Interview with Moshe Feiglin in the Yisrael Hayom Newspaper: Part 1

This is excerpted from an interview conducted with Moshe Feiglin by Na’amah Lansky, Yisrael Hayom newspaper. http://www.israelhayom.co.il/article/510461

Moshe Feiglin sits alone his his back yard in Karnei Shomron. Just he and his pc. The view of the hills of the Shomron is spread out before him.

“I am motivated by the power of the idea,” he explains slowly and calmly. “I did not seek a political career. I like being alone, not being in the public eye. The complete opposite of the requirements of politics. I like to ride my bicycle alone every morning. I like to sit with myself, alone. I like the fact that my house is at the very edge of our community, open to the view. That way I do not feel that I am surrounded by people who are invading my privacy.”

But don’t let the inner and outer peace that envelope Feiglin (55) mislead you. Over the last years, even when he was still a Knesset Member in the Likud, he worked on the establishment of a political party under his leadership, “Zehut” (“Identity”). Last month the party held primaries and its close to 3000 members elected the 15 representatives for its Knesset list, which will run in the next general elections.

In the next stage, after elections for the Knesset will be announced, Zehut will hold open primaries, in which any Israeli citizen who wishes to do so will be able to rank the candidates in a simple internet procedure. Following that, Feiglin will be able to insert a number of candidates into the Zehut list in pre-determined slots.

“There are a number of Likud MKs who have expressed great interest in the party,” he claims. “But my real competition is not with the Likud or the Jewish Home party, but with Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid party.”

Yair Lapid?

“What is the secret of the meteoric success of Yesh Atid? That Yair Lapid sold the idea of Israeli identity and it caught on. He models Israeli-ness just like Bar Refaeli models glasses. Her face gives the glasses identity. Without her, they are nothing more than pieces of plastic.

The identity that Lapid models is also plastic. It is an illusion, it has no content and no meaning. Yair Lapid is like a catalog for Ikea. I stand against his attempt to outsmart the public, to sell us fake identity that has nothing behind it other than what goes over well on the screen. Yesterday it was hatred of the Ultra-Orthodox, today it is love for the Ultra-Orthodox. A bit of back-slapping and a smattering of ethnic rituals. Any way the wind blows.”

How is the identity that you propose supposed to appeal to the Yesh Atid voters?

It reaches out to everyone. Because I propose Jewish identity, not Israeli identity. We do away with definitions and the modern separations and return to the source. Religious, secular, Right and Left are no longer relevant. Truly not. In our headquarters you can see everything. Ultra-Orthodox dressed in black from head to toe and young Tel Aviv women with tattoos.