MK Yaakov "Ketzaleh" Katz
MK Yaakov "Ketzaleh" KatzFlash 90

Candidates running in Sunday's Likud primary have gone out of their way to emphasize their right-wing sensibilities, but even the rightest of the right Likudniks were unable to stop their party from undertaking one of the most devastating blows to the philosophy of love of the Land of Israel – the disengagement from Gaza and Northern Samaria. While former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon – still in bed in a comatose state – broke away to form Kadima before the actual destruction of the communities in Gush Katif, he was a Likud Prime Minister, and many of the forming members of Kadima were, along with him, Likud refugees.

This is the history that National Union Chairman MK Ya'akov Katz (Ketzaleh) describes on his Facebook page, and it's something all Likud members voting in Sunday's primaries should think deeply about.

“Even if the Likud primaries produces a slate that consists of 'our kind of people,' even if they themselves live in Judea and Samaria, we must be aware that the leaders of the party were able to lead Likud MKs to do things that the founders of the party would never have imagined,” Ketzaleh writes on this page.

That goes for all members of the party, even the most right-wing. “Even the 'best' members of the Likud were unable to prevent the destruction of Gush Katif, and neither could they prevent the building freeze in Judea and Samaria,” which was led not by Ariel Sharon, but by current Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. “And worst of all, they could not prevent the demolishing of hundreds of buildings and the prevention of construction of hundreds more by the Likud government.”

Neither, he adds, could right-wing Likud MKs stop their leader from expressing his desire for to see “two states for two peoples.”

Some members of the Likud believe it is possible to change the party from within, but Ketzaleh respectfully disagrees. “The only solution is to support the two sister parties, the National Union and Bayit Yehudi under the leadership of Naftali Bennett. This list must be able to produce 14 mandates, in order to be a main pillar of the next government and a senior coalition partner that will be a moral and nationalistic anchor for the government,” he added.