Former MK Aryeh Eldad, head of the Hatikva party, has been chosen to head Professors for National and Economic Strength, an organization of nationalist academicians. In an interview with Arutz Sheva, Prof. Eldad said that while most people think the majority of intellectuals side with the left – this is not true.
"The image the right wing has, is that the people side with it, but the intellectuals do not,” he explained. “This is a misguided image that the left makes use of.” Based on personal knowledge, he said, most of the people occupying the senior positions in academia are nationalists.
The right is the silent majority in academia, he insisted.
He admitted that in the liberal arts, the left and right may be balanced – or the left may have an a majority. However, he said, in the exact sciences, there is a clear majority for the right wing. These academics are busy, however, and “they do not find enough time for shouting,” he added.
MK Eldad, whose Otzma Leyisrael faction failed to pass the threshold for entering the Knesset in the last elections, noted that there is no nationalist opposition to the present government. He therefore intends to turn the Professors for National and Economic Strength into an ex-parliamentary opposition to the government.
If there was a nationalist opposition party in the Knesset, Eldad said, it would have filed no-confidence resolutions because of the construction freeze in Judea and Samaria, and the government's reported intention to free jailed terrorists, as a gesture to the Palestinian Authority.