Moshe Feiglin, head of the Likud's Jewish Leadership faction and in the 20th spot on the party's list of Knesset candidates, responded Tuesday night to charges that he is more hawkish than others in the party. “Of course I am to the right of [party head Binyamin] Netanyahu. So what? What's the problem?” Feiglin asked.
"The Likud needs to stop being ashamed of the fact that it's a nationalist party,” Feiglin said. The party “is constantly being swept to the left,” he added, pointing out that the Likud originally supported the establishment of a Jewish state on both sides of the Jordan River.
Feiglin rebuffed claims that Likud will lose voter support because he and other strongly nationalist candidates are relatively high on the party list. Such fears are “mud slung by Kadima and Labor... If the Likud does not spread the mud around, it won't stick.”
Feiglin advised Netanyahu to stick to the Likud's nationalist ideology. “Netanyahu was elected and is going to get a lot of mandates in order to create an alternative to the path set out by the Left. If you deny your ideological approach, you're in trouble.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Likud candidate Ofir Akunis filed an appeal to move regional representatives to higher slots on the party list. The move would bump Feiglin and some of his chosen candidates further down the list, and it was widely seen as an attempt to keep Feiglin out of the Knesset.