prime Minister who works against the Party Platform by authorizing the demolition of Jewish homes on ancestral Jewish land?

5. Do you want a Prime Minister who watches IDF battle readiness diminish because he says nothing when secularists in the IDF openly subvert government policy to discriminate against religious personnel in the military?

6. Do you want a Prime Minister who allows Israel’s internal security to be reduced because he does not stand up to Leftists who use foreign funding to promote domestic anti-Israel policies?

7. Do you want a Prime Minister who will say, ‘I think this land is yours, not ours’?

8. Do you want a Prime Minister who, on a daily basis, appears to embrace positions that reject Likud beliefs?

9. Do you want a prime Minister who agrees to a building freeze—and pre-1967 borders--as a pre-condition for talks with Israel’s enemies—when the Likud Platform rejects such decisions?

10. Do you want a Prime Minister who will neglects his Jewish identity when he stands on the international stage?

These ten questions are simple. They are practical. They are not complicated. They focus on the real world. They also clarify what a voter should expect from a Likud Prime Minister. They clarify ‘Likud’. If recent polls are correct, many in Likud are in near-revolt over Netanyahu’s anti-Likud behaviour. He seems not to understand what Likud stands for. Reports circulate that if Mr. Netanyahu receives better than 80 per cent of the primary vote, he will take that as a sign that Likud voters give him permission to pursue any course he pleases, no matter what the Likud Platform says. Likud voters, on the other hand, are not so certain that they want to endorse a head-of-Likud who will reject Likud in order to choose ‘Left’. They do not believe that Netanyahu should have such carte blanche.

So how do you score the reality check? If you are Likud and you answer ‘No’ to most of these questions, your vote cannot go to Mr. Netanyahu. You vote goes instead to Moshe Feiglin. It’s that simple. Of the two candidates, only Feiglin passes the reality check. Netanyahu fails.

Netanyahu fans will not like that. But even ardent Netanyahu supporters within Likud understand politics: a candidate who fails to support the home team should not own the team; when you fail, you should not be rewarded.

Perhaps this is why, despite Netanyahu’s fame, he is favoured to win while at the same time he loses ground rapidly to Feiglin. What will the final tally be on January 31? We don’t know.

It appears that Likud members have a painful decision to make. Many like Netanyahu. But he betrays them. Others like Feiglin. But he represents change: he will actually be loyal to Likud ideals.

Here is the question for the primary: how will Likud members vote? Will they vote their political pro-Israel conscience and choose a true Likunik-- or will they vote to create another Left-leaning Party which will betray everything Likud believes in?

We will find out soon enough.

The Likud & The National Agenda - The Great Debate

2012-01-20T09:34:00.002-05:00

(Editor's note: If you can't be there, watch it live.....)

Moshe Feiglin Co-Founder & President	Contact:	Rob Muchnick, US Director (516) 779-7420 (cell phone) rmuchnick@gmail.com
Shmuel Sackett Co-Founder & International Director

The Likud & The National Agenda - The Great Debate

Sunday Night in Bet Shemesh, Israel (Live Webcast)

January 19, 2012...

This Sunday night, January 22, 2012, at 8:15 P.M. in Bet Shemesh, Shmuel Sackett, Manhigut Yehudit's International Director will be facing off in a debate of national importance to determine the proper path forward for those in Israel's "National Camp", and by extension, to discuss their vision for the future of the State of Israel. ('National Camp' being defined as the group that wishes for Israel to annex and settle instead of ceding to her enemies the lands liberated by Israel during the War of 1967.)

With the primary election for Chairman of the Likud - between Moshe Feiglin and Benjamin Netanyahu - set for January 31, the tension surrounding this debate is rising as the poll numbers show Mr. Feiglin - recently labeled 'the most important man in Israeli political discourse' by former Knesset speaker Avraham Burg (Labor) - gaining on the incumbent Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Mr. Sackett, who will be representing Mr. Feiglin (of the National Camp), will be facing off against Daniel Tauber, the Executive Director of Likud Anglos, and Emmanuel Navon, who will be a candidate for the Likud's next Knesset slate, in the sole English-only event of the campaign.

The debate will be moderated by Gil Hoffman, chief political analyst of the Jerusalem Post.

The three men will be discussing and debating, among other issues, the following:

- What is the best path to move Israel's National Camp forward?

- What is the significance of the January 31 primary election between Mr. Feiglin and Mr. Netanyahu?

- Considering that Mr. Netanyahu destroys Jewish towns, freezes Jewish construction, and states repeatedly that he wishes to create an Arab state in the Jewish biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria, how should the National Camp relate to him?

- Where does the Likud stand on the Land of Israel, and how should the National Camp relate to the Likud?

All are invited to watch a live webcast of the two-hour event on the Moshe Feiglin Campaign website starting at 8:15 P.M. (1:15 P.M. New York time).

The webcast can be seen at the following website: www.MFLikud.com/webcast/live1.html

The Moshe Feiglin Campaign website is at www.MFLikud.com

The event will be held in Bet Shemesh at the Bet Knesset Nietzsche Menashe, located at Rehov Reuven 18, Givat Sharett.

We are all Part of the Divine Master Plan

2012-01-19T16:12:00.000-05:00

By Moshe Feiglin

"And G-d spoke to Moses and He said to him, 'I am G-d.' (From this week's Torah portion, Va'eirah, Exodus 6:2-3)

In the space of just five verses at the beginning of the Torah portion of Va'eirah, G d says, "I am G-d" four times. Moses knew who G-d was; why the repetition?

The Jews in Egypt had been enslaved for generations. Who could even remember the stories about the Forefathers? And if some brave mother did devote a few minutes to teach her child his heritage, who could have possibly taken it seriously? Who could have thought that from within the horrifying reality in Egypt, this collection of human dust would become a free nation that would defeat the ruling empire of the world and enter the Promised Land to become G-d's nation harbingers of His message of world liberty? What message could those bags of bones possibly bear?

But G-d rules the world; not Pharaoh. G-d's memory is not short. What are 200 or 2000 years for the maestro of history? And despite the fact that all that interests this Jewish slave is just a moment of rest; a drop of water on his dry tongue, a safe place to hide his baby son the Creator has different great plans for him: "And I took you out, and I saved you, and I redeemed you and I took you." Why? So that I will be your G-d and I will bring you to the Land that I promised to your Forefathers.

You may have narrow horizons; you no longer even dare to want anything more than mere survival. It does not matter. You are part of a Divine Master plan. You will be My Nation and you will make Me King over the entire world.

Some of the Jews in Egypt did not believe. Today, as well, there are those who do not believe. But whether we like it or not, we will perfect the world and make it the dwelling place of G-d.

Shabbat Shalom.

HaRav Nachman Kahana on Parashat Va'ayra 5772

2012-01-19T16:09:00.002-05:00

BS"D

Shemot and Va’ayra

If a single parasha of the Torah contained a full accounting of the past, together with an informative explanation of the present and a definitive projection for the future, it would be deemed a most remarkable source of wisdom. How more so if the past, present and future are encapsulated in a mere two words!

I will return to this.

Several questions regarding our parasha:

1- Moshe Rabbeinu is bitter at the results of his meeting with Paro. He expresses his feelings by protesting to HaShem about Paro’s refusal to permit the Jews to stop working for three days in order to sacrifice to HaShem. How odd! Did not HaShem forewarn Moshe that Paro would not agree to Moshe’s request?

2- Why was Paro so obstinate? Didn’t he realize that even slaves cannot work 24/7 and produce satisfactory results?

And more. After being warned by Moshe of the approaching locust plague, Paro’s own advisors said to him (Shemot 10:7) "Egypt is lost"; and yet Paro refused to acknowledge defeat.

3- HaShem informed Moshe that He would "harden Paro’s heart". But is freedom of choice not a basic tenet in HaShem’s relationship with all human beings?

I submit:

The pasuk relates Moshe’s complaint to HaShem (Shemot 5:23)

ומאזבאתי אלפרעה לדברבשמך הרעלעם הזהוהצל לאהצלת אתעמך
From the time I came to Paro to speak in Your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and You have not rescued Your people."

There are two critical (Hebrew) words in Moshe’s statement.

Moshe did not just say: "From the time I came to Paro to speak... he has brought trouble on this people, and You have not rescued Your people."

Rather he said: From the time I came to Paro to speak in Your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and You have not rescued Your people."

Had Moshe come before Paro as a labor representative requesting a rest day or three for the workers, Paro might have considered the request. However, Moshe immediately raised the issue to a theological level, claiming that he was the messenger of the Almighty God of Israel. Paro, as Egypt’s most eminent religious authority, could never acquiesce to a request brought in the name of a foreign deity.

His stubbornness turned into a matter of principle, and principles are guarded and not compromised.

Paro’s expected reaction was to increase the burden on the Jewish slaves, by not supplying them with raw material, as a way of displaying his disregard for the God in whose name Moshe appeared.

In this situation, HaShem did not harden Paro’s heart by denying him freedom of decision - it was unnecessary. Paro’s ideological and religious compulsions did not permit him even a symbolic compromise with the truculent Moshe and Aharon.

Herein lies OUR past, present and future.

In the past, our slave experience was based on Paro’s unwillingness to recognize the Jewish God.

In the present Medina of Israel, official Israel refuses to state that the authentic claim of Am Yisrael over the land is HaShem’s promise to our forefathers that this land belongs solely to the Jewish nation forever. The majority of our ministers and members of Knesset have a positive feeling towards Torah Judaism; yet they oppose every piece of legislation that could be interpreted as being pro-religious. For in their minds, if the Medina is perceived to have a religious orientation by basing our presence here on a theological premise, there could no longer be a chance for a peace settlement. By maintaining the conflict as a political, as opposed to a theological one, there could be a chance of everlasting peace of Paradise in the Holy Land.

The motivations of the past and present are indeed embedded in the two Hebrew words:

לדבר בשמך
to speak in Your name

But so too are the secrets of the future.

I have often quoted the prophet Yechezkel and others who prophesied that, in the future, the descendants of Asav (today’s Christian Europeans and their derivatives) will join with the descendants of Yishmael (the Moslems and their derivatives) in the final military conflict to destroy the descendants of Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’akov, in Eretz Yisrael. And here both enemies will be destroyed by the "out-stretched hand" of the Almighty.

What a bizarre prophecy! What could ever bring these two disparate gentile peoples to agree upon anything, much less a coordinated military expedition?

The answer again lies in the two words; לדבר בשמך
- to speak in Your name.

Medinat Yisrael will have no choice but to admit that our only claim to the Holy Land is HaShem’s promise to our forefathers as cited in the Torah.

And when we declare in the great international halls of the world that we are indeed God’s chosen people and we come in His name, it will serve as a call to arms to the gentile religions to unite against the God of Israel.

Here we have the whole story of mankind encapsulated in two words of the Torah:דבר בשמך " to speak in Your name".

Did you ever wonder why Paro never tried to do away with Moshe and Aharon? It appears from the Torah that Moshe and Aharon had the "run of the palace." They would come and go freely without ever being touched or even threatened.

At a time and place where human life had no value, the two holy men not only accused, threatened and imperiled the entire Egyptian nation, they even proved time and again that their threats were real as they were turned into the horrible realities of Egyptian life. Yet they walked without fear in situations where lesser crimes were punished by death.

I believe that in the year when Moshe and Aharon were appearing before Paro, their lives were threatened every time they approached the palace gates. They were hounded day and night by Paro’s KGB and Gestapo, but HaShem created conditions that protected them (although the Torah does not relate this aspect of the episode).

Why should I think so? Because this was always HaShem’s way.

The Midrash relates that Nimrod threw Avraham Aveinu into a fiery furnace, but Avraham emerged unscathed.

Ya’akov escaped from the evil designs of Lavan.

David was saved from the hands of Achish King of Gat (Shmuel, chap. 21).

Chananya, Mishael and Azarya were thrown into a fiery furnace by Nevuchadnezer, King of Bavel, and they walked around as if they were sunning themselves.

Daniel emerged from the lion’s den unscathed.

But you might be surprised to learn that the greatest miracles of all are happening right now, before our very eyes, in our Holy Land.

How long were Avraham, Chanaya, Mishael and Azarya in their fiery furnaces? Five minutes? An hour?

David was in the town of Gat for a few days.

Daniel was with the ferocious lions for one night.

Moshe and Aharon were under siege for one year.

However, the Jewish yishuv in Eretz Yisrael has been in the lion’s den for over 100 years and the Medina has been in the fiery furnace for the last 62 years. But not only have we survived, but we are thriving in today’s world where the greatest nations are in downhill spirals.

Just to mention one incident. Several months ago, it was announced that substantial gas and oil sources were discovered in Israel. However, the estimates have now reached legendary proportions, with the natural gas finds described as the largest in the world in the last decade.

I have often written in these weekly messages that, based on the words of the prophets, we in Eretz Yisrael are destined to be materially the wealthiest nation in the world, to be followed by a return of the entire Jewish people to the Torah.

The gifts of HaShem will free us from our dependence on gentile "friends" and from the good will of Jewish communities in the galut who will be sending their "shnorrers" here for financial assistance.

In our parasha, HaShem tells Moshe (Shemot chap. 6):

לכן אמר לבני ישראל אני ה' והוצאתי אתכם מתחת סבלת מצרים והצלתי אתכם מעבדתם וגאלתי אתכם בזרוע נטויה ובשפטים גדלים:
ולקחתי אתכם לי לעם... והבאתי אתכם אל הארץ אשר נשאתי את ידי לתת אתה לאברהם ליצחק וליעקב ונתתי אתה לכם מורשה אני ה'
‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment...
And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD’.

It has come to pass in our days. HaShem has handpicked everyone in Eretz Yisrael to turn the dream into reality.

Indeed, how fortunate we are!

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana

The Likud Primary: Leftist Support for Netanyahu

2012-01-19T16:02:00.001-05:00

By Tuvia Brodie

How would you respond if someone wanted you to ‘describe Israel?’ Most likely, the word ‘Jewish’ would be part of your answer—and for good reason: Israel is different from all other nations. It is singular. It is unique. It is the only Jewish state in the world.

To a member of Likud—Israel’s strongest political party—this Jewish uniqueness is cause for national pride. That’s why voters choose Likud—they feel strongly pro-Israel. But to an Israeli Leftist, this same Jewishness is a personal horror. Jewishness to a Leftist is a mark of Cain that Jews wear before the world. It is a humiliation that causes constant shame, much like a hated but indelible tattoo on your forehead.

As Likud prepares for a January 31 primary, those eligible to vote should understand how the Left helps one of the primary candidates, Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Netanyahu has chosen Left over Likud. His political behaviour, as illustrated by his political choices, reminds one of a bride who says she is uncertain about her groom but who discovers that every time she makes a decision, she chooses that same groom. So if Mr. Netanyahu appears uncertain about demolishing homes in Judea and Samaria, he nonetheless repeatedly rejects his Likud Platform’s commitment not to uproot such homes and-- even when he could justify a temporary delay-- embraces the Left’s call to demolish. With each such decision, Mr. Netanyahu demonstrates his commitment to the same groom.

When Israel’s High Court rejects common-sense requests to employ standardized judicial rules of evidence in disputes over Jewish ownership of property in Judea-Samaria—and decides in favour of Arabs who can present no evidence of ownership--Mr. Netanyahu chooses to side with Leftists who claim that forcing the Court to use rules of evidence is a ‘threat to democracy’. When a Knesset bill seeks to correct such egregious legal behaviour, Mr. Netanyahu does not support a pro-Likud rendition. Instead, he works to kill the bill. He chooses the Left of Peace Now, not the Right of Likud.

Today, the Left represents less than twenty per cent of the electorate. This (less than) twenty per cent wants to de-Judaize Israel. They want to transform the Jewish state into a ‘state of its citizens’ . They want to create a completely secular entity in order to become a cosmopolitan Europe-like state in the Middle East. Israel would no longer be Jewish. The world would cease to have a Jewish state.

In Israel, when disputes arise between Arab and Jew, the Left traditionally takes the side of the Arab just as Likud traditionally takes the side of the Jew. The Left believes that the side of the Jew is illegal. They seek to appeal to—and find votes among—the secular in Israel who sometimes seem to fear Judaism almost as much as—if not more than-- the Arab. This Left is the ‘anti-Likud’ in all matters Israel.

We can understand Mr. Netanyahu’s attraction to the Left when we look at Israel’s Left-controlled or (if not controlled, then) Left-friendly national media. Mr. Netanyahu wants to win. Who might help him? Israel’s media has a shameful history of slanting news against the Right and the religious, often for political purposes (as they did with Oslo in 1993). When Leftists and/or hostile secularists provoke public anger at the nationalist, religious or Haredi (ultra-religious) communities, non-Left observers have good reason to suspect Leftist manipulation for a political goal: they’ve done it before and, as Caroline Glick has written (Jerusalem Post, October 21, 2011), they’ll do it again.

Why would the Left support Mr. Netanyahu? Because he has chosen Left over Likud—and the Left knows it. If public anger explodes at anyone religious or nationalist, Netanyahu benefits because his chief rival—Moshe Feiglin-- is both nationalist and religious. What non-religious but pro-Israel Likud member will even consider Mr. Feiglin should ‘nationalist’ becomes ‘terrorist’ and ‘religious’ become ‘anti-Israel’? Given the language used by politicians and Leftists over recent ‘settler’ activity and during an uproar over ‘Haredi buses’, the media has ignored its investigative obligation and outdoes the Left shouting ‘Fire’. Should the media continue to foment public anger in this manner, non-religious Likud voters might indeed choose to forgive Netanyahu’s political bigamy with the Left in order to demonstrate their anger at ‘extremists’.

If that happens, Mr. Netanyahu would receive the mandate he needs to remain ‘married’ to Likud while he ‘cohabits’ with the Left. If you vote for Mr. Netanyahu in such an environment, you enable political adultery. It is as simple as that; and if you have been influenced to vote for Netanyahu because of recent news stories, the odds are outstanding that you will have been suckered once again by the media.

Beware anti-religious and anti-nationalist news stories before an election. Israel’s future depends on your intelligence.

A Salute to Migron

2012-01-18T20:20:00.001-05:00

By Moshe Feiglin

23 Tevet, 5772
Jan. 18, '12

Translated from the Makor Rishon newspaper

I do not like to give advice to people in times of distress. Every time that a settlement facing destruction begins to debate whether or not to take the "offer" (in other words, the extortion) or to cling to its principles and its place, I adopt our Sages' advice and do not judge others until I am in their place. It is easy to dish out militant advice to the residents of Migron (in the current case) but they will be paying the price and not me. So I remained silent. But when I saw their ad campaign last weekend; determined ads that emphasized that they have no intention of accepting the "cut and paste" compromise being proposed to them, I stood at attention and saluted these heroes from the bottom of my heart.

I read in the newspaper about all the pressure being applied on them from within. I read all the articles that called upon them to accept the compromise, the long lists of settlements that acted "logically" in the past, and the like.

So, residents of Migron, because you have already made your decision and publicized it, I allow myself to write this article about why you are so right.

I will begin from the bitter end. Your struggle is not for your home in Migron or in Giv'at Asaf. If you do not accept the compromise and if Netanyahu, G-d forbid, does acquire the hegemony that he wants in the upcoming Likud primaries; and if the Likud MKs will no longer be able to stop him then there is definitely a chance that the legislation to legalize the outposts will not pass and your homes may be destroyed, G-d forbid.

But you are not fighting for your homes; you are fighting for all the settlements. You are fighting for my home in Karnei Shomron and for the homes of all the dear people in the settlements who are now trying to convince you to evacuate and do not understand that they are the next in line.

It is true that in the history of the settlement movement there are a number of examples of relocation that actually worked. But all those examples are from different times, when the wind was at the back of the settlements and the general attitude was in favor of the pioneers. They are examples from the times when the Labor party established Gush Katif and Shimon Peres sent a generator to Ofra and the Likud established Yitzhar. Then, when the government wanted the settlements and the only issue was how to circumvent the Supreme Court, relocation was plausible.

But today, the wind is blowing in the totally opposite direction. Today, Israel is withdrawing into the Green Line. That is the strategic picture. They have already built the wall, the border and the international border crossings that we pass every day. The Prime Minister has already declared his endorsement of two states and he insists on keeping the settlements' favorite guy, Ehud Barak, in a position of power. When the wind is at your back, you can set out your sails and let it take you in the right direction. But when the wind is blowing against you, you have to crouch down and keep a firm hold on the ground.

We have a very good example; not from thirty years ago, but from the previous government. And here I must add with pain that the main force behind the current relocation proposal is the very same Zambish, whom we all remember from his actions during the Expulsion. This man still enjoys the ear of the Prime Minister or the General on the ground. He does not understand the new reality and without meaning to, is turning himself once again into a tool of destruction. When Olmert replaced Sharon, the new PM understood that expulsions erase the indiscretions of the past and bring the unrestrained support of the media and justice system. Olmert decided to outdo Sharon and dreamed up the "Convergence" plan that schemed to do to Ofra what the "Disengagement" did to Neveh Dekalim.

And what saved Ofra?

Amona.

After the bloody pictures from Amona, Olmert's popularity took a nosedive and he eventually lost his prime ministerial seat.

Netanyahu cannot allow those pictures to be played out again. If he will clearly understand that you are not going to willingly go, he will do all that he can to make sure that the legislation legalizing the outposts is passed.

By the way, there is no reason to wait for destruction. Until Jan. 31st, the day that the primaries for head of the Likud will be held, there is a political way to make Netanyahu run after you and authorize the new law. We need to enlist all of our energies, just like we did in the referendum on Gush Katif, to get people to get out and vote for the candidate running against Netanyahu for chairmanship of the party.

Netanyahu wants to achieve a complete hegemony in the Likud; a hegemony that will allow him to claim that he got an open check from the party members to carry out his plans for the future. (He spelled out those plans in Bar-Ilan and the US Congress). That is why every percentage point is so critical to him. That is why these elections are the only effective political weapon available for the settlements. If there were not primaries now in the Likud, Netanyahu would not have prevented Barak from destroying Ramat Gilad last month.

We must firmly cling to our Land, on the one hand, while uniting to empower the faith-based force in the Likud. This is what must be done now to save Migron and to ensure the continued growth of the settlements.

Feiglin Nearing 35% Support in Likud Against Netanyahu

2012-01-17T22:29:00.001-05:00

Moshe Feiglin Co-Founder & President	Contact:	Rob Muchnick, US Director (516) 779-7420 (cell phone) rmuchnick@gmail.com
Shmuel Sackett Co-Founder & International Director

Feiglin Nearing 35% Support in Likud Against Netanyahu

January 16, 2012...

The following article originally appeared in "World of Judaica News" on January 16, 2012.

The Likud Primaries are a few weeks away [on January 31] and Moshe Feiglin is presenting Benjamin Netanyahu with a serious challenge for the Likud leadership

In two weeks, Prime Minister Netanyahu will be defending his title as Likud Party Chairman against challenger Moshe Feiglin. Polls show Netanyahu winning, but that may not be enough for Israel’s Prime Minister. A poll conducted by Israeli polling company Ma’agar Mochot has Mr. Feiglin polling at about 26% support among Likud members not affiliated with Feiglin’s Jewish Leadership faction. With Feiglin’s Jewish Leadership faction numbering about 9% of the overall Likud membership, this brings his total support to about 35% in the party, Netanyahu at 51%, and 14% undecided or unsure.

The question asked in the poll leading to these statistics was worded as follows. The poll surveyed Likud members who voted in the last two Likud primaries: Do you agree or disagree with the point that it is important to vote for Moshe Feiglin in the upcoming primaries, even though it is clear that Benjamin Netanyahu will win, just so that the right wing inside Likud will gain strength?

26% either “agree” or “definitely agree” with that statement, while 14% are unsure or undecided.

According to the grassroots Likud website likudnik.co.il, Feiglin even has a chance of beating Netanyahu within the Likud Druze sector, which is known to be very right wing in its political leanings. Another grassroots site, likudshely.co.il, is reporting a widespread phenomenon of Netanyahu supporters refusing to turn out for him in protest, or even pledging to vote Feiglin in an act of defiance over Netanyahu’s refusal to legalize outposts in Judea and Samaria. Netanyahu’s refusal to support a bill requiring nominees to Israel’s Supreme Court to undergo confirmation hearings by the Knesset has also angered the party base, as have his attempts to secure former Labor Party leader Ehud Barak a slot on the upcoming Likud Knesset roster.

If Feiglin’s faction comes out on January 31st with a strong turnout in addition to these numbers, he has a fair chance of even reaching the 40% threshold [or higher] and seriously embarrassing [or defeating] Netanyahu. Whether Netanyahu can maintain his hegemony in the party if Feiglin wins such a large percentage of the Likud electorate remains to be seen.

###

Moshe Feiglin is the president of Manhigut Yehudit and a candidate for Chairman of the Likud party. He led the Zo Artzeinu non-violent civil disobedience struggle against the Oslo Accords. Moshe graduated from Or Etzion yeshiva, served as a captain in an IDF combat unit, and is the author of the books Where There Are No Men and War of Dreams. Moshe and his family live in Karnei Shomron, Israel.

The Likud Primary: on the Threshold of Greatness

2012-01-17T22:19:00.001-05:00

By Tuvia Brodie

Today, Israel stands close to the threshold of its destiny. Soon, on January 31, Likud members who are eligible to vote in this year’s Party primary will go to the polls to choose the next head-of-Likud. They will choose between current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and head of the Likud faction, Manhigut Yehudit, Moshe Feiglin. With this election, Likud members will have the ability to choose a leader who commits publicly to the promise and the Power of the G-d of Israel. It is a stunning opportunity. The winner of this primary will be just one election away from becoming Israel’s Prime Minister. If Likud chooses Moshe Feiglin as its head-of-Likud then--for perhaps the first time in over 1,500 years-- Jewish voters on Jewish soil will have selected a national candidate who speaks of Jewish values with a determined Jewish consciousness. For a Jewish nation accustomed to a steady flow of Jewish politicians and political operatives who reject all things Jewish, this primary gives to Likud an historic opportunity.

Our Jewish tradition tells us how Israel becomes strong—through the public partnership between courageous Jewish leadership and G-d. Now, on January 31, for the first time in a very long time, Likud has the chance to re-establish that partnership.

After months of news stories that illustrate just how far to the political Left Benjamin Netanyahu has turned, Israelis now understand that Moshe Feiglin supports a Likud platform that Mr Netanyahu clearly rejects. Moshe Feiglin will not support a Leftist High Court. He will not encourage a Leftist civil administration to arrest Jews from Judea and Samaria on unfounded espionage charges. Instead, he has, through action and word, defended Likud beliefs. Netanyahu has not. While Israelis daily wonder how far Left Mr Netanyahu will lean, no one in Israel questions Mr. Feiglin’s commitment to Likud.

Today, Israelis understand that Mr. Netanyahu has shown little effort to confront Leftist NGOs (non-governmental organizations) who seek foreign money to promote anti-Israel and anti-Jewish agendas—and then claim immunity from oversight because they ‘defend democracy.’ Mr. Netanyahu might buy that argument. No one in Israel believes that Mr Feiglin will buy it.

From the news, Israelis see secularists in the IDF harassing and coercing religious soldiers. Israelis may wonder why Mr. Netanyahu allows such anti-Jewish behaviour by Jews in the IDF when the IDF needs religious soldiers to maintain battle readiness; but no one in Israel believes that Mr. Feiglin will support or accept such behaviour—especially when the government has committed to recruiting more-- not fewer—religious youth. Israelis may wonder if Mr. Netanyahu will continue to promote officers who subvert government orders because of secular ideology. No one in Israel believes that Mr. Feiglin would accept such promotions.

When Israelis see Leftists act as provocateurs to manipulate the public into an anti-Haredi frenzy, they may wonder how eagerly Mr. Netanyahu will join the bashing of religious Jews (we will not accept discrimination!). No one in Israel believes the Mr. Feiglin would be a part of such manufactured outrage.

When Israelis see pro-Israel Jewish protesters demonized and anti- Israel Leftist protesters lionized, everyone in Israel wonders how aggressively Mr. Netanyahu will react against the pro-Israel Jews (we will not allow [pro-Israel Jewish] extremists to start a religious war!). No one in Israel believes the Mr. Feiglin would join such Leftist attacks.

Israelis know that anti-Jewish and anti-Israel Jewish Leftists have been misleading, manipulating and demonizing Israelis in order to build a clearly anti-Jewish agenda at the expense of Israel’s majority. Israelis may ask why Mr. Netanyahu embraces these Leftists. No one is Israel believes that Mr. Feiglin will do the same.

Israel’s majority is tired of watching our leaders aid and abet our enemies while they acquiesce before those who hate Israel. They are tired of watching Mr. Netanyahu back-pedal. No one is Israel believes that Moshe Feiglin will back-pedal.

Likud voters turn to Likud because they believe in Israel. They join Likud because they want a strong Jewish nation. They vote Likud because they want a strong Jewish leader.

Likud voters know that Israel faces challenges. They understand the realities confronting the Jewish state. They understand their national uniqueness: they are Jews in the world’s only Jewish state. They want to stand steadfast and true to their people, their ancestral land and their heritage.

Likud voters know what lies before them. They understand Jewish destiny. They know why strong Jewish leadership is important to them—and to Israel. Likud voters understand that for this singular Jewish nation to remain strong and free, it needs a singular Jewish leader who commits to Jewish values.

It is time for Likud to choose strength, not ambivalence. It is time to choose a candidate whose belief in Likud is strong and true. It is time to choose Moshe Feiglin.

Feiglin: Lapid is a Person Who Says Nothing: An Interview in Ma'ariv

2012-01-16T19:08:00.000-05:00

By Amichai Atalli
Ma'ariv/NRG 16 Tevet, 5772/ Jan. 11, '12

On January 31, the 130,000 members of the Likud will elect the chairman of their party and their representatives to the party's legislative body. PM Binyamin Netanyahu, who set the election date for the chairmanship of the party in a surprise move, was so successful with his surprise that except for Moshe Feiglin, there is no other candidate willing to run against him.

Moshe Feiglin, do you really think you have a chance to beat Netanyahu?
It is clear to me that I will ultimately win; not necessarily in the upcoming elections, but at some point in time, it will happen. I have already run for leadership of the Likud three times. The first time I won 3% of the vote, the second time 13% and the last time, 23%. True, this time the contest is much more difficult, for I am running against a ruling prime minister who has a lot more power. But ultimately, I believe that I will win, within the framework of my larger plan.
The Wright Brothers' first prototype crashed more than one hundred times before it finally took off. In retrospect, each crash was paving the path to the take-off. I don't see a race in which I do not get 51% as a crash. Every time that I run, my ideas filter into Israeli society. Today, there is already a very respectable circle of Likud members who understand my ideas and that circle is growing and deepening.

And what are your ideas?
The State of Israel must solidify its Jewish not religious identity. By the way, I do not define myself as a religious person, but rather, as a Jew. Today, I see the State of Israel as a plane that is always trying to escape so far successfully anti-aircraft missiles that are being shot at it.
Netanyahu, the pilot in the cockpit, deserves a medal for this adept maneuvering between all the missiles. But there is just one small problem: the plane must also be flying somewhere. The destination of the plane is marked out on my map, but it is not in Netanyahu's cockpit.
In other words, my goal is to define a destiny and goal from which the State of Israel can draw the content and energies it needs for its existence. The fact that we are happy for every additional day that ends quietly and do not dare to dream of anything more than that is a huge problem. Today, in Cambridge University and others like it, they no longer believe in Israel's right to exist. So while official Israel recognizes the existence of a "Palestinian nation" the world no longer recognizes our existence.

What are your exact positions?
There are a number of central areas that I would like to focus on: Jewish education: Every student in Israel's educational system should be taught Judaism for one hour every day. Not religion or coercion, but enough so that the student should know the Tanach, history and the Jewish prayer book. He will not have to pray, but he should know where he came from.
Another point is family: The State of Israel effectively attacks the family unit. It no longer pays to be a married couple. Many couples divorce so that they can get more tax breaks. An additional point is community: I plan to strengthen the bond between family and community and also to strengthen the existing communities by introducing regional elections. Every American citizen can call his congressman when he needs help. Here, you have to be a member of the Likud Central Committee if you want to get something.

What do you think about the right wing Knesset members' attack on Israel's media?
I am for liberty and for a battle against all types of coercion. There should be free access to broadcasting that represents the entire public. If an Arab wants to broadcast from his town, let him do so. If somebody breaks the law, he can be jailed. But why does the state decide who can broadcast? I am talking about freedom of speech, freedom to broadcast and true freedom of expression.

What about economy?
We need Jewish economy; a free market without core shareholders. The base of the economy should be capitalism, but it must be tempered with faith and kindness. Capitalism that is not in a cultural envelope that modifies and restrains it fosters greed. Faith and kindness provide the restraint that it needs.

These ideas will give us legitimacy in Cambridge?
When you ask British intellectuals why they do not recognize the State of Israel, they say that they had expectations of the People of the Book; they wanted us to bring them a new culture. They say that our state is nothing more than an imitation of what already exists, but that it is always producing wars and conflict with the Arab world. As far as they are concerned, the experiment has failed and it would be best to close up shop. They anticipated a new message that would emerge from Zion, and in the meantime, all they have gotten from us is great disappointment.

What is happening within the Likud?
I sense that Netanyahu feels very pressured. He is not fighting to win, because he assumes that he will. He is fighting very hard, though, for every percentage point of support, for the struggle, as far as he is concerned is for complete hegemony over the Likud. Netanyahu is creating great pressure and spending a lot of money to make the Likud a party ruled by one man. This will save him the trouble of maintaining a dialogue with the party's institutions. I do not know if Netanyahu really thinks that he will easily defeat me, because on the ground, he is investing a lot of effort in this race.

What type of efforts?
There is a feeling of fear in the Likud camp. It starts with the mayors and seeps through the heads of the Likud branches and down to the local activists. I keep hearing stories of people who are threatened that if they do not bring in high percentages of votes for Netanyahu, they will not be receiving the funds that they are slated to get. I do not have these means, but I am happy to say that there is a phenomenon that I have never seen before in the Likud: The Likud members who understand that if they want their party to remain intact, they must not give Netanyahu the hegemony that he wants.

What do you say about Yair Lapid and Noam Shalit entering politics?
Israeli society can be proud that Shelli Yechimovitz was elected to head the Labor party. I think that her worldview is very dangerous, but the fact that she was elected shows that the Israeli public wants leaders who are ideologically motivated; the kind of leaders who believe what they say. On the other hand, the high ratings that Yair Lapid is receiving in the polls are a low point for Israeli society. He is a person who has nothing to say and his popularity expresses society's preference for rating over substance.

And what about Shalit?
Noam Shalit has not given anything to Israeli society. But he has received - a lot! The release of 1,000 terrorists with blood on their hands is something that we have all given Noam Shalit, for we are all liable to pay the price, G-d forbid, for the Shalit deal. Noam Shalit did not give, he only received and his candidacy for the Knesset testifies to counter-values: He who succeeds in receiving more from society is the success story who can bring in votes. This is a disgrace for Shalit and for the Labor party and Shelli Yechimovitz, who took him into their party.

The Likud Primary: You Must Choose

2012-01-15T14:54:00.002-05:00

By Tuvia Brodie

The Likud primary election of January 31, 2012 is not about who will be the next head-of-Likud. This primary is not about a politician. It is not about politics. It is about us. It is about how we see ourselves—and how we define our future: are we a nation that is so afraid of others that we should back-pedal and bow silently before those who hate us? Or, are we a nation on the threshold of our destiny, confident in our faith, our G-d and our right to our land?

This year’s primary is crucial for our future because we are a nation at war. This might be a minority opinion, but 2012-2014 will bring a war (diplomatic or actual or both) that will seek to delegitimize us or destroy us or haul us before a United Nations that seems to believe we have no right to exist. It is a war against those who would butcher us joining with those who would facilitate that butchering-- a scenario built by our enemies that was actually written into our Tanach more than 2,200 years ago.

There is no way to avoid this war. It is reasonable to believe that, given the stature of Likud in Israel, the winner of this month’s primary could well be Israel’s next leader. But because we are at war, it will not matter who becomes Prime Minister. Whoever gets selected, we will fight some kind of war. Even if we elect a Leftist on a Platform of appeasement and surrender—we will still be at war: the enemy is that implacable. Indeed, our history in the Middle East clearly demonstrates that the more Israel offers to surrender, the more aggressive (not peaceful) our enemy becomes. The question voters in Israel will face in the next national election will not be, who will help us avoid war. Rather, the question will be, who will be more steadfast defending us in that war?

On January 31, 2012, Likud has to choose that man: Benjamin Netanyahu or Moshe Feiglin.

Benjamin Netanyahu, while Likud, has chosen the Left, not Likud. His administration harasses Jews in Judea and Samaria, allows anti-religious secularists in the IDF to pressure and coerce religious soldiers, defends a Leftist High Court, etc. Israel’s Left, like all Hellenists before them, rejects the Jewish religion and dedicates itself to a desire to become non-Jews. Their passion to de-Judaize is the passion of the zealot. They would prostrate themselves before those who hate us. They are terrified by Jewish values. They even refuse to prepare for the consequences of their own peace plan: they offer no plan to re-house up to hundreds of thousands of displaced Jews when the new ‘Palestine’ they promote demands to be Judenrein (Jew-free); they have no plan to pay for securing the new (vulnerable) borders they propose; and they offer no explanation to us how we can expect peace when Arab media, politicians and education feed the Arab public a steady stream of Jew-hatred. They don’t care. They appear so tired of their Jewishness they just want to surrender, to get it over with: why else would they have no interest in planning for the consequences of their ‘peace’ with such people? They are too exhausted to care.

While Mr. Netanyahu is not an outright Leftist, theirs is the message he has embraced. He rejects Likud. Before the nations of the world, he back-pedals, delays and says yes-then-no-then-yes to their demands, or responds simply no-then-yes. By inches, he surrenders. He bows, moves backwards and bows again.

Moshe Feiglin gives Israel an alternative. He will not rush to surrender. He will not appease. He does not fear Israel’s destiny. He will not bow or shuffle backwards. But he will also not be brazen or rash. He understands Tanach. He understands Likud’s Platform—and he understands Arab hatred.

A July, 2011 survey found that 58 per cent of Israelis call themselves mildly-strongly religious. That is why so many Israelis identify with Moshe Feiglin. He understands Jewish consciousness. He understands Jewish values. The Jewish religion does not speak of surrender or bowing to the nations; neither does Moshe Feiglin. Instead, the Jewish religion speaks of the G-d of Israel. So does Moshe Feiglin. Israelis understand this. They want a leader who reflects their values. They want to see a leader whose belief in G-d makes him strong. They want to see Jewish courage, not Jews bowing and back-pedaling.

Likud voters have a choice: Judaism or Hellenism, courage or fear, steadfastness or appeasement. Likud has a choice between a Likud supporter or a Left supporter. The choice between Moshe Feiglin and Benjamin Netanyahu could not be more distinct.

You must choose. If you are Likud and you believe in Israel, who will you choose and as importantly, who deserves your vote?

The Carrot, the Stick, Temptation and Leadership

2012-01-12T20:16:00.000-05:00

By Moshe Feiglin

"And afterward Moses and Aaron came, and said unto Pharaoh: 'Thus says Hashem, the G-d of Israel: Let My people go, that they may hold a feast unto Me in the wilderness.'
And the king of Egypt said to them, 'Why, Moses and Aaron, do you disturb the nation from its work? Go to your burdens.'" (From this week's Torah portion, Shmot, Exodus 5: 1 and 4)

Pharaoh employs an unusual choice of words when he attempts to discourage Moses and Aaron from bothering him any further. "Stop 'disturbing' the 'happy' Jews", he tells them. "Go back to your private lives."

Pharaoh uses the carrot and stick tactic and throws in a temptation for good measure.

The stick: I am Pharaoh, the mighty king of Egypt. With just the nod of my head I can kill you. You have, after all, entered the lion's den.

The carrot: I am willing to differentiate between your fate and the fate of the rest of the Jews if you will just forget about the responsibility that you have taken upon yourselves when you decided to lead the Nation. "Go to your burdens" - in other words, go back to being private people who are focused on their personal lives.

The temptation: You have simply misunderstood reality. There is really nothing that you can do. This is the way of the world, and the Jews are actually happy to be living like this. You are disturbing them for no good reason. Let us just agree that there was a misunderstanding between us, and we will part as friends.

During the Holocaust, we experienced Jewish leaders who did not know how to overcome the type of temptation faced by the Jewish leadership in the Egyptian Holocaust. We can all learn what true leadership is from the Jewish midwives in this week's Torah portion, the Jewish police of Egypt and of course, the ultimate Jewish leader, Moses. But when a leader prefers to "go to his burdens," salvation and relief emerge for the Jews from elsewhere - and his leadership is lost in disgrace.

Shabbat Shalom

HaRav Nachman Kahana on Parashat Shemot 5772

2012-01-12T15:56:00.002-05:00

BS"D

Shemot 5772

Plans for the enslavement of the Jewish people began formulating when Paro convened his inner cabinet to discuss the legality, legitimacy and morality of subjugating the family of the man who literally saved the Egyptian nation. The inner cabinet consisted of three wise and experienced men, on whose judgement Paro had previously relied for major decisions of state. They were Bila’am who was later called upon by Balak to curse the Jewish people; Iyov (Job) known for the extreme suffering he had to endure; and Yitro, later to be Moshe Rabbeinu’s father-in-law.

The Gemara (Sanhedrin 106b) relates that Paro put before that august group his suggestion (Shemot 1:10)הבה נתחכמה לו
Let us deceive them into being our slaves

Bilaa’m agreed; Iyov was noncommittal and Yitro fled to Midyan.

This is how the episode unfolds according to the texts of the Torah and Gemara; but we are not told the "behind the scenes" deliberations, conflicts and ramifications. What happened to make Paro wake up one morning and suggest enslaving the entire Jewish people? (It could not have been irrational anti-Semitism because Christianity and Islam were not yet even thoughts in anyone’s mind).

The answer lies in the widespread, critical social upheavals of the time, as described in parashat Vayiegash. The Torah relates that the famine that befell Egypt required the citizens of the land to purchase food from Paro until all their money was spent. The following year they again purchased food, this time by paying Paro with all their livestock.The third year, when the people no longer had anything of value with which to buy food, they offered Paro their land and their very bodies in return for food. In this way, Paro, through his viceroy Yosef, became the master of everything. All Egypt was now his personal fiefdom, and all its people his personal slaves. Except for one group - the family of Yosef, who remained free men.

Paro now faced a critical situation, bordering on the immoral, where the indigenous citizens of the land were all slaves, whereas these great numbers of foreigners were free men, able to advance their economic interests, social standing and influence in state matters.

Paro convened his trusted cabinet and put before them his plan of how to redress this unsustainable social, economic and political dilemma.

The evil Bila’am, in the name of social equality and political tranquility, put forth his view that the proper way was to also enslave the Jews, so that all people would be equal - slaves.

He was evil because he could have suggested to Paro to free everyone and thus achieve his goal of social equality; but he chose the way of evil to subjugate everyone, and was eventually killed by the Jews in the desert.

Iyov could not decide what to suggest and kept silent; he was later punished with his proverbial sufferings.

Yitro wanted to oppose Paro’s plan, but to do so would have been tantamount to deciding his own death sentence. So he fled to Midyan, thereby letting it be known that he opposed the first and original "final solution" to the Jewish problem, and that no one could alter Paro’s determination to enslave the Jewish people.

Paro was indeed evil, but in the name of truthful objectivity, one must agree that the Jews themselves could not "wash their hands in innocence".

While the Egyptian citizens were barely able to eke out a living, and the official unemployment figures stood at 9% when realistically it was over 20%, the free and wealthy Jews were constructing ever larger and regal homes. They traded in their Lexuses every two years, after returning from vacation at the Alexandria Hilton or the Luxor Waldorf Astoria. The "yiddishe mamas" wore silks imported from the east by way of the Silk Road, and their perfumes were imported from India. The grand- children of Ya’akov spoke Egyptian interspersed with Hebrew, so the Egyptian goy should not know what deals were being made in the market place.

Social unrest was growing among the rank and file of the indigenous Egyptian population. It was an unsustainable situation in which the Egyptian was a slave but the Hebrew was a free and wealthy man.

Social unrest was bubbling like a caldron among the farmers and merchants of the former Egyptian middle class, and news of the unrest came to Paro’s attention. Everyone was aware of the tsunami tidal wave of hatred that was building up in the temples and cafes, in the market places, and along the streets and alleyways of the land. Whenever a Jew would pass, one could discern whispering behind his back by the Egyptians and looks of scorn at the narcissistic manner of the Jew’s presence.

Everyone was aware of the pending tidal wave. Everyone, that is, except the Jews themselves. The homes, the wealth, the social superiority, the cocktail parties, the bar-mitzvas and weddings where the cost of the flowers could support ten Egyptian families for a year. The ostentatious life style where money was never an issue. Their spiritual advisors who were paid handsomely for dropping bits of tradition which were passed on to them from Ya’akov and his twelve sons. There was never a call to return to the land of their forefathers, even when many of the Jews began adopting the mannerisms and beliefs of the Egyptian, until the point when, according to the Midrash, the angels questioned Ha’shem’s choice to save the Jews at the Red Sea at the expense of the Egyptians, by pointing out that both had worshipped idolatry.

The situation became so chaotic that Paro had no choice but to convene his inner cabinet and enslave the Jews in order to prevent social and political unrest, and by then it was too late for the Jews to escape to Eretz Yisrael.

Fast forward 3000+ years to today. The social unrest, unemployment, animosity towards those who "have," and the ostentatious life style of very many Jews - it’s all there today in the US. As King Shlomo says in Kohelet, "There is nothing new under the sun".

But it is still not too late for the Jews of America to escape.The clock on the wall is ticking ever faster, and when the guillotine of history begins to fall, no one will be able to alter the outcome.

Things are going to change drastically beginning in November. If Hussein Obama will be re-elected, they will come about quickly and dramatically; if another candidate will be elected the downhill change will come about but a bit less quickly.

The parasha (1:8) relates:

ויקם מלך חדש על מצרים אשר לא ידע את יוסף:
And a new king arose who did not know Yosef

Rashi explains, that the new Paro acted as if he did not know what Yosef the Jew had done for his people. So take heed; act now and come home before all the opportunities will be closed.

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana

Yair Lapid warns against a strong Feiglin

2012-01-11T21:14:00.001-05:00

This week, Yair Lapid announced that he will be forming his own party and running for Knesset. For those that are unaware, Yair Lapid is the son of Haredi-basher and ultra leftist Tommy Lapid (who has already left this world).

Yair Lapid is a journalist and very successful TV personality. He is young, handsome and a breath of fresh/new life to a very depressing and dying left wing in Israel. The leftists in Israel love this guy and polls already show his new party at 10 seats. There is talk that he might merge with Kadima and if so, polls show that party at 32 seats… even MORE than Likud!

Today, the internet was abuzz with the following news item:

Headline: Yair Lapid – We must fight Feiglin. Every vote for Feiglin strengthens the right wing.

Summary of article: A strong Feiglin is very dangerous to us. We must fight against this with all our might.

According to this article Lapid said the following; “If Feiglin does well in the Likud primaries he will strengthen the right wing and make Likud a very strong force. Polls show that a strong Likud can gain 35-40 seats in the next Knesset. In the event that Feiglin does poorly in those primaries, the right wing vote will leave Likud and go to smaller parties like Lieberman. This will weaken Likud and make our chances for leadership much better.”

This proves the point we have been saying all campaign. The main reason to vote Feiglin is because he will change the leadership of the country and make Israel a strong and proud Jewish state. However, if you don’t believe that, and simply want a strong Likud then you STILL must vote Feiglin.

Please help make our efforts successful by donating online: www.MFLikud.com

King David: An Interview with the Feiglin Family

2012-01-11T18:31:00.002-05:00

Translated from Motzash Makor Rishon Chanukah issue 5772

By Racheli Meleck-Bodah

"You are the first journalist who has entered our home," Tzippy Feiglin says to me as she opens the door.

It is a quiet Friday in Ginot Shomron. The time is 11:30 a.m. but in the Feiglin home, Shabbat has been ready for a long time. The house is shining, the table is set, the candles are already standing ready on the tray and the aroma of fresh-baked goodies is in the air. Exemplary order that awakens envy. Weekend serenity at its finest.

"And why did I merit the honor?" I ask Tzippy. "It's not you," she answers. "We wanted to publicize the miracle. Until now, we were careful to separate our personal lives from Moshe's public pursuits. But this time, we felt a strong need to express our thanks".

The Feiglins, both 49, have five children and four grandchildren. David is the fourth son. At this point, the house is still empty and we wait for David to return from school. In the meantime, Tzippy offers me coffee and cookies, and I accept. When she gets up, I notice that it is difficult for her to walk, but I don't dare ask about the limp. She senses my embarrassment and offers the information herself. "I have Parkinson's", she says. "I had surgery three months ago, and for months before that, I was in a wheelchair".

Tzippy refuses to give in to her condition and cooks for Shabbat by herself. Strong woman. When you look at her, you begin to understand what this family is made of; a father determined to fight for the ideology in which he believes, and the son who was already on his way to the hereafter and came back.

Mothers sense their children. For half a year before the accident, Tzippy couldn't shake the feeling that something terrible was about to happen. "I knew it would come, and I also knew that it would happen specifically to David. It's a mother's sense, I have no other way to explain it. I even remember that once there was a trip to Joseph's Tomb, and David's full name is David Joseph. I felt that I must be there. I went to the tomb and begged G-d to tear up the evil decree, not to take my child away from me".

It's only a matter of one day, and life changes. Everything familiar is naught. A new reality settles in. For the Feiglins, that terrible day was 28.6.10, the eve of the 17th of Tamuz. It is a date they will never forget.

"It caught us in Ganei Yehoshua, riding our bicycles", Tzippy begins the story. "David was supposed to join us for the ride, but in the end he decided that he would go to volunteer at the fire station. I remember that I said to him on the phone, 'Don't forget that you promised me to scrape the paint off the walls of your room so that we can paint it fresh.' 'Don't worry, Imma, you can count on me,' Those are the last words that I heard from him until he woke up again".

"The chain fell off the bicycle and we stopped to fix it", she continues. "We saw that the telephone did not stop ringing, but we were busy and did not answer. After a few more times, I answered. Someone said that he needed my husband urgently. 'So what else is new?' I thought. 'Everyone needs him urgently'. I told him that he is busy now and cannot talk. He insisted. I understood that he would not let me be and I gave Moshe the telephone. Moshe began to pace back and forth with the phone and after a few moments he came back to me and said, 'There's been an accident, David is in Beilinson, I don't know anything else'".

"The real luck is that we didn't turn on the radio", Moshe continues. "The news of the accident was already on all the radio stations; they reported that he was seriously injured, but we didn't know a thing. We tried calling people we know, everyone filtered us out. Nobody wanted to be the one to tell us. When we reached the entrance to the hospital, the guards took our car and said that they would park it for us. A whole row of medical staff received us. Tzippy, in her naivety, thought it was because of me, because I am a public figure. I already caught on that this type of reception is reserved for someone to whom something very bad has happened. At that stage, I prepared myself for the worst. I remember the words of the doctor: 'Your son sustained a serious injury to his head'".

Later on, more details filled in. David was in an accident near Alfei Menashe, after a driver made a u-turn in a place where that is prohibited. He hit the car in which David was sitting and threw it off to the side of the road. The car smashed into an electric pole on its right side and David, who was sitting in the passenger seat on the right, absorbed all the impact.

"It's amazing how the entire impact was specifically on David", Moshe says. "Nobody else in the car was hurt. From pictures of the accident you can clearly see the car folded right where he was sitting".
Tzippy admits that during those hours she was in denial and did not understand the severity of the situation. "The Holy One, Blessed Be He was kind to me. He put me in a state in which I did not integrate what was happening. I heard what the doctors said and I thought to myself, 'O.K., he has a strong head. He will be fine.' Throughout the entire day I was detached from reality. I don't understand why they didn't hospitalize me, as well. If I had really understood what was going on, in my condition, I would have collapsed".

The ICU has its own rhythm. The din of treatments, forms to fill out, authorization for surgery, running back and forth. There is no time to think; only the instincts work. Bad news has a habit of traveling fast and in the meantime, the place filled up with hundreds of visitors.

Moshe: "People in the street heard and came. People who we do not know, people who do not necessarily agree with my opinions; and that shook me up. All the barriers that I had known fell in an instant. It's not only that Bibi and Sarah sent a telegram; or that colleagues who I am constantly arguing with came. When I think about it now I understand that the miracle that happened to us took place in the merit of the prayers of the simple Jew on the street. It didn't happen because I am famous; it didn't happen because we did something. I truly believe that when the Nation of Israel is united around something, it simply happens.

Tzippy: "I remember that I asked myself how it is that people do not tire of doing so many acts of kindness. How much can they give? We could have fed the entire department with the vast amounts of food that they sent us; such abundance. Even the nurses in Schneider were amazed from the way that our yishuv organized to help us. They said to me, 'Where are you from? We want to come live there'".

Moshe: At that point you suddenly understand the difference between someone who has a community behind him and someone who doesn't. I saw people there in very difficult situations who were getting what the State gives, but the system was dealing with them not people. When you come from a community, it is an entirely different story. For me, it strongly highlighted the importance of a return to communities on a national basis."

Three months, and David remained in a coma. Most of the doctors had lost hope, but the parents did not give up. Despite the difficulties presented by her illness, Tzippy stayed in his room 24 hours a day, speaking to him all the time. In the meantime, David was transferred for rehabilitation to Tel Hashomer, without any marked improvement in his condition. Rosh Hashanah was approaching.

"At first, I spent all my time in the ward", Moshe says. "Afterwards, I began to come and go so that I could spend some time at home with the other children. On Rosh Hashanah, I prayed in the synagogue in the hospital. I purposely chose a seat in one of the back rows so that nobody would disturb my prayers with questions. I did not request any active part in the prayers or to be called up to the Torah. I preferred to pray quietly.

On the second day of Rosh Hashanah, I came to the synagogue once again, wrapped in my prayer shawl, focused inward. Suddenly, I hear a murmur in the synagogue. I look to the side and see my wife entering with David's gurney; David was tied down in a reclining position with a sea of tubes emerging from his body. The gurney was heavy; it was even hard for me to push it, and it was approximately a half-kilometer walk to the hospital synagogue. I didn't understand how Tzippy, in her condition, managed to push it the whole way. I asked her, 'What are you doing here'? Tzippy answered me, 'I wanted him to hear the shofar'. At some point I was called up to the Torah. There was David, tied on the gurney next to me, as I recited the blessing and read in a whisper along with the Torah Reader.

The Torah portion turned out to be the Binding of Isaac and there I stood, with my son tied in a gurney, struggling between life and death. I felt as if Isaac was my son bound next to me, and I had no way of helping him. I could not control myself; the tears streamed straight onto the Torah scroll. I shed so many tears that I moved my head because I was afraid that the Torah scroll may become unfit for reading.

On the way back to the room, following the most powerful Rosh Hashanah prayers I had ever had, I felt a strange sensation of relief; a type of acceptance. I said to G-d, 'I have done all that I can; now it is in Your hands.' Our Sages say that the repentance of the completely righteous is accepted immediately, while the repentance of people neither completely righteous nor completely wicked waits until Yom Kippur for resolution. On Yom Kippur eve David said his first word".

"It happened a minute before the beginning of the fast", Moshe points toward the porch. "I remember the shadows of the setting sun, I remember that I had almost begun the fast and then I said, I will make a last call to Tzippy and David and bless them before Yom Kippur. Tzippy said to me, 'Say hello to David'. I said shalom to him, as I was accustomed to doing; after all, we were always talking to him. Suddenly, he answers me over the phone: 'Shalom'".

The fast began. Moshe ran to the synagogue, to the people who had surrounded him during the entire ordeal, to tell them that his son had woken up. "The first Shabbat after the accident was a black Shabbat. People in our yishuv felt a sense of mourning. There was nobody who wasn't moved by what had happened. And just like it had been so sad then, so was the joy on Yom Kippur Eve".

Tzippy: "The next morning, I asked David if he wants to eat something. 'It's a fast day!' he answered me. I didn't understand how he knew the date; perhaps because of the white scarf that I wear only on Yom Kippur". But after that Yom Kippur, David did not speak again for another three months.

"In the hospital they tried to explain to us that it was just a one-time phenomenon", says Feiglin. "They said that possibly he had lost his entire vocabulary; that he would have to learn how to talk from scratch; that his injury was very severe. They said all sorts of things. Thank G-d, his condition continued to slowly progress. Slowly, he is talking once again".

A door opens. A tall boy, smiley, full of vitality, comes into the house and jokingly says, "You're talking about me, huh?" I study David, a walking miracle. Outside the scar on his throat, a souvenir from the resuscitation, my first glance doesn't divulge the fact that he was in such a serious accident.

Later, his father updates me on his current medical condition. "He does not see out of his right eye, he still has difficulty holding a knife and fork, pouring, drinking by himself; we still have a lot of work ahead of us".

David hears and chimes in: "I can do everything, everything I can do, it is just hard So what?"

"I saw that reading much improves his abilities and thus we diligently sit and read together", tells the father. "What are you reading?" I ask. Feiglin laughs. "My book, 'Where there are no Men' that tells about my activism in the Zo Artzeinu movement. It is a difficult book, but I saw that David finds it interesting and even continues reading on his own. So it is apparently the right book for practicing."

At this point, despite the fact that I had promised myself not to mix in politics, I find it hard not to ask Feiglin if his opinions have changed since then. "When something like this happens, a person must examine his deeds", he answers with honesty. "I understood that it was not something small, the observance of a law that I must improve, but that apparently I had fallen on my lack of ability to look at my political opponents in a positive light".

And what about the opinions, themselves?
"Nothing has changed in my doctrine or in my understanding of reality or in the solutions that I propose. But today, I do try to listen to people even if, in my opinion, they are causing damage. I honestly try; it's not easy. The debate sometimes gets down to our most existential roots. When they destroy a family's home, I am horrified. It immediately brings me to a place of hatred; these are the people that you see every day and you know that they are responsible for it. It is a very complex topic and demands a broad perspective. In the past, I was easy on myself- I allowed myself to hate people. That is a mistake that I regret today.

You have declared in the past that you have no faith in the system. Is that true today as well?
It's interesting. From the moment that the accident occurred, I became a "customer" of the system, against my will. I must say that all in all, it worked very well; the health system, social security all responded immediately. But on the political points, my opinion has remained the same. I do not have faith in the justice system. I see it now, as well, in the treatment of the driver who caused the accident.'

Criminal proceedings are currently being held against the driver who injured David. The arguments for punishment are delayed time and again by his attorney. Once again, Feiglin finds himself in a battle against the justice system. Recently, he has begun to formulate a new legislative proposal on accidents, in which he differentiates between accidents not caused by reckless driving and accidents that are: passing on a white line, running a red light, drunken driving and more.

"Today's ethics dictate that a person who was injured in an accident receives compensation that allows him to continue to function in terms of medical expenses. The State is supposed to punish the perpetrator and builds a wall between us. That is not what Jewish ethics dictate. Judaism dictates that an unintentional murderer is still a murderer. He must escape to a City of Refuge. He bears responsibility for his actions. A person who has a baby unintentionally is he responsible for him or not? Of course he is! If you bring new life to the world, are you responsible? So why then, if you take life, are you not responsible?

The dimension of responsibility has been taken off the roads. The goal of the proposed law is to restore it. We are not talking about human error. We are talking about a case in which a person makes an irresponsible decision and does not have to pay a price for it. In this case, he is the one who should be responsible for the potential victim, not the insurance company that will pay in his stead. The person who injured my son, I estimate, will have to perform half a year of community service. That is absurd. There should be a lien against his bank accounts, he should have to pay support all his life for my son. He should have to live a life of minimal expenses, to be reminded daily of the reckless decision that he made. If this message would be integrated into society, we would see a completely different country here".

Has the fact that you almost lost a child made you think differently about life in Samaria, on the relative danger of living here?
According to what you say, maybe we should live in Australia and not have to deal with danger at all. That reminds me that once I was asked the same question by a journalist from Tel Aviv. I said to her, you are here in Tel Aviv, threatened by tens of thousands of missiles every day. Why are you here? Go to London. She said to me, 'You're right'. Every zebra know the lions in its savannah. I take risks within the realm of reason. I ride my bicycle every day in the wadi, but I will not enter the Arab village. I do live in a savannah, but I will not serve myself up as food for the lions. I do not have a suicide wish".

David and Tzippy, who in the meantime had taken a coffee and cake break, re-join our conversation. It is difficult not to be affected by David's charm. He jokes a lot about himself and his situation and tells me about his love for motorcycles.

"I once found an old Vespa motorcycle from the seventies thrown in a garbage dump. Abba said to me, 'That's a piece of junk, why did you bring it home?' After I worked on it for two hours, it drove like a classic.

Tzippy: "And what do you think about motorcycle driving today'?

David: It's stupid. It is not easy to fight for your life. Today I know that. It's easy to ride a motorcycle.

Tzippy: What do you think today about someone who rides a motorcycle?

David: That he is stupid. He should sell it.

For David, only 18, the accident also means shattered dreams. He dreams of serving in a combat unit in the army, he dreams to work the land. He had built an entire hothouse in his back yard and today his hands betray him; hands of gold that used to know how to fix everything. He had completed only three matriculation exams before the accident. Today he learns in the Mesharim special education school and is trying to fill in the gap. "Once, I didn't believe in finishing all the matriculation exams," he admits. I hated to study. Now that it has suddenly become difficult, I want it, I appreciate it. I hope that I will manage to finish everything by the time I am 21. All of my friends are in pre-military academies; some are already serving in the army. It is very difficult for me to be left behind."

Are you angry at G-d?
I am angry at the idiot who ruined my life, not at G-d. G-d has a plan for every person in the world. My plan was to have an accident, to be critically injured and maybe to live afterwards. In the end G-d decided OK, he will live. On the other hand, I have a friend who was with me in the hospital and who is in school with me now. He was also injured in an accident. He doesn't stop being angry at G-d. 'Why did I get the short end of the stick? Why me?' I think it is very hard to live like that. I want people to read this interview and say: G-d is great, G-d is tremendous'. He took my life and then He said, 'You are still young, we will let you go, take your life back'".

What do you remember from your hospitalization?
"I don't remember anything. Have you heard about all those who say that they were in the next world? They saw a tunnel, a light emerging? Rubbish. You don't see anything", he laughs.

Tzippy, who had gone out for a moment, returns to the living room with an album filled with letters. "When I think about why it happened, the only think that I can think of is the huge amount of kindness that came to be in David's merit. In the first week after the accident I asked everyone who I met take a small good deed upon yourself. Improve yourself in one way, volunteer in some place. And everyone took something upon himself. In my opinion, it is in this merit that he woke up. G-d couldn't remain apathetic to it. I feel a need to express my thanks to the people who supported us, some of whom we do not even know.

They prayed for us everywhere. Even in Hong Kong: One of David's visitors told us that he was in Hong Kong after the accident and wanted to say the misheberach prayer for him in the synagogue there. It turned out that David's name had already been on the list for a very long time. The message that kindness can make a change, that charity can save from death; that is the most important thing for me to give over".

I leaf through the album: huge amounts of letters pop out of it. Suddenly I understand how many people this boy managed to touch. "To Davidush", a young, formerly religious woman writes him: "We never got to know each other, but from my short meetings with you at the school gate I feel that you are a person full of light, love and the joy of life. You are always smiling, it's amazing! A smile worth gold. I hope that up in heaven they are using the trait of mercy to determine your fate and that they remember all your smiles up there, that every day can light up people's days and heal their souls". "Throw your desires upon G-d and He will sustain you, this is our time to strengthen our faith. To our David," writes a non-observant relative from his father's side, "You know? We were never good at praying, but you managed to rectify us a bit. Now we pray every day, every hour, with every improvement in your condition, with each of your responses that bring us joy".

Epilogue
I observe the Feiglin family. It is difficult not to connect to them through David's personal story. There is an enchanting poem by Leah Goldberg, "For a Person who doesn't Believe, it is Hard to Live." I remember it and am filled with envy. How pleasant for the Feiglins, that their faith comes to them just like that, completely naturally. It seems that there are people who believe in miracles and there are people who need a miracle to happen to them in order to believe. The Feiglins, so it seems, always believed. From their standpoint, the miracle was so that others would also believe. The light outside begins to dim and I understand that Shabbat is approaching and the time has come to finish. As I am getting ready to leave I look at David from the side, as he takes a glass of juice with a slightly trembling hand. He smiles and makes the blessing out loud, "That all comes about with His word," like only a person who has almost lost everything can make a blessing.

But You Don't Have a Chance!

2012-01-10T15:01:00.000-05:00

By Shmuel Sackett

The #1 comment we hear all time in the campaign is that Moshe "doesnt have a chance". People like him, agree with him and even prefer him to the existing Likud leadership but since he "doesnt have a chance" people are hesitant to vote for him.

I tell these people all the time that the answer to this complaint lies in the Republican primaries in America.

A few months ago a straw poll was conducted in Iowa and Michele Bachmann came in first place. On Tuesday, in the actual Iowa caucus, she came in second to LAST place.
Three weeks ago Newt Gingrich was leading in all polls yet he wound up doing very poorly.
When Rick Perry entered the race he was the #1 favorite to WIN. Today it looks like he will be dropping out of the race.

On the flip side, Rick Santorum was running at about 6% in the polls and yesterday wound up coming in 2nd place just 8 votes behind the winner!

I remember watching an interview just 16 days ago with Rick Santorum and the interviewer said, "But, you dont have a chance!"
He smiled at the interviewer and said, "The Republicans of Iowa will decide whether or not I have a chance. I believe in THEM."

Dearest friends Things in politics happen VERY quickly!
Moshes 2 main issues of "New legislation for Supreme Court judges" and "A member of Likud as Defense Minister and NOT Ehud Barak" have started gaining momentum.
This week was our official "Kick-off" campaign and it was standing room only.
Things are happening.
Excitement is generating and the energy level is rising.

Dont fall into the "dont have a chance" excuse.
Get involved, do your part and leave the rest to our Father in heaven.

No excuses, folks, just hard work, dedication and making sure that our #1 goal is to Sanctify G-ds Name throughout the world.
A campaign like that CANNOT lose!!

A Letter from Beit Shemesh

2012-01-09T14:38:00.002-05:00

By Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky

BEIT SHEMESH, Israel — The latest battleground in Israel’s struggle over religious extremism, bespectacled second-grade girl Naama Margolese, 8, the daughter of observant Jews, has been spat on and otherwise insulted by ultra-Orthodox men and boys on her way to school because her modest dress did not adhere to their standards.

The conflict in Israel, has very little to do with modesty, ultra orthodoxy, rigid standards of dress, disrespect for women, and the like. These are smoke screens for an underlying issue. It all has to do with far more basic that is not being addressed.

As I write this, today is the 10th of Tevet, a fast day for the Jewish people, a fast that is connected to the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

Twice Israel suffered defeat and exile. The first was the conquest of the northern kingdom, followed a century and a half later by the destruction of the First Temple and the Babylonian exile. This was a direct consequence of the division of the kingdom into two after the death of Solomon. When Solomon died, the nation split into two, appointing two separate monarchs, one from the tribe of Judah Rechavam, son of Solomon, and one from the tribe of Joseph Yeravaan son of Nevat, from the tribe of Ephraim. It was this split that weakened and ultimately eroded the nation, leading both to the expulsion and exile of the Ten Tribes lost to this very day, and later the destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple.

The second defeat, at the hands of the Romans and the destruction of the Second Temple, was the result of intense factionalism and internal strife, in the words of the Talmud:

Why was the second Temple destroyed, though they were involved in Torah, Mitzvot and charity? Because of baseless hatred and factionalism among Jews.

History thus demonstrated that the feud between Joseph and his brothers, though resolved on one level, still lingered in the unconscious collective identity of the Jewish people. And it came out years later, after Solomon’s death in the split between the two kingdoms of Joseph and Judah, and then again, during the second Temple era with the tremendous strife among Jews.

The most important thing to know about strife, rivalry, hate and animosity: it is never exclusively about the one I hate; it is much more often about me, the hater. It is my inner lack of peace, my inner lack of contentment, my inner lack of true connection to G-d, that allows me to fall prey to the poison of hate, envy and animosity. When I am unhappy with myself, I project it on others. And when I become more ego-centered than G-d-centered, I fail to realize that any obstacle I have in my life is part of my G-d given journey.

In this week’s portion of Vayechi, it says:

That after their father Jacob has died, the brothers come to Joseph fearing that he will now take revenge.

The Torah relates this story:

“They sent word to Joseph, saying, ‘Your father left these instructions before he died:‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers for the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the G-d of your father.’ When their message came to him, Joseph wept.”

But did not Joseph forgive them? Did he not tell them that he was not angry because he felt that it was G-d who sent him to Egypt to save the world from famine? Why were they afraid of revenge? Because the brothers understand the word “forgive” but they are still unsure about it. Did Joseph really mean it the first time? Does someone really forgive those who sold him into slavery?

This is why Joseph weeps when they speak to him. Joseph is crying that his brothers haven’t really understood that he meant it when he said it. Joseph has found the ability to truly forgive and move on, but the brothers have perhaps not.

That is why Joseph and Benjamin cried now over the destruction of the Temple. They both intuitively knew that even though there was now a temporary peace and they had conquered the hatred that existed between brethren, the ugly head of strife among brothers would rear itself once again. That strife among brothers would destroy both Temples in the portion of Benjamin as well as the Tabernacle in the portion of Joseph. The sense of mistrust and strife among the tribes of Israel, among the Jewish people, is yet to resurface once again. They knew that "this chapter is not yet over."

Friends, this is our challenge today. You know what is the problem between the religious and the secular in Israel? It is not the size of a dress or issues of modesty or religious standards; it is that we don’t love each other. Had that ultra-religious Jew felt a love on his heart to this girl because she is a Jew, because she is his sister, because she is part of his soul, because she is a child of G-d, because she is holy, his entire approach would be different.

This does not mean that we will agree on all issues. A life of Torah is very different than a secular life. Yes, the Torah does have demands on both men and women on how to appear in the open. But, for heaven’s sake, where is the LOVE?

If every religious Jew in Israel and in the world would begin learning and internalizing the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and of the Rebbe that you can’t love G-d if you don’t love every Jew with a burning love, because G-d is within every Jew—then everything would look differently. If we would understand what the Baal Shem Tov taught that Ahavat Yisrael, the love of another Jew must be unconditional, just as you love your child even if they disagree with you, everything would look different, because we are all one.

A story at the time of the Roman Empire, two Jewish boys had grown up together in Israel and become very close friends. After a while, they moved far apart ― one living under Roman control, and the other living under Syrian control. Yet they remained very close friends.

One time, when the fellow from Rome was visiting in Syria, someone falsely accused him of being a spy. So they brought him to the Syrian Emperor, and he was sentenced to death.

As he was being led out to be executed, they asked if he had any last requests. "Please, let me go back to Rome to settle my affairs and say goodbye to my family. Then I'll come back and you can execute me."

The Emperor laughed. "Are you crazy? What guarantee do I have that you'll come back?"

The Jew said, "I have a friend here in Syria who will stand in for me. He'll be my guarantor. If I don't come back, you can kill him instead."

The Emperor was intrigued. "This I've got to see.
Okay, bring your friend."

The Syrian Jew was called in. Sure enough, he agreed to take his friend's place in prison, and be killed instead if the friend did not return.

The Emperor was so startled by this arrangement that he agreed to let the Roman Jew go. "I'll give you 60 days. If you're not back by the dawn of the 60th day, your friend is dead."

The Roman Jew raced back to say goodbye and put his affairs in order. After a hectic time and a lot of tears, he started back in plenty of time before the 60 days were up. But those were the days of sailing galleys, and sometimes you could sit for days waiting for the right wind to come. As luck would have it, there was no wind for several days, the sailboat was delayed, and by the time the Roman Jew arrived in Syria, dawn of the 60th day was breaking.

As agreed, the jailors took the Syrian Jew out for execution.

In those days, an execution was a gala affair. Early in the morning the crowds began to gather. Finally, as they were just about to perform the execution, the Roman Jew came running in. "Wait! I'm back. Don't kill him!"

But the Syrian Jew protested: "You can't kill him. He came too late. I'm the guarantor. You've got to kill me instead!"

Each friend was equally adamant. "Kill me!" "No, kill me instead!" The executioner didn't know what to do. The crowd was in an uproar!

Finally, the Emperor was called. In wonder and amazement, he turned to the two of them and said, "I'll let both of you go free on one condition. That you make me your third friend!"

That's why the verse in Leviticus "Love your neighbor," concludes with the words: "I am G-d." Because unity and friendship is so precious that even G-d wants to be part of it. He wants to be the third friend.

If we're united, the Almighty's with us. If we're divided, we're on our own.

This is the love we need today between Jews. This is what my very holy and beloved religious brothers in Israel need to learn.

In the merit of unconditional love to each other we will rebuild the third Holy Temple very soon.

Moshe Feiglin's Speech at last week's Jerusalem Campaign Rally

2012-01-09T14:34:00.000-05:00

English Transcript of the Speech:

Thank you, each and every one of you. Thank you for choosing to be part of the faith-based revolution. Thank you very much.

We are all servants of G-d. Not for honor and not for fame there is nothing but Him.

The Minister of Education told me that schools in North Tel Aviv are requesting to visit the Cave of Machpelah. Would you have believed that two or three years ago?

Israel thirsts for meaning. Israel thirsts for the Judaism of liberty. Slowly but surely, a new consciousness is being created here; Jewish consciousness. A wondrous energy of life and hope is awakening the Nation of Israel as it begins to fulfill its destiny. It could be that this year we will be in a new stage of Jewish history; the stage in which most of the Jewish People are in their Land. We may reach that point for the first time since the First Temple. The only question that remains is when will this wonderful Jewish revolution dovetail with Jewish leadership; leadership that is aware of and committed to Jewish destiny; leadership that will assemble all these desires and give them direction and significance. That is our task all of us. Nobody will do it instead of us.

That is why I have decided to announce my candidacy for chairmanship of the Likud and leadership of the State of Israel.

The Likud under my leadership will, with G-d's help, consolidate Israel around its Jewish identity and values.

The Likud under my leadership will, with G-d's help, restore the State of Israel to the Nation of Israel. Our state must be a Jewish state in its essence, not only in slogans. It must be a Jewish state in its society. It must be a Jewish state in its security. It must be a Jewish state in its economy and it must be a Jewish state in its justice system. Society, security, economy and justice.

Society in a Jewish state means first of all genuine Jewish education for every child in Israel. Society in a Jewish state means fortifying the status of the family with tax breaks, by enabling mothers to raise their children at home, by allocating a piece of the Land of Israel for free to every Jewish family. Society in a Jewish state means genuine liberty for every Israeli citizen, free and representative media, full human rights for all and political rights only for those who are faithful to the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish Nation.

He who believes does not fear a Jewish society.

Security in a Jewish state means, first of all, clear borders; the basic understanding that this is our Land by virtue of G-d's promise. Security in a Jewish state means declaration of sovereignty over all parts of the Land of Israel that is in our hands and that, by the way, word for word, is in the Likud constitution. Security in a Jewish state means fostering the emigration of all those who are not loyal to Israel as the state of the Jewish nation. Security in a Jewish state means restoring the concept of victory to the IDF. Today this concept has been neutered. It has disappeared from the IDF lexicon. Nobody talks about victory. Restoration of the concept of victory means the elimination of leadership any leadership that initiates a conflict with us; that should be noted by the Iranian leadership. Security in a Jewish state means power of deterrence; an offensive approach as a guarantee of peace. That is why, ladies and gentlemen, only someone who believes can bring security. Because he who believes is not afraid.

Jewish economy means first and foremost liberty: A truly free economy - within the Jewish framework of faith and kindness. Only our Jewish culture has the proper balance that allows a truly free economy capitalism without sliding into the jungle that everyone fears. In other words, a free economy within the cultural framework of Jewish faith and kindness. Jewish economy means allocating welfare funds to the community. Only the community can really take care of those in need. Jewish economy means affordable housing for every Jew; first and foremost by allocation of the land to the public.

Justice in the Jewish state means first of all judges from the People and not from the UN. (ed: This is a play on words in Hebrew: am and oom). Justice in the Jewish state means completion of the legislation that would require public hearings for Supreme Court judges. Justice in the Jewish state means a constitution that preserves Israel's Jewish character and a Constitutional Court, elected by the public once in a decade, that will be the ultimate authority on national issues. Justice in the Jewish state means separating the role of the Attorney General from the role of State's Attorney. Justice in the Jewish state means gradual adoption of the Jewish law system.

Ladies and gentlemen, he who believes is not afraid to bring the Nation judges and a justice system that is from the people and not from the UN.

He who believes is not afraid to appoint a defense minister from the Likud!

He who believes is not afraid to build in the entire Land of Israel!

He who believes is not afraid of Jewish education and the Jewish family!

He who believes is not afraid and does not send soldiers to the Marmara with toy guns, humiliating the IDF.

He who believes is not afraid to return the infiltrators to their own countries. Just in the past month 3,000 of them infiltrated into Israel.

He who believes is not afraid to demand of Obama from every platform to free now, immediately, our brother Jonathan Pollard. I did not intend to talk about Jonathan Pollard; I have another few "I believes" here but I see that the point about Jonathan Pollard evoked a standing ovation from you. I had the merit to visit our brother, my brother, Jonathan Pollard five or six times. Each time we engaged in long discussions. At a certain point I said to him, "You understand that for you to get out of prison, I have to be prime minister." No, it's not funny. And I asked him to do one thing: to pray.

He who believes is not afraid: Not of the High Court, not of the media and not of the Left only of G d.

He who believes is not afraid of our destiny.

He who believes is not afraid to return the Nation of Israel to the place that G-d chose; we will ascend to the Temple Mount to pray, to bring the Pesach offering, to make a pilgrimage three times a year.

He who believes in G-d, ladies and gentlemen is not afraid to proclaim, "This is our Land and it is ours forever."

Thank you all. We have one short month to work hard; G-d will do His part and with His help, we will succeed!

A Vote for Netanyahu is a Vote for Barak

2012-01-09T14:23:00.002-05:00

(From Israel Matzav)

Is Defense Minister Ehud Barak behind the current harassment of religious soldiers by the IDF? Please recall this story from an earlier post. I received the following comment about it from Aryeh Z, who sends me regular emails.

We can now clearly see that, like their Arab "Peace Partners," the word and signed agreements of the Government of Israel (GOI) and that of the IDF are worthless. It is unfortunate that the only alternative given Torah Jews now in the IDF is to either betray G-D or go to jail. While betrayal seems to be SOP for the GOI and the IDF, it is not for Torah Jews.

Furthermore all of this has the stench of the Coward of Lebanon to it. Barak has become psychopathologically obsessed with the destruction of the Torah community in all its variations and styles. Whether this is just the real Barak coming out or he has finally gone completely over the edge is irrelevant. He is as much an existential danger to the State of Israel as any Arab army or terrorist organization. We must also realize and acknowledge that all of this is being done under the protection of his guardian angle, the Betrayer of Hevron, Mr. Prime Minster Netanyahu.

Those of you who are Likud member and will be participating in the up coming election for Likud leader must understand that a vote for Netanyahu is a vote for Barak. They have become a package deal. Netanyahu will do everything he can to place Barak in a high position on the Likud list. The only thing that can prevent this is either for Netanyahu to loose or just barely win the leadership.

For those who can't or won't get it, when Aryeh refers to the 'Torah community in all its variations and styles,' he is referring to both the Haredim and to a major portion of the National Religious community. Many National Religious men today opt to perform their IDF service in Nahal Haredi for the same reason that Haredi men do so.

But let's come back to Ehud Barak for a minute, because people don't usually think of him as being in the same anti-religious category as an MK from Meretz (for example). They forget that it was Barak who, in the aftermath of the Camp David disaster in the summer of 2000, attempted to foment a 'secular revolution.'

The battle lines between Orthodox and secular Israelis were drawn sharper than ever this week.

The nation's two chief rabbis reversed themselves and joined Orthodox politicians in the fight against Prime Minister Ehud Barak's recently announced "civic agenda."

Dubbed by the press a "secular revolution," the program was announced by Barak earlier this month in an effort to usher in an era of secular reforms.

The first step, ordered this week by acting Interior Minister Haim Ramon, calls for the removal of the nationality clause from the identity card that every Israeli must carry.

Removing the clause could help solve a long-running dispute over conversions performed in the Jewish state, since the state would no longer be responsible for defining who is a Jew.

But those and other components of the secular revolution have been attacked by some in the Orthodox community as an attempt by the premier to wreak revenge on the religious parties that dropped out of his coalition on the eve of July's Camp David summit.

Only Rabbi Michael Melchior, a member of the Barak government from the small, Orthodox Meimad Party, is still trying to hold the middle ground.

On Sunday, Melchior announced his own reform plan, which he said sought to balance the conflicting demands of both sides of the religious-secular debate.

Barak said he would seriously consider the plan proposed by Melchior, who has tackled religious-secular issues on behalf of the Barak government.

However, Israel's chief rabbis were less inclined toward compromise when it came to Barak's planned reforms -- especially his proposal to abolish the Religious Affairs Ministry.

At a stormy meeting Monday with the "Orthodox lobby" of legislators from the religious parties, the two chief rabbis confirmed that they had supported the idea in the past, contending that the ministry and the religious councils it governs are hotbeds of mismanagement.

The rabbis said they originally thought Barak's plan was designed to improve the provision of religious services to local communities.

But in light of Barak's other secular reforms, they have now decided that the plan to abolish the ministry was politically motivated.

"We call" on Barak, Justice Minster Yossi Beilin and "on all the national leadership to preserve the Jewish character of the state, and to cease and desist from any process that contravenes the integral relationship between religion, state and peoplehood," the rabbis announced, throwing down the gauntlet to Barak.

But the secular revolution was not to be. Within a week of that article being written, the country was overcome with the violent outbreak of the second intifada. And within four months after that, Barak had been chased from office. Some observers saw a connection. It was God telling us thatenough was enough. This was written by Jonathan Rosenblum just before the election in which Barak was defeated:

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch's words, written at the beginning of Jewish resettlement of Eretz Yisrael, haunt me. Hirsch warned that there is no Divine promise that we will not be exiled once again: "From time to time in the course of the centuries, God allowed His people to touch the Land again. He put them to the test to see whether the miracle of their existence through centuries of exile had at last taught them to utterly despise the gods of the earth, and had eradicated their stiff-necked refusal to acknowledge the Divine word."

The evidence on that score is not encouraging. A month before the renewal of the intifada, our prime minister announced a secular revolution. Buses would run on Shabbat, the malls would be open, nationality would no longer be listed on our identity cards. A month later, after Arafat emptied the jails of every Hamas terrorist, some malls were empty for fear of terrorist attacks. Parents were asking themselves before they sent their children on any bus: Is the trip necessary? The soon-to-be-erased line for nationality became the basis on which the security forces screened potential terrorists.

The violence first flared in full force on the eve of the Day of Judgment on Judaism's holiest site. Just days before, Israel had been floating the idea of transferring control of the Temple Mount to the UN Security Council. (Remember when that seemed a radical idea?)

A week later, Israel stood condemned for war crimes by the same Security Council. God seemed to be pointing directly at our loss of national identity - the destruction of which was the unspoken goal of the secular revolution - as the source of our trials.

The message fell on deaf ears.

Assessing the failures of his tenure in office recently, the prime minister could think of only one: not pursuing the secular revolution more aggressively. He promised to do so if re-elected.

Barak's vulgar materialism - his watchmaker's sensibility - leaves no room for God's influence in the affairs of men and nations. In the materialist universe, only that which can be measured exists. And who has seen God or, for that matter, the human soul?

That same materialism prevents Barak from comprehending the role of will and spirit in the life of nations. He cannot understand that a nation without a past is a nation without a future. Arafat demands as a condition of peace that the Jewish people abase itself and admit that the Temple Mount is more important to the Arab world than it is to the Jews. That is the whole point of the exercise over sovereignty: to prove that nothing could induce the Arab nation to renounce its claim to the Temple, while the Jews will do so for will-o'-the-wisp pieces of paper.

So yes, Ehud Barak is hostile to religious Jews (so is Tzipi Livni). And yes, Binyamin Netanyahu has given every indication that he wants Barak in the Likud (and Barak doesn't have a shot in hell of being elected to the Knesset again unless he finds another party). Yet another reason that those who are able to do so should vote for Feiglin later this month.

Civil War in Israel before Likud primaries? Really?

2012-01-08T08:26:00.002-05:00

By Tuvia Brodie

Apparently, Israel is on the verge of a civil war. It is a war that pits ordinary Israelis against the tyranny of the religious and the terrorism of the nationalist. We know about this war because the Left and the media have been feeding it to us.

But don’t worry. We are safe. The Left-media coalition will rescue us. Building on their experience manipulating public opinion during Oslo discussions in 1993, they are primed for battle. They will manipulate the news until they win again--unless we stop them.

Since October 2011, the media has fed us a double-diet of ‘nationalists attack’ and ‘the- religious-exclude-women-in-the-military’. Judging from online comments and letters-to-the-editor, Israelis are angered by behaviour they see as terrorist (the settlers) and tyrannical (the religious in the IDF). This anger serves the Left because they benefit when Israeli turns against Israeli. Even though there are few facts to support their allegations, the Left-media foments this anger because Moshe Feiglin is running against Netanyahu in a Likud primary January 31. Turning Israelis against nationalists (and the religious) is useful because Feiglin is both religious and nationalist. As Israelis turn increasingly Right, Feiglin’s voice terrifies the Left. He also threatens Netanyahu because our Prime Minister embraces the Left instead of his own Likud. Mr Feiglin is a formidable foe because he has built a powerful base within Likud, especially, rumour has it, in the ‘West Bank’-- home to ‘nationalist-settlers’ and many religious soldiers. So if the Left-media coalition can manipulate voters by simultaneously demonizing ‘West Bank settlers’ and ‘the religious’, Mr Netanyahu might see a surge in primary votes. Angered Likudniks could give Netanyahu a landslide victory. Then the Left could demand a shotgun wedding with him.

This manufactured war began when a mosque was torched in an Arab village called Tuba Zangriya, in October, 2011. The inflammatory words, ‘price tag’ (Jewish revenge for Arab attacks) were spray-painted on a wall. Immediately, the media screamed that the attack came from ‘West Bank settler-nationalists’.

Despite the fact that no evidence surfaced to identify Jews as the culprits, politicians put on brass knuckles and went to work. Education Minister Gidon Saar called the ‘price-tag’ perpetrators a cancer that must be uprooted (Nov 9). Homeland Security Minister Matan Vilnai announced that nationalist Jews were guilty.

Curiously, no one followed up on a report that an Arab elder from Tabu Zangriya doubted that Jews had torched the mosque because the offensive lettering on the mosque wall looked like it had been written by an Arab hand; and no one followed up on a second report that the Regional Police Commander could not say who was responsible for the attack—and he doubted, he said, that ‘price tag’ was the motive. That statement revealed the truth—the Left-media hype wasn’t about crime-solving; it was about attacking ‘settler-nationalists’.

Then, in December (Dec 12), we saw the ‘last straw’—nationalist youth attacked the IDF! From that point, a frenzy began. Menachem Landau, former Shin Bet official, called price-tag crimes acts of ‘terrorism’ (Dec 15). Former Defense and Industry Minister Binyamin Ben-Eleizer demanded the IDF shoot-to-kill settler protesters (Dec 14). Tzipi Livni cried ‘war’—against nationalists and the religious who were a wave threatening to wash Israel away (Dec 16). Prime Minister Netanyahu exclaimed that we will not allow extremist groups to start a religious war (Dec 16). Leftists appeared so convinced that this was war they seemed determined to start one.

It’s a very convenient set of events—perfect for preparing Likudniks to turn against Moshe Feiglin. Think about it: if you were Likud, and you believed that those media reports were true, would you be more willing or less willing to vote for Moshe Feiglin? I suggest that you might be less willing to cast any vote to support any nationalist now that ‘nationalists’ had become ‘terrorists’.

The media enflamed this attack. From October to December, they ignored fact-finding and headlined that every mosque attack had been done by West Bank nationalists-terrorists. They didn’t ask a single question. They just cried ‘fire!’ in the proverbial crowded theatre.

The Left loved it. They were concocting a civil war. It was better than 1993. Just weeks before the Likud primary, all we could see was, ‘nationalist settlers attack again’ or (in other stories) the religious in the IDF were excluding and discriminating against women. Where were the investigative reporters identifying misrepresentations, or highlighting officials’ statements that contradicted the mass hysteria?

There were none because this wasn’t about fact. It was about attacking Israelis who represented Feiglin’s base in the ‘West Bank’: when your goal is to demonize, why investigate?

Now it appears that ‘hilltop settlers’ probably did not attack the IDF (Dec 28). Given the hysteria provoked by that attack, this latest report was astounding--and there were no headline stories or editorials about it?

In the meantime, the supposed religious tyranny in the IDF has become increasingly suspect. It turns out that before General Benny Gantz was appointed Chief of General Staff (2011), the IDF understood how to accommodate religious soldiers’ needs. Ultra-religious enlistment increased 1,000 per cent in six years. Conflict with women rarely occurred. There were virtually no accusations of discrimination or religious tyranny against women. The uproar in the IDF erupted only after General Gantz took command—and then appointed Orna Barbivai as Director of IDF Manpower. The real story here is not horrifying attitudes of the religious towards women; the real issue is the sudden, pre-mediated appearance of secularist harassment and coercion of the religious in the IDF—just as the government has decided to increase religious recruitment. Shouldn’t we see editorials and investigative reports about this?

Of course not. This story isn’t about reality. It’s about creating a witch hunt to demonize and then destroy Moshe Feiglin’s voter base.We have seen this movie before—in 1993, when the Left-media coalition manipulated Israelis to accept Oslo. They are at it again today because they fear Moshe Feiglin. They fear him because he embraces faith. He understands Jewish leadership, reality-- and Israelis. To Israelis, he is a compelling alternative to Netanyahu. The only way the Left-media coalition can defeat him is to create a feeding-frenzy.

The Left-media coalition misled you once. Will you let them mislead you again? As the idiom goes, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

A Storm Is Brewing

2012-01-05T22:57:00.001-05:00

(From Israel Matzav)

A storm is brewing here in Israel. What's it about?

Let's go to the videotape.

I urge all those who are able to do so to donate to Moshe Feiglin's campaign. And I urge all those who are eligible to come out and vote for him on January 31.

Moshe Feiglin 2012: Likud primaries a battle of ideas, not personalities

2012-01-05T22:53:00.001-05:00

(From Love of The Land)

04 January '11..

A full house last night at the Ramada Renaissance, to launch Manhigut Yehudit's Campaign Rally for Moshe Feiglin to be the party chairman of the Likud. While many would see this as an impossible task on such short notice, this is an important opportunity to once again present an alternative vision, of what the Jewish State, Israel, can be, of what we can accomplish, and at this time the role the Likud as governing party can play. A strong turnout January 31 will also assure those MKs who have been there at the critical moments recently, that they are not alone, and enjoy the backing of Likud's voters to stand strong.

TV Interview - Moshe Feiglin 2012: Likud primaries a battle of ideas, not personalities

Uploaded by merfitudinal on Dec 17, 2011

Teach Your Children Well

2012-01-05T22:16:00.000-05:00

By Moshe Feiglin

"And the brothers of Joseph saw that their father had died and they said: Perhaps Joseph will hate us and desire to pay us back for all the evil that we did to him." (From this week's Torah portion, Vayechi, Genesis 50:15)

It seems a bit strange. After the emotional reunion, the public display of forgiveness, the shared lives - suddenly the brothers fear that it was all just a show? That Joseph was nice to them only superficially and was just waiting for their father to die?

We are not usually aware of the power of parents' influence on their children. We think that after the children get older and leave their parents' nest, they are already completely independent. But children have a natural need to look back and get the parental ok for their path in life. Children study and integrate all of a parent's actions. Always. Even the most rebellious of children. Even when the parents are very old. One never knows how much influence he has on his descendants and how much influence he will continue to have - even after he is no longer living among them in this world.

Joseph's brothers apparently feared a deep change in Joseph after their father's death. But what does Joseph answer them? Do not worry; my relationship with you is not dependant on changing moods or proper education. Our brotherhood is solidly based on faith and fear of G-d.

"And Joseph said to them, "Do not fear, am I instead of G-d? You thought to do evil to me, G-d thought to do good in order to do as this day, to give life to a vast people." (Genesis 19, 20)

Shabbat Shalom

HaRav Nachman Kahana on Parashat Va'ye'chi 5772

2012-01-05T18:23:00.001-05:00

BS"D

Parashat Va’ye’chi 5772

Ya’akov Avienu--was the last of the three patriarchs, and the only one to have witnessed the metamorphosis of his small family (father, mother and two brothers) into 12 tribal units, and the beginning of their evolution into nationhood.

Upon his death bed, Ya’akov gathered his 12 sons to deliver his parting words to them. All were God-fearing Jews who followed in the ways of Avraham, Yitzchak and their father Ya’akov, but each son was graced with a unique characteristic that is alluded to in Ya’akov’s words: courage, erudition, zeal, etc. It is their diversification of aptitudes and characteristics that together form the genius of the Jewish nation.

That is not to say that we do not have our share of evil doers and lunatics, from the original miraglim (spies) who weakened the nation’s resolve to liberate the holy land from the Canaanite encroachers, to contemporary miraglim who disparage the obligation on all Jews to return to Eretz Yisrael and liberate the holy land from the gentile encroachers.

However, it appears that in this finite world, that HaShem created, there is also need for evil and even anti-Godly ideas and acts.

This, in fact, was the question posed to HaShem by King David (Yalkut Shimoni chapter 131). Why was it necessary to create insanity? And HaShem replied that one day David himself would be in dire need of this malady. And it occurred when David fled from King Shaul’s anger to the Philistine city of Gat, where he was saved from the clutches of King Achish by acting as if he had lost his sanity.

There is a small, but vicious, segment in the charaidi camp based mostly in Me’a She’arim and in Bet Shemesh that exploits the principles of the Torah as a way of expressing their aggressive tendencies. They do not learn Torah, because people who learn Torah are tolerant of those who do not have the privilege of being exposed to a Torah way of life. They call our police "Nazis" even though 99% of them could not find Germany or Poland on a map. They premeditatedly bring disgrace on the Jews in Eretz Yisrael, because their ignorance prevents them from interacting with most people who are knowledgeable of Torah, erudite in the ways of the world, productive and intellectually healthy.

They refuse any benefits from the Medina because they are funded by anti-Israel charaidi groups in the United States like the Satmar and Neturei Karta, who send their representatives to kiss and embrace with Achmadijad in Teheran. On the walls in the Me’a Shearim market you can find the flag of the terrorist organization PLO who dreams of uprooting Medinat Yisrael and murdering every Jew here. You can also find slogans such as "Arabs Yes, Zionists No".

Their world outlook is based on hatred of anyone who is different from them. The target of their hatred is also secular Jews, but their bows are tauter when they aim their arrows at religious Jews who belong to a different Chassidic sect, and in their mind the devil incarnate wears a knitted kippa and builds homes, shuls and yeshivot in the God-given areas of Shomron and Yehuda.

There is a psychological syndrome where one habitually hates his fellow Jew, and the root cause is the hatred he feels towards himself for what he is and for what he is not. By contrast, one who has ahavat Yisrael (love for fellow Jew) loves Hashem and perceives himself in a positive light. The legendary Rav Aryeh Levin whose love and respect for all Jews was not the exception to the rule, Reb Aryeh was the model for what HaShem expects from all Jews.

So, I, like King David ask Hashem: Why do You permit people like this to exist and disparage your holy name and Torah?

The answer is that, just like insanity and other very negative situations play a necessary role in the world, these people fulfill an important role in our lives, as follows:

1- Their conduct relegates to the back-burners the usual issues of the day, such as the economy and defense, and brings to the national discussion table the issue of what the Torah really says.

People who would normally divert their concentration when a rabbi is interviewed by the media, are paying close attention to the rabbis who condemned these emissaries of hate and explain what the Torah requires of us.

A circus clown dons the face of a crying man as he makes the audience laugh. So too, the embarrassing and sad conduct of these people has opened public debate as to what normative Torah Judaism demands from a member of God’s chosen nation.

2- During our 2000 years of galut (exile), the ritualistic, metaphysical practices of the Torah overshadowed our identification as a nation with a homeland, a capital city, a language and all the other marks of a distinct nation. In the last century, Zionism, and in particular religious Zionism, aroused our collective memory from where we came and to where we must return.

The renaissance of Jewish nationalism became greatly intensified by the establishment of the Medina, the miraculous, even Biblically charged victories of Tzahal, our sovereignty over the holy city of Yerushalayim and large parts of Eretz Yisrael. All this and the miraculous development of our people in all fields of human endeavor have had an intoxicating effect on many. Some see the Medina not as the beginning of our national redemption but as the long awaited Mashiach. And for many it is the Mashiach. For the survivors of the death camps of Europe who were discarded "goods" that no one wanted, the Medina was their savior and their medium of physical and spiritual resurrection. For the million Jews from Moslem lands who were expelled from their homes and all their belongings confiscated, the Medina was their refuge. The Mashiach was not just a dream or lip service for the more than one million Jews who came here from the Soviet Union.

For those who are knowledgeable of Jewish history during the dark days of the our galut, the Medina is the "Hand of God" that overshadows most of the many acts of HaShem which we call "miracles".

Enter this charaidi sect which is an embarrassment to us all. But they remind us that despite the huge spiritual and physical advances of the Jewish people, the Mashiach has not yet come.

Am Yisrael has a way to go.

If there is one Jewish child here who does not know Shema by heart, our work has not been completed. If the Shabbat is not the rule all over the land, we have been derelict in our religious responsibility.

If there are places in the land where a Jew fears to enter, like Shechem or Chevron, we still owe a large debt to Jewish history.

And as long as our land is occupied by the Arabs, in what they call Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and the Sinai Peninsula, our generation has not yet fulfilled its historic and religious missions.

Whatever we think of these people, they have succeeded in creating a national debate on the subject of what the Torah requires from God’s chosen people, and they remind us of the equilibrium we must keep between the spiritual and national forces in our lives.

But at the end of the day, if, in the heavens, failing grades are given for chillul HaShem (desecration of the Holy Name), I would not want to venture a guess as to who gets a lower mark: these people whose conduct has no connection with the Torah but who are part and parcel of the the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael, or the outwardly devout Jews whose presence in the galut undermines the Godly promise to Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’akov that the holy land of Eretz Yisrael is a gift and an obligation to their descendants.

This being written on the fast day of the 10th of Tevet, when 2200 years ago, Nevuchadnetzer King of Babylon began the seige on Yerushalayim, which subsequently led to the first Temple’s destruction and the exile. Let us always keep in mind what we have read today in the Torah (Shemot 32,13):

זכר לאברהם ליצחק ולישראל עבדיך אשר נשבעת להם בך ותדבר אלהם ארבה את זרעכם ככוכבי השמים וכל הארץ הזאת אשר אמרתי אתן לזרעכם ונחלו לעלם:
Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom thou vowed and said to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give to your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana

Rick Santorum on Israeli Settlements

2012-01-04T14:46:00.000-05:00

Former Labor MK Burg for Moshe Feiglin?

2012-01-04T02:27:00.000-05:00

Not really. In debates with the average representative of the National Camp, Burg easily wins time and again by asking one simple question: So what is your vision? In a moment of truth in this Knesset Channel interview, Burg said that the only person who proposes a real alternative to the vision of the Left is Moshe Feiglin. Thanks, Avrum. We could have told you that a long time ago. Click here.

The Real Coercion in Israel

2012-01-03T00:09:00.000-05:00

By Moshe Feiglin

No coercion is good religious or secular. Today, Israel suffers more from secular coercion than from religious coercion. Unlike the situation in the past, religious soldiers today are forced into combat with women soldiers. Unlike the situation in the past, Israel's citizens today are coerced into witnessing "gay pride" parades and other decadent behavior in their public space. Unlike the situation in the past, the settlers today are forcibly expelled form their homes against the will of the majority of the Nation. Unlike the situation in the past, non-Jewish immigration from Russia is being forced down our throats, with Sudanese immigration thrown in for good measure. The entire Israeli reality has become a platform for the multi-faceted tyranny of the secular minority (approximately 19% of the public) over the traditional/religious/ultra-Orthodox majority.

Just like the unhappy events in Ramat Gilad, the story of Tanya from Ashdod (who was harassed on an ultra-Orthodox bus) was a provocation. It began with coercion, continued with the igniting of an intentional spark, led to stupid behavior by extremists, followed by a mad, false and bigoted media campaign and who knows where it will end? Israel's bus company, Egged, did not want to lose its ultra-Orthodox passengers and offered them their own bus lines in exchange for their agreement not to open their own bus company. That's the whole story. Tanya could have gotten on the two general bus lines from Ashdod to Tel Aviv. But she insisted on traveling on the ultra-Orthodox bus.

Do these provocations justify throwing a rock at an IDF officer? Certainly not. Do they justify an imbecilic ultra-Orthodox man spitting on a small girl whose level of modesty does not conform to his standards? Of course not. Most of the ultra-Orthodox have renounced his behavior.

But the problem here is coercion of all types. And the most significant coercion today in Israeli society is the continuing offensive against anything that smacks of Jewish identity be it the settling of the Land of Israel, family values (today it is financially worthwhile to divorce and declare oneself a single parent, and many people do this!) or if it is a smear campaign accusing the ultra-Orthodox of discrimination against women.

We would all be well-advised to filter out the media's wailing. The journalists, most of whom represent the junk-culture that takes the prize for humiliating women, have nothing to teach us about respect for women.

Problems in society must be dealt with in a factual manner. Those who discriminate against women or harass them must be punished according to law. But none of that has anything to do with the murky wave of incitement that has been washing over our heads as of late.

The Primaries: for the Soul of the Likud

2012-01-02T08:42:00.004-05:00

By Tuvia Brodie

Right now, the leading political party in Israel, Likud, appears to have lost its soul. Instead, it has a political apostate named Benjamin Netanyahu, who serves as both head-of-Likud and Israel’s Prime Minister. Normally, of course, a political party has a formal statement of belief—a political soul. You vote for that party because you believe what it believes. You want that party in power because you want to see those beliefs promoted by national leadership. During a national election, you should be able to read a Party’s Platform—its statement of beliefs—and choose the political party that best matches your own political views.

That’s the theory of it. But reality doesn’t always support theory.

Take Likud, for example. Its Party Platform is very clear on several key Middle East issues. That Platform states that:

1. A unilateral Palestinian declaration of the establishment of a Palestinian state will constitute a fundamental and substantive violation of the agreements with the State of Israel and the scuttling of the Oslo and Wye accords. The government will adopt immediate stringent measures in the event of such a declaration.

2. The Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the realization of Zionist values. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the State of Israel. The Likud will continue to strengthen and develop these communities and will prevent their uprooting.

3. Israel rejects out of hand… the relinquishment of parts of the Negev.

4. Jerusalem is the eternal, united capital of the State of Israel and only of Israel. The government will flatly reject Palestinian proposals to divide Jerusalem

5. The presence of the Israeli police in eastern Jerusalem will be increased; The Likud government will act with vigor to continue Jewish habitation and strengthen Israeli sovereignty in the eastern parts of the city

6. The Jordan Valley and the territories that dominate it shall be under Israeli sovereignty.

This Platform is both clear and explicit on the questions of Jerusalem and the Jordan River valley: they must stay within ‘Israel’. Furthermore, it commits to defend, support and protect Judea and Samaria. This was ‘Likud’ during the last election. It is why one voted for Likud. One could therefore reasonably expect the head-of-Likud as Prime Minister to be loyal to these words.

But Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have abandoned these ‘statements-of-belief’. He has rejected Likud’s soul. Exactly now, when the battle over Judea and Samaria represents one of the main battles for the future of Israel, Mr Netanyahu has turned his back on his Party’s beliefs. Instead of defending Judea and Samaria, he supports Leftist calls to demolish and destroy exactly what his Party has promised to build. He abandons East Jerusalem. He surrenders 250,000 dunams in the Negev to Arabs. He agrees to pre-1967 borders (meaning, 1949 borders—what Abba Eban is said to have called ‘the Auschwitz borders’) as a precondition to peace talks, a decision which automatically surrenders the entire Jordan River Valley and Judea and Samaria. If you look again at Likud’s Platform (above), Mr Netanyahu has unilaterally gutted it. In its place, he has chosen the call of the Left to divest and surrender; he embraces those who reject and scorn Likud’s basic beliefs. He has become the antithesis of Likud, not its most articulate spokesperson.

As new Likud primaries approach at the end of this month (January), Mr Netanyahu has taken an even harder line against Judea and Samaria. His subordinates rush to bulldoze homes before their morning coffee. He joins the Left to demonize those who publicly support his Party Platform. He has become predictable: if it’s Likud, he rejects it. He must know he is doing something wrong because now, after betraying his Party, he seeks to change primary rules so he can defeat those who embrace the Likud soul.

Opposing Mr Netanyahu for head-of-Likud in these up-coming primaries is Likud member Moshe Feiglin, whose language and actions have more completely matched the Likud Platform. Look at the Platform and listen to Mr Feiglin: the similarities are striking. The choice for Likud members is clear: Mr Netanyahu has committed to the Left. His recent actions validate that commitment. Mr Feiglin has chosen—in word and deed-- to commit to Likud. Mr Netanyahu rejects the right of the Jewish people to the Biblical land of Israel-- and his Party’s platform. Mr Feiglin rejects neither.

The bottom line? If Netanyahu wins, Likud loses its soul forever. If Feiglin wins, Likud gives Israel a true alternative to the Left. If you are a true Likud voter, there can be only one choice.

Leadership and Brotherhood

2011-12-29T20:18:00.001-05:00

By Moshe Feiglin

"And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph, does my father still live?" And his brothers could not answer him because they were afraid of him." (From this week's Torah portion, Vayigash, Genesis 45:3)

Why didn't the brothers recognize Joseph earlier? True, he had grown a beard. He was also in a completely unexpected place, boasting a completely unexpected status and wearing unexpected attire. But still - the eyes are the same eyes, it is the same forehead, the same tone of speech. Wouldn't you identify your brother in his old kindergarten picture? Or your father in an old black and white photo from when he was a young boy of 17?

Still, Joseph's brothers - who are certainly not stupid - come face to face with their brother, speak with him, focus on him - and not one of them catches on? Not one of them thinks, "What is going on here? This guy reminds me of somebody. Where do I know him from?" Nothing?

Nothing. Because in their minds and hearts, Joseph was no longer their brother. When they threw Joseph into the pit, the brothers buried the brotherhood that was in their hearts. Even when the brothers were face to face with Joseph, they did not recognize him, because they had erased him from their consciousness.

How can such a complete rift ever be mended? Two conditions must be met:

First, Joseph must become a leader. Instead of his fate being in the hands of his brothers, their fate must be in his hands. But that is not enough. It does not bring the brothers to the point at which they remember that they actually have another brother. For that, the second condition must be fulfilled.

The second condition is that Joseph will remember their common roots - in this case, their father. "Does my father still live?" Joseph asks immediately upon revealing himself to his brothers. It is a strange question. Throughout Joseph's dialogue with the brothers, their father is mentioned time and again. It is obvious that he is alive. But Joseph does not ask if our father still lives. He does not address his question to his brothers, at all. He addresses it to himself. Does my father still live within me? After all these years of distance and pain am I capable of becoming once again a son of the same father as these other men? Do I have the fortitude to once again become part of the family - a brother to the people who hurt me so badly?

Leadership and brotherhood are the secret of mending the gaping hole.
And specifically in that order.

Shabbat Shalom

HaRav Nachman Kahana on Parashat Va'yigash and Chanuka 5772

2011-12-29T15:27:00.001-05:00

BS"D

Va’yigash and Chanuka 5772

Parashat Be’ha’alotcha, in the Book of Bamidbar, opens with the appointment of Aharon and his kohanic descendants to light the menorah in the Bet HaMikdash.

Rashi raises the question: Why does the issue of the menorah follow right after the Torah’s description of the 12-day Mishkan consecration ceremony, when each of the 12 tribal heads, on his particular day, brought offerings to the Mishkan?

Rashi explains that the appointment to light the menorah was to compensate Aharon for his feelings of rejection when he saw that realized that neither he nor anyone of his family was allotted a day to bring their personal offerings to the Mishkan, as was afforded the tribal heads.

Ramban rejects this explanation and suggests another for the proximity of the two issues. The compensation to Aharon was not the lighting of themenorah every evening in the Bet HaMikdash, but HaShem’s declaration that 1500 years later Aharon’s descendants, the Chashmonaim, would reconsecrate and purify the Bet Hamikdash, and rekindle the menorah.

I would like to suggest an alternate idea.

Aharon was greatly agitated when seeing the tribal heads bringing their gifts, while he was excluded. But it was not the gifts that evoked Aharon’s feelings of being marginalized, because without Aharon to offer them up on the altar, the gifts would not have had any relevance.

Aharon’s feelings stemmed from the very nature of the national hierarchy, as it presented itself at the time. As described in the Gemara (Shavuot 14a) the national government was divided into four branches: 1- The Monarchy that was entrusted with civil matters, ranging from the military to commercial and foreign and internal affairs. 2- The Sanhedrin that dealt with Halachic interpretations of the Oral Law (It was not an appeals court because there is no recourse to an appeal in Halacha). 3- The reigning prophet of the time. 4- the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) and the Temple service, and, of course, the will of the people to accept their leaders as expressed through the tribal heads.

Within this hierarchy, the Kohen Gadol had little or no input in the day-to-day affairs of state. This is similar to a rosh yeshiva today who is relegated to the four walls of the bet midrash, with the affairs of state decided on by the political leaders.

(Aharon’s disappointment was real, despite the fact that he wore the Urim ve’tumim [breast plate] which would answer questions of great national importance presented by the king, or the av bet din [leader of the Sanhedrin] or any personage who the nation is dependent upon. But the conditions required for this process were so limiting as to make it impractical).

In response to Aharon’s frustration with the Kohen Gadol’s limited input in national affairs, HaShem alluded to Aharon through the lighting of the menorah the profound and even decisive influence he and his descendants would have on our nation’s history, as follows:

Ya’akov upon his death bed (Bereshiet 49:7) says to Shimon and Levi regarding their hot temperament and zealousness:

ארור אפם כי עז ועברתם כי קשתה אחלקם ביעקב ואפיצם בישראל
Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; And their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

Shimon and Levi were zealous in their quest for justice. They destroyed the inhabitants of the city of Shechem for being delinquent in not bringing to justice the man who assaulted their sister Dina. Shimon and Levi also initiated punishing Yosef for his dreams, which they deemed to be undermining the family order and discipline.

With the intent to molify the zealousness of these two brothers, Ya’akov laid down the rule that they would be dispersed among all the tribes. Levi was not given a tribal area as were the other tribes, and Shimon who did have a tribal area, became the teachers of Israel. This required them to be disbursed among all the other tribes.

There was a two-fold purpose in their dispersion: 1) To mitigate their extreme reactions in spiritual matters which would result from their interacting with the larger population, and 2) To arouse the usually dormant, passive and peace loving nature of the Jewish people to act with zealousness in defense of their beliefs.

The message given to Aharon was encrypted in lighting the candles: His descendants, the Kohanim, by being dispersed among the entire nation, will have a profound influence on the behavior the Jewish people. And just as a little flame can ignite things vastly larger than itself, so too would the Kohanim lift up the holy spirit in every authentic Jew to fight the battles for physical and spiritual survival; and lead the nation in its desire to return to our glorious past centered around the Bet HaMikdash on the Temple Mount and the renewal of the holy sacrificial service.

A dear, respected friend of mine, who also is a kohen, wrote the following letter to the Jerusalem Post. It is the letter of a man who most certainly could have joined the kohanic army of the Chashmonaim, as follows:

In his article, "The Power of One", Daniel K. Eisenbud criticizes the recent Israeli government’s advertising campaign to encourage Israelis living in America to return home.
I disagree with him that the ads conveyed that, "Diaspora Jews are inferior to Israeli ones", but it conveyed the message that if they do not return in time, their children and certainly their grandchildren, will assimilate and be lost to Israel and the Jewish nation.
More important, I disagree with his premise that Israel needs Jews in the Diaspora to help defend us in the "global struggle". As he says: "To think that we can do all the heavy lifting from our small speck on the map of the Middle East is impractical and self-defeating".
That all Jews should be living in Israel is one of the foundations of Judaism. HaShem gave us Eretz Yisrael; HaShem gave us the Torah; HaShem gave us the Torah to be kept in Eretz Yisrael.
But what if all the Jews were to live in Eretz Yisrael, how could we defend ourselves?
Faith:
Rabbi Nachman Kahana, in his book, "With All Your Might 2", expresses it best in his commentary on last week’s parsha Miketz and Chanuka: "It is the unremitting, enduring, everlasting, incessant, relentless, unceasing, uninterrupted, unvarying knowledge resonating in every pure Jewish heart that we are God’s Chosen People".
This is not a racist concept. It is not that we Jews are better than the rest of humanity, but that HaShem chose the Jews for an intimate relationship, as a bride and groom.
One need look no further than the brief history of the State of Israel, to bear witness to the intimate relationship between HaShem and His people.
We are all aware of the miracles that allow us to live our lives in Israel. This does not take away from the men and women who sacrifice daily to keep us safe. But our relationship with HaShem requires action on our part so that HaShem can act on our part.
Chanuka is celebrated to commemorate two miracles: The military victory and the miracle of the Menorah. Rabbi Kahana points out that the visible military victory "was for the world to realize our special connection with the Creator, whereas the miracle of the Menorah took place in the privacy of the Holy Temple’s Sanctuary (the Kodesh), which only the Kohanim (priests) could see, in order to express the intimate relationship between HaShem and His people."
Eisenbud’s title should have read "The Power of One". The One is HaShem. The battle was meant to be and will be fought from our "small speck on the map". We Jews must have faith that if all the Jews lived in Israel, then, together with HaShem, we will become a Nation of Kohanim.

Thank you, dear Kohanic friend.

The Iranian navy is now engaged in intensive maneuvers in the Straits of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, through which flows over 30% of the world’s oil. Today’s headlines announced that Iran gave notice, that if the UN, led by the United States, extends its economic sanctions against it, they will cut off the flow of oil through the Straits of Hormuz.

This year, on the week of parashat Lech Lecha, I quoted the Zohar, at the end of parashat Beshalach:

"The descendants of Yishmael (defined as those nations who practice circumcision by religious law or custom - Islam) are destined to cause three great wars: one on sea, another on land and another close to Yerushalayim".

And I wrote: "The battle on the sea will be when the Iranians take control of the Straits of Hormuz (entrance to the Gulf of Arabia from the Indian Ocean) through which flows 40% of the world’s oil".

If this materializes, then the world will find itself in dire straits, and the difficulties the Jews in the galut will encounter are alluded to in Yishayahu 24:13

כי כה יהיה בקרב הארץ בתוך העמים כנקף זית כעוללת אם כלה בציר:
When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.

Rashi explains that the prophet is referring to the dwindled number of remaining Jews at that time.

Despite all the harsh prophecies, the Jews in Eretz Yisrael will have a more glorious future, as the prophet Yoel 3:5 says:

והיה כל אשר יקרא בשם ה' ימלט כי בהר ציון ובירושלם תהיה פליטה כאשר אמר ה' ובשרידים אשר ה' קרא:
And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, among the survivors whom the LORD calls.

And the prophet Ovadia 1:17

ובהר ציון תהיה פליטה והיה קדש וירשו בית יעקב את מורשיהם:
But on Mount Zion will be deliverance; it will be holy, and Jacob will possess his inheritance.

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana

Moshe Feiglin Looks Forward to Crucial Head-to-Head Election versus Benjamin Netanyahu on January 31st

2011-12-28T19:04:00.001-05:00

Moshe Feiglin Co-Founder & President	Contact:	Rob Muchnick, US Director (516) 779-7420 (cell phone) RMuchnick@gmail.com
Shmuel Sackett Co-Founder & International Director

December 28, 2011...

On January 31, 2012, the Likud Party will be holding its election for Party Chairman. The winner of this primary will be the candidate who will run for Prime Minister of Israel from the Likud at the next general election. If the challenger - Moshe Feiglin - defeats current Prime Minister Netanyahu, the government coalition will most likely fall and the general election will be held within a few months.

As all current polls show overwhelmingly that the Likud will win the next election, in essence, this vote is to determine who will be the next Prime Minister of the State of Israel.

There are only two candidates vying for this position - Moshe Feiglin and Benjamin Netanyahu, and they have wildly differing viewpoints.

Mr. Feiglin, President of Manhigut Yehudit - the largest faction of the Likud party - wishes to create a strong, proud Jewish State by ending the fraudulent Oslo Process, ending the taking of all foreign aid, and re-attaching Israelis to their Jewish roots.

Feiglin, who won 24% of the vote at the last election, and about whom former Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg said last week is the 'most important man today in Israeli political discourse', wishes for Israel to be a Light Unto the Nations, as opposed to Mr. Netanyahu’s stated desire to find Israel's Place Among the Nations. Mr. Feiglin feels that when Israel’s decisions are made taking into account that Israel should be run according to Jewish values – as opposed to being run according to secular, socialist or globalist values – then Israel will make better decisions and will be on course toward a brighter future.

On the other hand, Mr. Netanyahu is actively trying to create a Jew-free state of ‘palestine’ inside the biblical heartland of Israel. He pursues this policy even though earlier in his career he stated that the ‘palestinians’ already had a state called Jordan and that they had no right to have another one at Israel’s expense. At that time, Mr. Netanyahu also agreed with Newt Gingrich’s recent comments about the ‘palestinians’ being a modern invention created solely to oppose the state of Israel.

The false peace of Oslo has brought nothing but death, destruction and the loss of belief in our own cause to Israel and to Jews worldwide. Israeli withdrawals and statements like the recent one from Mr. Netanyahu that he will "be creative when it comes to [dividing] Jerusalem" only serve to raise the confidence of anti-Semites and terrorists around the globe. It is time for Israel to reverse course before it fades away.

In little more than a month, on January 31, nothing less than the fate of the state of Israel may be decided.

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Moshe Feiglin is the president of Manhigut Yehudit and a candidate for Chairman of the Likud party. He led the Zo Artzeinu non-violent civil disobedience struggle against the Oslo Accords. Moshe graduated from Or Etzion yeshiva, served as a captain in an IDF combat unit, and is the author of the books Where There Are No Men and War of Dreams. Moshe and his family live in Karnei Shomron, Israel.

###

The Moshe Feiglin Campaign website is www.MFLikud.com

Disclaimer: Donations to the Moshe Feiglin Campaign are not tax-deductible. Manhigut Yehudit neither endorses nor financially supports any candidate or political party.

Moshe Feiglin is running for Chairman of the Likud party. He strives to

Restore Jewish Values, Pride and Integrity to the State of Israel.

Am Yisrael Chai.

US:	Phone (516) 295-3222		PO Box 241, Cedarhurst, NY 11516
Israel:	Phone (011) 972-9-792-9046		1 Manhigut Blvd., Ginot Shomron 44853

Website: www.MFLikud.com Email: RMuchnick@gmail.com

I'm the Master Here

2011-12-28T18:50:00.001-05:00

By Moshe Feiglin

2 Tevet, 5772
Dec. 28, '11

Preface: The incitement against the "violence" of the Right that we witnessed last week was painfully reminiscent of the dark days that preceded Oslo and the Expulsion from Gush Katif. Every time that the Left senses that there is a chance to destroy settlements, they embark on an incitement campaign and witch hunt. Usually, the campaign is the product of some sort of pre-planned provocation. It can be Avishai Raviv or Ehud Barak; all that is needed is an extreme reaction in the Right and the media faithfully does its "job". Naïve rabbis and local leaders are dragged into the limelight where they condemn themselves and their public, not realizing that by doing so, they add fuel to the flames. If an important rabbi condemns the "hilltop youth", what can Fuad Ben Eliezer do to top him, beyond calling for soldiers to shoot settlers?

The good news is that as opposed to our previous experiences, this time the rightist newspapers and many rightist pundits condemned the condemnations. The most important of these was Uri Elitzur, editor of the Makor Rishon newspaper, who saluted the hilltop youth while asserting that whoever throws a rock at an IDF soldier should be jailed. As soon as the media saw that the Right was backing the hilltop youth, the incitement melted away.

As part of the "Incitement Week", I appeared on Israel's Channel 2 opposite Arab MK Ahmad Tibi. The interviewer attempted to present me as the representative of mosque torchers and Tibi as the representative of the downtrodden victims. When I reminded Tibi that he represents the public that has brought us, aided and abetted most of the major terror attacks in Israel, he went ballistic and shouted, "I am the master here!" Click on the picture for the video of the debate:

The following is the article that I wrote for the NRG website following the debate.

"I am the master here!" shouted MK Ahmad Tibi, completely losing his cool. When I heard that sentence I understood that I did not need to say anything more. I did not need to remind the viewers that Tibi was the aide and close advisor of the arch-murderer who killed more Jews than anybody since World War II, Yassir Arafat, may his name and memory be blotted out. There was nothing more to be said. Tibi showed his true face in living color. But I couldn't remain silent after he said that sentence. I put the microphone close up to my mouth I was afraid that the studio in Tel Aviv may be phasing out my sound and I said to Tibi, "This is my Land and you will not be here."

Ahmad Tibi precisely defined the line that separates the Arabs who are invited to live with us here with mutual respect and all the human rights that they deserve, and those Arabs who will have to go. "I am the master here," said Tibi. If an Arab living in Israel understands that the Jewish Nation returned to its Land and is "master of the house," here, then he can live here with good neighborly relations and respect. But if he doesn't think so, if he develops hope to establish an Arab state here instead of the Jewish one, we will show him the door out.

The fact that Tibi and his counterpart, former MK Azmi Bashara, who had to flee Israel after he was caught directing incoming Hizballah rockets into Haifa, are the popular leaders of the Arabs in Israel is not good news. I know that the Arab public, like any public, consists of both good and bad people. I believe in the human race and am confident that as a rule, people prefer to be good. I think that the radical trend in the Arab street and the fact that an accomplice to terror and murder like Tibi has become the leader of the Arab public is first and foremost the fault of the Jews, not the Arabs. It is the Jews who have forgotten what they are doing here. Many Israelis believe that the Land of Israel belongs to the "Palestinians". They hope that they can buy some legitimacy for robbing the land in Sheikh Munis (Ramat Aviv) by destroying the settlements in Judea and Samaria. It is the Israelis who turned Arafat into some kind of cult figure, so what can we expect from Tibi?

The Israeli needs the Arab to allow him to forget that he is a Jew. For if it is impossible to be an Israeli Arab, that means that only Jews can be Israeli, leaving us stuck with our old Jewish identity that we have tried so hard to escape.

This inferiority complex is the crack into which Tibi and the chorus of Jewish sycophants infiltrate the Israeli psyche, allowing him to spit in our faces for the past twenty years. When you understand this, you understand why Israel did not arrest Bashara and accuse him of treason, allowing him to simply escape Israel, instead. The last thing that the sycophants wanted was a media-intensive trial of an Arab leader; a trial in which Bashara would have had the opportunity to say, "Gentlemen, you tried to turn me into an Israeli against my will. You gave me rights; you gave me democracy, a seat in the parliament, honor fit for kings and all the perks I could ask for. I am sorry, but I am not an Israeli. I am an Arab and I am proud that I directed the missiles straight into your homes."

Tibi's chutzpah stems from the fact that this sly man fully understands the Jews' identity crisis. He knows that they will always grant him immunity because he holds the key to their imaginary Israeli identity. And then this Feiglin shows up, totally free of the complex, a Jew who is simply a Jew and says to him, "Mr. Ahmad," (that really upset the interviewer) "I am simply a Jew and you are simply an Arab. No Israeli mask and no "Palestinian" mask. Suddenly the entire foundation upon which Tibi has built his career collapsed under his feet, and he went berserk.

Tibi is not my problem at all. When the Israelis will reconnect to their identity, there won't be any more problems; not with the Arabs who live in Israel and not with those who live outside our country. He who is in conflict with himself is in conflict with his neighbors, and vice versa.

Tibi is the problem of the public that he represents. Because when he and his ilk continue to represent the entire Arab public, then the righteous among them - those who truly want to live here in peace, just like the Jews live in peace in all the foreign countries around the world are also included in those who claim to be the "masters" here. And if you are not a Jew and you say to the Jews in their state that you are the master here like it or not, you have declared war.

Moshe Feiglin's Speech at the Likud Central Committee

2011-12-27T19:03:00.001-05:00

The Likud Central Committee convened last Thursday to endorse the requests of Likud Chairman, PM Netanyahu. His main request: To hold elections for chairmanship of the Likud by the end of January, a year earlier than scheduled. Click on the picture for filmed excerpts of Moshe Feiglin's speech at the Likud Central Committee. See below for the entire transcript of Moshe Feiglin's speech:

I have taken up the challenge that the Chairman of the Likud has presented to us all. And believe me, I also know that to play around with the date for the convenience of the strong candidate is problematic. But the essential question that is on our agenda is the path that the Likud and the State must take. Thus, I announced that I would run for chairmanship of the Likud on any date that would be determined.

Ladies and gentlemen, to ensure that these elections will not become a farce, to ensure that we respect ourselves, we must not allow phenomena that we witnessed in the past to take place again: Phenomena like no observers at the voting stations, relocation of voting stations to decrease the number of voters in specific locations and more. We must not allow these phenomena to take place. So before I speak about the essential issues, I turn to you, Chairman of the Likud, to request that you ensure that the negative phenomena that accompanied the voting in the past will not recur; that the debate between us will remain principled, factual and fair so that the outcome of the election will not be in question. Elections without transparency and observers are not elections.

And now to the essence:

For Israel to exist with security and triumph we need leadership that is loyal
to Jewish identity, to a Jewish state and to the Jewish majority. Loyalty is the name of the game!

I will begin from the third point because it is the simplest: Loyalty to the Jewish majority.

The time has come to be loyal to our constituency. We must stop being afraid to rule!

Does anybody here remember a leftist government with a Defense Minister from the Likud? Why do all the votes loyal to the Land of Israel that we received in the last elections get a Defense Minister who rips the Land of Israel away from us? Don't we have a good Defense Minister from our own ranks?

Why is it that when Likud MKs begin to rein in the Left and its long arms in the Supreme Court and media, we block them? Why shouldn't we be loyal to the Jewish majority and ensure that it is represented on the Supreme Court?

Ladies and Gentlemen, he who believes does not fear! He is not afraid of the Left, not of the media and not of the Supreme Court.

The time has come to return the state to the nation! To be loyal to the Jews of the Diaspora. To bring Jonathan Pollard home!

The time has come to be loyal once again to the Jewish majority that votes for us time after time and continues to get the Left instead!

The second point is loyalty to the Jewish State.

We must unify the State of Israel around its Jewish identity and values.

Our state needs to be Jewish in its essence and not just in slogans:

We need a Jewish State in its approach to economy;
A Jewish state in its approach to the family;
A Jewish state in its approach to education;
A Jewish state in its approach to community;
A Jewish state in its approach to justice;
And of course, a Jewish state in its approach to security.

The economy of a Jewish state is truly free; no privatization to monopolies. Jewish economy is based on the values of liberty and Jewish loving kindness. Traditionally, Judaism prescribes the proper balance between socialism and capitalism. It is part of our Jewish values.

A Jewish state's approach to family means strengthening the family unit with tax breaks and breaks for mothers who prefer to raise their children at home. You finished your army duty? You have established a family? Great! The State of Israel thanks you and would like to present you with your own piece of land. This will significantly lower the cost of housing. There is no other state in the free world that owns 93% of all the land reserves slated for construction. This Land is ours it belongs to all of us! It belongs to every family in Israel!

We need a Jewish approach to education: Jewish education for all children in Israel: Knowledge of history, heritage and faith.

We need to return to the Jewish community: To revive the community structure and to hold district elections.

We need a Jewish justice system: Judges and justices from the Jewish Nation and not from the UN. I would also like to take this opportunity to applaud MK Yariv Levin, who is spearheading an extremely important campaign to achieve precisely this goal!

And last but not least, we need Jewish security: Because only true and deep faith that this is our Land makes victory possible. No sophisticated weapons will help if we do not believe that our Land with the Temple Mount at its center was given to us by our Father in Heaven and that it is ours exclusively.

The last, most basic and important point is loyalty to our Jewish identity:

Loyalty to ourselves, to our identity, to our Land and to our G-d will give us the strength to face our existential challenges:

Iran and Turkey
Islam and terror
Hatred, anti- Semitism and Israel's demonization in the West.

This loyalty will give us what it takes to face the challenges and to triumph!
On the 7th of Shevat the Likud will take a new direction:

A direction of:

Loyalty and faith
Brotherly love
Victory over our enemies

On January 31st we will return to the authentic Likud and we will build a truly Jewish state for our children.

King David, Courage and the Likud Primaries

2011-12-26T18:49:00.003-05:00

By Tuvia Brodie

The David of old who became King of Israel proved his mettle for leadership when he did what all in Israel were afraid to do: he stood up to the giant who publicly insulted the Jewish nation. David stood firm and declared that his faith was in the G-d of Israel, not the accumulation of power. The powerful Goliath of that world intimidated Jewish leadership. He spoke as he pleased. He hectored. He spurned. As he showed his disdain, Israel remained silent, passive.

We were recently reminded of that ancient Goliath as we watched US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, US Secretary of Defense John Panetta and US Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman stand up within a single four-day period in early December 2011 to insult Israel by accusing her alone among the nations of the Middle East of diplomatic intransigence, women’s rights repressions and assaults against democratic freedoms—and for being the cause of Muslim Jew-hatred. Given the relentless oppression of the Arab Middle East (and their refusal to negotiate), these accusations were as over-reaching as they were absurd. But they were spoken—with a Goliath-like arrogance.

The question now becomes, how should Israel’s leadership respond—not so much to these individual speeches, but to the overall hardening of American attitudes towards Israel. To date, Prime Minister Netanyahu has played a complex boxer’s game with the US: if the Obama administration takes a punch at Israel, Mr, Netanyahu dances-like-a-butterfly away from the attack; then, if the US continues to press, he yields—and harasses religious nationalists and rabbis to demonstrate his allegiance to the Goliath who bullies him.

The problem with this strategy is that it fails to address the key issue—that the prime enemy of peace in the Middle East is the jihad-embracing Arab—while it encourages ever more pressure on a back-pedalling Israel. Israel can back-pedal only so far; indeed, compared to four years ago, Israel has practically ‘given away the store’: we have committed to a continuing unofficial building freeze in Judea and Samaria (except for the occasional token few building permits), which has allowed the US to create a housing and social crisis in Israel; we have seen an increasing number of Jewish homes demolished on the altar of international ‘political correctness’; we have seen an increasing number of Jewish arrests and harassments in Judea and Samaria as crimes by Arabs and Leftists go uninvestigated; and, perhaps worst of all, we have accepted (for the very first time) 1949 borders for Israel even before negotiations for peace begin. In addition, other developments pressure Israel which did not exist four years ago: an Iran closing in on a nuclear weapon; announcements by China and Russia that they will side with Iran; a unilateral request for a new Arab state; the shocking reality of an overwhelmingly hostile United Nations; and the real possibility that, if Barack Obama is re-elected US President next year, the United States will turn ever more hostile to Israel. Meanwhile, Mr. Netanyahu’s passive-silence/passive back-pedaling approach to all of this does not appear to have produced tangible results: since four years ago, Israel is far closer to being delegitimized than we could have imagined in 2007.

As David the king-to-be faced his Goliath, he did not back-pedal. He did not react with silent acquiescence. He also did not end up further in the hole as a result of a studied passivity. He stood firm. He proclaimed his faith in the G-d of Israel—and we saw his courage not just facing Goliath; we saw it also in his public commitment to G-d.

If you don’t believe it takes courage to commit publicly to G-d as you face your enemies, look at today’s leaders: Netanyahu, Peres, Barak, Livni. None speaks publicly of G-d. In fact, the last leader to speak Gd's name publicly in the Knesset was former US President George W. Bush. We want courage from our leaders—and right now, we see back-pedalling, not courage. This is not a hypothetical issue because, as this nation turns increasingly Right--and observant--Likud members know that Moshe Feiglin has announced his candidacy to replace Netanyahu as head of Likud; and Feiglin, unlike Netanyahu, is not afraid to commit publicly to the G-d of Israel. This commitment is important because Jewish history is clear: G-d, Jewish Leadership and our survival are, for this unique nation, uniquely interrelated--and David-the-future-King showed us that courage makes this interrelationship—and our survival--possible. Without that courage, Israel back-pedals. Moshe Feiglin understands this because he understands faith and Jewish history. Netanyahu only understands it because he fears Feiglin (recall the last internal Likud elections). Now, as Likud turns further Right, Netanyahu wants to change Party rules to stay in power. Will Likud members continue to allow him to back-pedal away from the Likud Platform? Israel's immediate future will depend on their answer.

Out of the Mothballs and into Reality

2011-12-22T12:31:00.000-05:00

By Moshe Feiglin

"And it was at the end of two years and Pharaoh had a dream." (From this week's Torah portion, Miketz, Genesis 41:1)

Another two years in the dungeon for Joseph. Twelve years in all. And why is he in the dungeon in the first place? Because he didn't want to sin with the wife of the Egyptian minister? This is his reward for doing G-d's will?

Joseph does not break. He clings to his faith. From the depths of the dungeon, we cannot possibly understand the entire story. Only after the fact do we understand that every moment in the Egyptian dungeon honed Joseph for the position that he would take. When the moment came "and they hurried him from the dungeon." When the moment comes, nothing can stand in its way. Not trickery and not the situation that seems completely hopeless. When a person clings to his faith, does the right thing and does not give in to despair he is positioned so that when the moment comes, reality hurries him out of the dungeon.

We are now celebrating Chanukah. Much will be recalled this week about the miracle and the Maccabees' victory over the Greeks. We have a lot to learn from their dedication, perseverance and the leadership qualities of Matityahu and his sons. Just like Joseph, they clung to their faith, persevered and led the nation until they established the independent Jewish state both physically and spiritually. But no less important than studying their successes is to study the end of the independent Hasmonean state. The Jews' loss of identity caused the disintegration of the Israeli kingdom after the reign of Queen Shlomzion. Israel under Hasmonean rule became a protectorate of Rome.

The Holy Temple was still standing and the enlightened Romans allowed for freedom of worship almost. But the core principle was missing. The idea of perfecting the world in the kingdom of Heaven had become meaningless. For if the Nation of the King of kings is ruled by others, if the holy service in the royal palace the holy Temple is being performed with permission from the Roman king then what kind of perfection of the world is taking place? It is nothing more than a caricature of G-d's supreme reign, nothing more.

To be 'religious' one does not need a nation. One can be a Moslem or a Christian from any state. But to make G-d supreme over His world, He must rule over the Nation, the Land and the royal palace. This is the vital Jewish connection between nationality and religion. When the Jewish Nation is not free, Judaism is detached from its destiny and merely exists as moth-balled religion.

The other side of the coin is true as well: When the Nation is free but is not loyal to the commandments of the King, Judaism exists only as moth-balled nationalism. Historically, the religious mothballs preserve Judaism longer and better than the nationalist moth-balls. One way or the other, both nationalism and religion are limited and cannot guarantee the existence of our nation and certainly not the fulfillment of its destiny. We must re-connect the loose ends and mold them all into Jewish sovereignty on the Temple Mount: sovereignty and religion all wrapped up into one; the fulfillment of Jewish destiny and Manhigut Yehudit's goal.

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Chanukah

HaRav Nachman Kahana on Parashat Mikeitz and Chanuka 5772

2011-12-22T12:15:00.001-05:00

BS"D

Parashat Miekatz and Chanuka 5772

A: Pirsumai Nisa

The concept of פרסומי ניסא (to promulgate a miracle) is a major factor in several mitzvot, such as the public reading of Megilat Esther which records how HaShem intervened in a miraculous manner to save the Jews from Haman and Achashverosh of Persia-Iran, and the requirement to recline while eating at the Pessach seder to proclaim HaShem’s miraculous deeds when He took us out of Egypt.

But none are so emphasized as the mitzva of lighting the Chanuka candles. For this mitzvah, our rabbis ordained a three-tiered protocol of פרסומי ניסא.

The basic level is one candle every night for each of the eight nights, totaling 8 candles for the entire holiday (not counting the shamash). The next level of פרסומי ניסא known as mehadrin (to upgrade the proclamation) is one candle every night for each member of the family, so a family of 5 would light 5 separate candles every night, totaling 40 candles for the entire holiday. The highest level called mehadrin min hamehadrin is the common custom today of increasing the number of candles each successive night, totaling 36 for the entire holiday.

What was it in the events of Chanuka that evoked the Rabbis to place a special emphasis on proclaiming the miracles?

The miracle of the oil, so central to the holiday, transpired in a chamber of the Beit HaMikdash called the Kodesh (a section that stands immediately before the Kodesh Hakodashim - the Holy of Holies). Hence, a Levi or Yisrael, who never entered the building of the Beit HaMikdash, but who only went as far as the Azara (courtyard where the large mizbei'ach [altar] was located), did not witness the miracle. Even the number of kohanim who entered the area of the Kodeshwas limited. Now, if God wanted to impress Am Yisrael with a miracle, why did He not perform it publicly in front of the entire nation?

I suggest:

The rebellion against the religious tyranny of the Greeks and our Jewish Hellenized "brothers" began in a town called Modi'in, situated between Yerushalayim and what is now Tel Aviv. A Greek officer erected an altar there, and a Jew offered up a pig on it to one of the many gods the Greeks worshipped. At that point, Matit'ya'hu had had enough. He jumped up onto the altar, killed the officer and his Jewish underling and then called out mi la'Shem ay'li -- "whoever is on the side of God, come to me." And with this, he, his five sons, and a handful of loyal Jews withdrew to the hills and declared war upon Greece.

This was a bloody, savage war lasting 25 years. Furthermore, it was unlike what Hollywood would have us believe that after redeeming the Beit HaMikdash and the miracle of the oil, they all lived "happily ever after." The fact is that the bloodshed continued for another 5 years.

I imagine Matit'ya'hu and his military staff sitting at night, reading the weekly reports. "On Sunday, 1000 Jews were murdered and 10 towns destroyed. On Monday 5000 Jews were murdered, 50 batei knesset were burned to the ground, and 100 tons of wheat were destroyed." And this scenario went on for years. The war was not a surgical strike but a long protracted episode, which cost the Jewish people tens of thousands of casualties. At some point, Matit'ya'hu and his sons, who were God-fearing Torah Jews, must have asked themselves who gave them the right to drag the nation into such a catastrophic conflict. They were not prophets. God did not appear to Matit'ya'hu as he did to Yehoshua, Gidon, Yiftach and others to declare war. This war was the result of a decision made by one family, which affected the entire nation. So perhaps, at some point, Matit'ya'hu may have had misgivings. This war, however, was not only justified. It was essential for our survival as a Torah nation and demanded total defeat of the enemy. But how did Matit'ya'hu and his staff of Kohanim know this?

Furthermore, there must have been a great deal of fierce criticism on the part of the war’s opponents, declaring that Matit’yahu had no right to plunge the nation into this deadly war. There certainly were draft dodgers, leftist ideological refuseniks and many who claimed that military service would interfere with their Torah studies.

After 20 years of battle, HaShem deemed that it was the appropriate time to inform the Kohanic-military leadership that their judgment had been correct, and that every able-bodied man was indeed required to participate in this historic war.

Since prophecy had ceased about 200 years earlier, it would have to be a sign from heaven directed to the Kohanic military leadership and from them to the nation at large. In order for the sign to be recognized by the Kohanim, it had to be in the depths of the Beit Ha'Mikdash, where only Kohanim were permitted to enter. Hence, the miracle of the oil in the Kodesh.

At the end of the year, a rabbinic ordinance was evoked making it mandatory to declare one’s loyalty and dedication to the national war effort. As is customary in ideological-based matters, where there are varying degrees of compliance - especially at that time when the Jewish Hellenists were so influential - the rabbis provided an avenue for people to express their total dedication to the war effort to free Eretz Yisrael from the Greek predators. This was done by providing the level of mehadrin min hamehadrin to declare their absolute compliance with the Kohanic-military leadership.

The concept of פרסומי ניסא as with all things in Jewish life, has its roots in the Torah - but where?

I submit that the expression of this concept is found in the parasha Miketz, which most often occurs in or around Chanuka:

The brothers arrived in Egypt. At Yosef’s command, the border police were to bring to him all arrivers from Eretz Canaan, and Yosef’s brothers now find themselves accused of being spies for a foreign country.

It was Yosef’s original intention to severely punish the brothers, but something happened in the incidents recorded in the parasha to change Yosef’s mind from punishing them to exalting them and caring for their welfare.

In this week’s parasha, Yosef reaches the pinnacle of his career. He is the viceroy of Egypt, and no one raises a hand in the land without his authorization.

When reviewing the life of this man, one cannot but wonder from where he received the spiritual strength to endure all that happened to him.

Yosef was 17 years old, orphaned from his beloved mother Rachel, rejected by his brothers and with only his father Ya’akov and younger brother Binyamin to bring him comfort and solace.

The brothers go to Shechem with the family herd, and Yosef is sent by Ya’akov to see how they are faring. When he draws close, the brothers rip off his many-colored cloak and throw Yosef into a pit swarming with snakes and scorpions. At the same time, the brothers sit down to eat bread, as the Torah states, while the young helpless Yosef calls out for help.

He is sold into slavery, put to the test with Potifar’s wife and thrown into prison for many years.

At any point in his early life, Yosef could easily have concluded that HaShem had abandoned him.

Were it not for one subtle, elusive seemingly insignificant incident.

When Yosef was in the pit, a caravan of Yishmaelim approached. This was a caravan on its regular route from Gilad to Egypt with its usual cargo of kerosene. Upon Yehuda’s suggestion, Yosef is taken out from the pit and and sold to the Yishmaelim to be resold as a slave in Egypt.

The Torah takes the trouble to inform us that on this particular run, the caravan was not carrying kerosene but three very pleasant-smelling spices of tzarie, nachot and lot (צרי נכאת ולוט ).

Rashi explains that HaShem created a mixup in Gilad, and the kerosene was replaced with the spices was so that the Tzaddik Yosef would not be troubled by the foul smell of the fuel.

How bizarre of the Torah to inform us of HaShem placating a 17-year-old boy - betrayed by his brothers and tied to a camel with iron chains to be sold as a slave in Egypt - with pleasant smelling spices!

A visit to the famed Louvre Museum in Paris can help decode (פיענוח) the mystery. Among the paintings in the great chambers of art is one of a smiling young woman. How much would you pay for the painting and its handsome frame – 1,000 shekels, 10,000 shekels?

As you get closer to the painting, you will see on the lower right side a scribbled signature of Leonardo Da Vince. This is, indeed, the magnificent Mona Lisa worth tens of millions of dollars. What elevated the portrait to its incomparable worth is no more than a scribbled signature on the side, which has no intrinsically esthetic value. The price informs the viewer that it is the handiwork of one of the world’s greatest artists.

Yosef’s situation was miserable. His present state was bleak and his future even darker. But within the darkness of his suffering, he saw the signature - the sweet-smelling spices instead of the foul-smelling kerosene. This was HaShem’s signature signaling to Yosef that HaShem would protect him.

In this week’s parasha Miketz, Yosef sits on the throne as the second most powerful man in the superpower of that day - Egypt. Laying prostrate before him are his ten brothers. He recognizes them, but they do not recognize him – a fulfillment of what Yosef had dreamed of 20 years earlier. Yosef now embarks on the systematic plan he has worked out over the years to inflict psychological torment on those who had caused him such mental anguish and physical pain.

Yosef sends them back to their father’s home with the directive that they must bring to him the youngest brother Binyamin.

Ya’akov is extremely distraught with the tide of events which had begun as a simple errand to purchase food. Now it had reached a stage where he must send away the last living memory of his beloved wife Rachel. When the brothers prepare to return to Egypt together with Binyamin, father Ya’akov gives them gifts for the cruel viceroy.

The gifts include varieties of spices - tzarie, nachot and lot, the very same spices transported on the caravan that took Yosef into slavery.

The plot thickens as the brothers, together with Binyamin, stand before the viceroy and present him with the gifts from Eretz Yisrael. Yosef opens the package of unique spices. Suddenly, the years fade away and he sees himself again chained to the camel, with the sun intensely beating down on him, and smells the unique mix of these three spices. At that moment, Yosef realizes that all that was done to him by his brothers was part of HaShem’s master plan, as told to grandfather Avraham, that his descendants would be enslaved 400 years in a foreign land and then return to Eretz Yisrael.

And just as this subtle sign from HaShem ushered in Yosef’s period of slavery resulting in his rise to greatness; so too is this a subtle sign ushering in the period of exile and slavery of the Jewish people, which will result in the exodus, receiving the Torah and rise to greatness as HaShem’s chosen people.

Yosef realized – and later his brothers and father Ya’akov - that HaShem was personally directing the affairs of the family and the future Jewish nation. It was cause for immense exhilaration and the necessity to proclaim this before all the House of Israel in all ages. Yosef performed it by totally forgiving his brothers, and caring for their well-being by providing them with the best that Egypt had to offer.

Here was born the principle of txqeni piq`

to promulgate the eternal presence of HaShem in the affairs of Am Yisrael; is there any greater miracle than this?

B: Religious leaders in the Galut

As we consider the history of our people over the last 2000 years, we find parallels with the young Yosef. We were exiled from Eretz Yisrael, sold into slavery, beaten, starved by crusaders, pogroms, expulsions, inquisitions and concentration camps.

At the end of the Second World War, the Jewish people were destitute physically and spiritually. How would we survive?

And then HaShem gave us a sign – Medinat Yisrael was the signature that He was with us through the entire history.

We were a small signature, a scribble on the map of the world - like the sweet, small smell of tzarie, nachot and lot.

When the Medina was finally established in 1948, this small splinter of a state had to defend itself from attack from seven established armies.

The United States warned Ben Gurion not to declare a State and to show they "mean business" the US imposed an arms embargo on the fledgling Medina.

In 1967, during the Six Day War, we were no longer a small splinter but a big stick; and in six days, the area of the Medina increased threefold. For the first time in 2000 years, the Jewish people were sovereign in Yerushalayim.

In 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, we wielded a powerful club with which to beat the enemy – including not only the Arabs but many Soviet advisors and weaponry.

David Hamelech says in Tehilim (23):

גם כי אלך בגיא צלמות לא אירא רע כי אתה עמדי שבטך ומשענתך המה ינחמוני.
Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

A stick can be used for two purposes: as a shevet (club) to strike an enemy or as a mish’enet (cane) to lean on for support.

Medinat Yisrael is both for the Jewish nation. It gives us comfort and support after 2000 years of wandering in the galut, but it is also a powerful club to strike out at our enemies.

Of all the responsibilities to fulfill the mitzva of pirsumai niesa incumbent on everyone who has chosen to be a religious leader in the galut - pulpit rabbi, yeshiva teacher, rosh yeshiva, grand rabbi - the most awesome mitzva of pirsumai niesa is to teach and promulgate the sign from HaShem of His presence within our history is the return of the Jewish people to Eretz Yisrael.

Perhaps this is what is meant by Mashiach ben Yosef, because Yosef’s destiny is that of the Jewish people - from a small signature to the pinnacle of power.

A rabbi, wherever and whomever he may be, must view himself as a small candle whose mission is to ignite the flames of others; or like the starters in a car whose sole purpose is to create a spark that will ignite the motor, it is our duty to ignite the spiritual motors of the people who surround us.

The most essential duty imposed on a rabbi in the galut today is to encourage the Jewish people to come home to the land promised us by the Creator Himself.

A rabbi who shirks this responsibility will pay the spiritual and material price. not unlike the Le’vi’m, who were the spiritual leaders of the Jews in the exile of Babylon, who did not return in masse to Eretz Yisrael, and Ezra the Scribe penalized them with regard to their rights to receive ma’aser shaini. I believe HaShem will not be so lenient as Ezra.

Every sermon must be a message to come home. Every shiur must stress the centrality of the holy land to the keeping of the Torah.

And Foremost, the rabbi and his family, must be the example for your community and come on aliya.

During this very special holiday of Chanuka, let us all pray

אבינו מלכנו תהא השעה הזאת שעת רחמים ועת רצון מלפניך

Our Father, our King, may this moment be a moment of compassion and a time of favor before you.

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana

Get Ready for Elections

2011-12-21T17:52:00.000-05:00

By Shmuel Sackett

Things are getting into high gear for both us AND Netanyahu. Every body thinks that Bibi is going to have a cake walk but we have found out that Bibi doesnt quite think so. He has appointed a minister in his cabinet, Gilad Erdan, to be his Campaign Manager. Think about that for a second: A major minister in the Likud government will be stopping all of his national work for the next 7 weeks so that he can focus on one thing: Defeating Feiglin! We have also found out that Bibi will be spending the maximum allowed by the Israel Elections Committee which is 2,000,000 Shekel (around $540,000).

In short: Bibi is taking this campaign VERY seriously and putting everything he has into winning.

That means just one thing for us: WE MUST DO THE SAME!!!

I have said many times that, very often, our opponents take us much more seriously than we take ourselves. We need to understand that things happen in politics very quickly and candidates who are up one day (Herman Cain) can quickly switch with candidates that were considered to be without a chance of winning (Newt Gingrich). We need to work hard, press the right buttons, send a strong and positive message and present a real alternative to the problems of leadership in Israel.

Dear friends, the oxygen for this campaign is donations. Please contribute whatever you can for this campaign: Click here to donate. Anything you can give is deeply appreciated.

You can also help by getting the word out on social media. Blog Feiglin, tweet him and get him out there on Facebook. Enter Moshe Feiglin's English Facebook page, "like" Moshe Feiglin's posts and get your own posts up in as many relevant places as you can.

If you are a Likud member in Israel, you can sign a petition to endorse Moshe Feiglin's candidacy. We need 500 signatures. Print out this form, sign it, sign up your fellow Likud members and fax it to 02-996-8080.

Let's work together to make Moshe Feiglin Israel's next prime minister!

Let's get the Settlers

2011-12-20T15:05:00.000-05:00

By Moshe Feiglin

24 Kislev, 5772
Dec. 20, '11

Translated from the Makor Rishon newspaper

Editor's note: This article was written after a government attempt to destroy the Ramat Gilad neighborhood and the violence that ensued.

It is wrong to throw rocks at IDF soldiers. We must do all that we can to uproot this phenomenon. But the mad witch hunt that has raged this week has nothing to do with concern for and loyalty to the IDF.

Every Friday for years, leftist demonstrators would gather near the Arab village of Bil'ain. They would routinely throw rocks at the soldiers there. One Border Policeman lost his eye as a result. Other soldiers were seriously injured. But it did not interest the media. Nobody stuck a microphone into the face of Amos Oz or any other leftist High Priest to ask how those weeds had grown up in their garden. The wife of the Border Policeman who lost his eye didn't get any air time, the general did not pontificate about hatred the likes of which he had never seen, the Chief of Staff did not give interviews, Fuad did not call upon the IDF to shoot Jewish protesters, nobody declared that the anarchists are a terror organization and the Prime Minister did not convene an emergency Knesset committee meeting. None of that at all.

Why not? Because the protesters in Bil'ain come from the same social and ideological milieu as the media. Why create a scandal against themselves? Why make people feel disgust for your own ideology?

In other words, the mad witch hunt raging now in Israel has nothing to do with honesty. The hands holding the microphones are truly not clean, and those who have rushed to condemn the rock throwing at IDF soldiers played into the media's hands and fanned the flames. We are experiencing untamed political incitement under the guise of patriotism. I am willing to bet that the settlers have a much higher percentage of sons in the army than Israel's broadcasters and they surely are as concerned for their welfare as are the talking heads.

It would be easy to stop the "price tag operations" if we would really want to face the truth: The youth of Judea, Samaria and Gaza have grown up into a reality in which the state and the army persecute them and destroy their homes. In other words, the state and the army have effectively turned themselves into the enemy. These youths have grown up into a reality in which they have no human rights; a reality in which Peace Now, the State's Attorney and the High Court urge the IDF and the police to attack them; a reality in which the media insult and abuse them and the rabbis condemn them; a reality that pushes them far into a corner where they can try to defend themselves. This is the reality of our 14 year olds. What is Israeli society so surprised about?

We must keep in mind that the rock attack on the soldiers took place on the backdrop of the bulldozers on their way to destroy Ramat Gilad, a neighborhood built on private Jewish property, authorized by former PM Sharon as part of a master plan to build 185 housing units there. The agricultural lands in the neighborhood have been worked for 29 years. No Arab has ever challenged Jewish ownership of the lands. According to the Ottoman law, which still applies today in Judea and Samaria, everything about the neighborhood is strictly kosher. Nevertheless, new bylaws have been put into place, relevant only to Jews to make the neighborhood "illegal". Barak wasted no time and sent in the bulldozers.

It is a crime to throw rocks at soldiers. But it is even worse to destroy Jewish homes in the Land of Israel, to drive families out of their homes and to decimate synagogues. A small time criminal works against the law. But a big-time criminal works within the law. Usually, he wears a uniform. The government can quickly enact the legislation necessary to legalize the outposts and to restore the political commissars of the "justice system" to their natural size. If no major crimes will be perpetrated in the name of the law, there won't be any small crimes either, and peace and truth will reign once more.

Protect Netanyahu! Attack the Religious Nationalists!

2011-12-18T21:10:00.003-05:00

By Tuvia Brodie

How convenient. On the night of December 12-13, 2011, fifty ‘youth’ attacked an IDF ‘army base’. Who were these hooligans? According to the media, the politicians and the army, the answer has been so obvious that no investigation is necessary. The culprits were Jewish West Bank ‘settlers’ who are so elusive that they cannot be found, captured or identified. Apparently invisible, they attempt to destroy us. Who has time to investigate? They are terrorists!

Meanwhile, on the night of December 17, 2011, a man identified as an Arab stabbed a security guard stationed at the entrance gate to Maale Adumim. No one complained. No one warned of the dangers of Arab terrorists.

What evidence exists that those who attacked that IDF ‘base’ were West Bank ‘settlers’? There is plenty of evidence. For one thing, they got away. Arabs never get away. For another, the IDF—in the dark—identified them as ‘hilltop settlers’. The IDF always knows how to identify a ‘hilltop settler’, especially in the dark. Then, as Caroline Glick has already pointed out in an essay (Jerusalem Post, October 21, 2011) on another occasion of media failure, the media repeated here what it had done with the Oslo Accords: it opted to manipulate (in favour of the Left) instead of analyse as headlines screamed: Jewish terrorists! Politicians on the Left weighed in, condemning Religious Nationalists. A former Cabinet Minister suggested that the IDF should ‘shoot-to-kill’ all Rightist protesters (even as the IDF has warned that any soldier who shoots at Arab protesters will be subject to arrest). Finally, the Prime Minister declared his own outrage by announcing that he would not allow ‘extremists’ to spark a civil war!

Civil war? Absolutely. On December 15, 2011, Tzipi Livini declared that, if anyone thinks there is no connection between the ‘riot’ at the IDF ‘base’, and a recent incident involving religious soldiers and singing women—they’re wrong! They are both part of a religious wave to wash Israel away!

Is that what this is all about-- the Left declaring that Religious Nationalists want to tear Israel apart?

How convenient: as Likud begins its primary season, head of Likud Netanyahu is reported to want to lock-out Rightist West Bank settlers from upcoming Likud primary elections so he can continue his increasingly anti-Nationalistic and Leftist policies. Then, just as West Bank Rightists in Likud are perceived to have increased their powerbase, they choose to project this influence by torching mosques, attacking their own IDF and providing Israeli media all the headlines Israelis needed to reject everything ‘Religious Right’? We are fortunate indeed to have discovered the truth about these terrorists before those primaries. We can now see their true colors. They are not loyal Israelis: they want to destroy us.

How convenient. Although Jews as a group generally do not believe in inconsistencies and coincidences, we are surrounded here by some questionable inconsistencies and coincidences: the attackers’ mysterious and perhaps miraculous escape from one of the world’s best armies; the media’s failure to question how wonderfully these unsubstantiated reports help Netanyahu’s Likud hegemony; and the settlers’ uncanny ability to select (primarily) empty/ unused mosques to torch and roads to block.

How convenient. Just as Netanyahu expresses a demonstrable fear that Rightist ’settlers’ might flex too much power in a Likud primary, the ‘settlers’ demonstrate an uncontrollable need to attack targets perfectly selected to enrage a willingly enrageable media.

On December 15, as the outrage and anger towards Religious Nationalists reached a crescendo, Eliyahu Zalmanovitz, writing in the Haredi (ultra-orthodox) newspaper Hamevasar, noted the inconsistency between the outrage over the so-called ‘hilltop settlers’ (who caused few personal injuries) and the silence over more than 130 IDF and police injuries at Arab/ Leftist protests in just one Arab community, Bil’in, over the last several years. These violent demonstrations have not provoked the same ire—or the same cries of ‘terrorism’--as these unidentified attackers. Zalmanovitz wrote, “IDF soldiers and Border Police were injured in demonstrations in Bil'in just last Friday [December 9, three days before the ‘attack’ on the IDF ‘base’]. If you have not heard an outcry and seen ministers moved to the 'depths of their souls' at the injury of our soldiers, it is because the protesters were Leftists” (see Arutz Sheva, Who dares raise his hand against a soldier?, Gavriel Queenann, December 16, 2011).

We are lucky that the ‘settlers’ have chosen to be so accommodating in their own demonization just weeks before their successful behind-the-scene accumulation of power is about to bear fruit. Why should these ‘settlers’ settle for replacing Netanyahu as head-of-Likud when they can torch unused mosques and attack the IDF in the dark?

Something smells here. The media, the politicians and the army have already decided who will be lynched. The stench is familiar. It's from the dark days of Oslo. The Leftist government then (accompanied by a lap-dog media) fought an all-out propaganda war to pass that malodorous Accord no matter what (see Caroline Glick, above). They launched a concerted campaign to demonize and de-humanize the religious/nationalist Right by laying the blame of all Israel's troubles, including the eventual assassination of Rabin, at the feet of the "settlers".

History replaying? How convenient for Mr. Netanyahu.

Why Israel needs Jewish Leadership

2011-12-17T19:53:00.001-05:00

Feiglin: MK Tibi, You will not Remain in this Country

2011-12-17T18:26:00.001-05:00

Moshe Feiglin tells Arab MK he represents murderers, Tibi denies Arabs torch Jewish synagogues.

By Gil Ronen

(from Israel National News)

Moshe Feiglin, who heads Likud's internal Jewish Leadership faction, faced off with MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra'am Ta'al) last week in an joint interview on Channel 2.

Presenter Oded Ben Ami asked Feigin -- whom he referred to only by his last name -- who he thinks is responsible for the recent wave of violence. A transcription of most of the ensuing conversation follows beneath embedded video (which is in Hebrew, without captions).

Ben-Ami: Feiglin, can you explain why this is happening and why it is happening now?

Feiglin: I just want to remind you that with the last mosque that was set on fire, it turned out that it was the Arabs from the village itself, at Tuba Zangariya [who set it on fire], so we must not jump to conclusions hurriedly.

Ben Ami: Where was this revealed?

Feiglin: Ask the head of the Appointed Council of Tuba Zangariya who estimated with a high degree of certainty that that was the story there.

Ben-Ami: I know that the police investigation in this case has not yet ended.

Feiglin: And it will not end, because this is precisely the conclusion. But with your permission, I would like to ask Ahmed Tibi, who is seated in front of you, and who represents a population from whose midst came most of the most murderous terror attacks in Israel, what he says about this. How can it be that Ahmed Tibi is present here as the man who has been attacked, and not as the man who supports terror.

Ben-Ami: MK Tibi, I am rolling the ball over to you because Moshe Feiglin wants to ask you why you are here as the person who was attacked? Do you feel that you were attacked?

Tibi: If the intent is that I am a son of the Palestinian people, the Palestinians are victims of the occupation…

Feiglin: And this justifies murder, Mr. Ahmed? Does it justify murder?

Ben Ami: Let me just remind you that his name is MK Ahmed Tibi.

Feiglin: Yes, I forgot for a moment.

Tibi: Try not to make wisecracks and let me continue. The attempts to deflect attention, in this debate, too, from the burning of mosques and the actual occupation, one of whose tools is the settlers – I refuse to accept the attempt by the state or the media or these settlers [to say that] there are good settlers and bad settlers. There is a good army and settlers who oppose it. There is a system of occupation that is the hothouse for these settlers who have burned 9 mosques since the beginning of the year.

(…)

This is Jewish anti-Semitism and this man who is seated here is a symbol of the Jewish anti-Semitism.

Feiglin: Maybe I can inform MK Tibi that almost every week, a synagogue is set on fireby Israeli Arabs and nobody cares.

MK Tibi: Where did this happen?

Feiglin: Where did it happen? It happened in Yafo, in Akko, it is happening in Nazareth.

Tibi: These are just defamations and lies… don't lie… at this point you are on the side of the anti-Semites.

Ben-Ami: MK Tibi, at this point I insist that Mr. Feiglin will talk and that we listen to him. Go ahead.

Feiglin: Every week, synagogues are set on fire and Jewish cemeteries are defiled by Arabs – by the populace that Ahmed Tibi represents, and nobody cares. And Ahmed Tibi represents a populace from which spring most of the murderers in the worst terror attacks that occurred inside Israel. How is it that you are not ashamed to bring a person like this in the role of the wounded party?

Ben Ami: Just like we are not ashamed to bring you.

Tibi: I reject the comparison vehemently! This is a Jewish anti-Semite! I am a humanistic man.

Feiglin: Of course you are humanistic! You defend the murder of Jews…

Tibi: Comparing Ahmed Tibi to the moral garbage called Feiglin, this is Apocalypse Now.

Feiglin: This is my country and you will not remain in it.

Tibi: You will not decide for Channel 2 whether or not to invite me. I am the homeowner here.

Is Moshe Feiglin of Likud Naive?

2011-12-16T00:06:00.000-05:00