"I am busy with a lot of projects – the last thing I need is politics," Marzel told Israel National Radio's Stutz & Fleisher Show, "but when I look around and see what is happening with all the other parties, I see that I have to move, because there is no other alternative. There is no party with a direction and a way."
Chayil stands for Chazit Yehudit Leumit, meaning Jewish National Front. Youngsters bearing the movement's logo could be seen participating in civil disobedience during the expulsion of Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria; bumper stickers with messages such as "In War We Shall Win" [as opposed to the more common "With Love We Shall Win"] can be seen bearing the movement's logo.
Marzel has no qualms pointing the finger at the national-religious parties, "who all sat in the Sharon government," he said. "I warned more than once in public and many times in private that Sharon would destroy everything – but nobody listened, and they continued to sit in his government until he threw them out. A half-year before he announced [his intention to destroy] Gush Katif, he said he would make a Palestinian state and he passed the Road Map – but everyone stayed in that government. It was obvious where he was going."
"So why should I vote for you? What is your platform?" asked host Eli Stutz.
"Listen, it is time for truth. Sunday is the anniversary of the murder of my rebbe (teacher), Rabbi Meir Kahane, of righteous and blessed memory, may his blood be avenged. He stood up and spoke about the demographic problem of the Arabs in Israel for twenty years, saying, 'This is our problem that we have to face - if we don't deal with this force that wants to destroy the Jewish people, then we not only won't be able to live in Judea and Samaria, but we won't have a Jewish State at all.' And the right-wing parties laughed at him and didn't want to deal with it. And we see that because of that problem Jews are no longer living in Gush Katif and because of that problem, Jews will no longer live in Judea and Samaria."
"So how do we deal with it?" Stutz asked.
"The first thing is, before you take medicine, you have to know what your disease is," Marzel answered. "You have to know that the national secular parties – the Likud and others – are parties we cannot depend on. We have to know that with our belief we have to fight for the integrity of the Torah and the Land of Israel all along the way. We cannot decide that we can give up one inch of the Land of Israel and we also cannot decide to sit with the Shinui Party. We must remember that the National Religious Party and the National Union – two of the religious parties – sat with the religious-hatred party Shinui and destroyed all the religious institutions in Israel. This government worked on the Sabbath more than any other government, and closed down all the religious institutions in the countries. We have to know that if we want unity, we must also unite with the ultra-orthodox groups in Israel. We cannot think that we are closer with people who have hatred for religion than with people who simply dress differently than us."
"How are you going to make sure that what happened last election [when approximately 40,000 votes for Marzel's Herut Party list went to waste because the threshold for Knesset representation was not passed -ed.] doesn't happen again?" asked Fleisher.
"Nobody wants to lose votes or throw out votes," Marzel answered. "We lost close to 40,000 votes, but in reality, National Union lost more than 100,000 votes, because Lieberman [head of the Yisrael Beiteinu faction within the National Union that later broke away], in the name of the voters who voted for National Union, is today working in favor of a Palestinian state and giving Arabs land within the Green Line as well [in the framework of a land-exchange], and MK Nudelman (Yisrael Beiteinu) worked with Sharon the whole time. Meanwhile, the rest of the National Union stayed with the Sharon government [until they were thrown out]. So if I would go with National Union, maybe I would be guaranteed not to lose the votes, but maybe I should then go with a leftist party to avoid losing the votes as well."
Asked about the efforts of the Manhigut Yehudit faction within the Likud Party to affect change through joining the ruling party, Marzel said he admired the effort but is not optimistic. "Manhigut Yehudit is a group of very, very good people and I think that we have to try to have influence inside everywhere. Inside Likud as well as inside the National Union. But I think that even though they have very good intentions, strategically they will not succeed, because before they take over the Likud they will throw him out. I think that Moshe Feiglin, my very good friend and a very good Jew, will get less than 10% in the Likud Primaries and if Sharon or Netanyahu wins, they will blame him for splitting the vote."
Marzel is now calling upon MKs Dr. Aryeh Eldad and Uri Ariel, both of the National Union, to leave the party and join Chayil. "I am calling upon Aryeh Eldad and Uri Ariel to join and to fly the flag of Torah and the Land of Israel with no concessions or compromises."
At a news conference last week, the merger of the Chayil Party and Professor Paul Eidelberg's Yamin Yisrael Party was announced. Marzel says that he is not so committed to pure ideology that he is against teaming up with those of differing opinions, but says the National Union's willingness to sit in Sharon's government and take in MK Zevulun Orlev of the NRP to its ranks crosses a line in the sand. "We don't all stand for exactly the same thing, but there are red lines. When someone tells us that he is ready to give away even a little of the land – this is something I cannot join, because this is against Torah, a disgrace of the name of G-d and something I would rather sit home and not participate in."