For the last month, Professor Paul Eidelberg has written -- and spoken -- virtually non stop about Moshe Feiglin. He has stated, over and over and over again, how staying in the Likud is a waste of time and counter productive. In his recent Arutz-7 radio interview, entitled "Why Recruiting People Into The Likud Means More Oslo", Professor Eidelberg even went so far as to say; "to register for the Likud, to give one's name to such a party is more than dishonorable -- it makes a mockery of the 10,000 Jews left homeless by that party."
Professor Eidelberg states that none of his attacks on Moshe Feiglin are personal and actually testifies to Feiglin's "impeccable character." Furthermore, he extends "both hands in friendship to him and his followers." Professor Eidelberg demands he be listened to since he calls himself an expert in Israeli politics, "having lectured in universities for three decades" and "having written hundreds of articles and books on the subject of Israeli politics."
Let's now take a look at the facts.
Professor Paul Eidelberg is the President of the Yemin Yisrael political party in Israel. This party was founded in 1996 by Miriam Lapid, after the tragic murder of her husband and son, and by former Moledet Knesset member Sha'ul Gutman. Yemin Yisrael ran for the Knesset in the elections held on May 29, 1996. 44,604 votes were needed as a minimum to get elected to the Knesset and the Yemin Yisrael leaders ran around Israel promising victory. Many thousands of people voted for this party, yet Yemin Yisrael did not pass the minimum, and thousands of right-wing votes wound up in the garbage.
On May 17, 1999, elections were held once again for the Knesset and a united right-wing bloc was formed: Herut, Moledet and Tekuma. The Yemin Yisrael party did not join together in this bloc and, once again, ran on its own. This time 49,672 votes were needed as a minimum and, although they couldn't get 44,000 votes in '96, they assured the people of Israel that they would pass the minimum. Once again, many thousands of people believed them, voted Yemin Yisrael and, once again, the precious votes were wasted.
On January 28, 2003, elections were held yet again for the Knesset. Shortly before, Professors for a Strong Israel issued the following press release:
Statement to the Press -- December 11, 2002
Re: Stop this factionalism, stop wasting votes!
Professors for a Strong Israel calls on the small parties in the National Camp to give up their efforts at running separately. These are parties that have no hope of amassing the minimum number of votes needed for the Knesset representation, but that can still waste thousands of precious votes that the larger parties of the Right should be getting. The small parties must join the larger parties that also oppose a Palestinian state west of the Jordan and that are sure to pass the minimum.
This call is addressed in particular to Michael Kleiner's Herut, to Paul Eidelberg's Yemin Yisrael, to Yosef Ba-Gad's Moreshet Avot and to Moshe Green's Tzomet. We recall that in 1992 the splintered National Camp garnered more votes than did the Left, but the Left won nonetheless and brought the country the Oslo disaster.
Professors for a Strong Israel urges voters of the National Camp not to waste their votes on fly-by-night party lists that have no hope of sitting in the Knesset.
What did Professor Eidelberg do? He united his party together with Herut and ran together with them. On the eve of the elections, I spoke to an excited supporter who was told by party leaders that this new union; Herut and Yemin Yisrael, would get 4-6 seats. The minimum required was 47,226 and they were predicting votes in excess of 100,000.
Once again, reality proved otherwise to these "political experts". Over 40,000 votes were in fact secured, but the Herut-Yemin Yisrael party fell 5,000 votes short. The fears of the Professors for a Strong Israel came to fruition as over 40,000 right-wing votes became totally useless.
After three miserable political failures -- and 70,000 wasted votes -- Professor Eidelberg is once again telling us he knows best. In a recent article, dated October 16, 2005, entitled "Pitfalls of the Jewish Leadership Movement", Professor Eidelberg states that he now favors creating a large party. (What happened to all the years he was in support of small parties?) His mathematical equation for success is the following: Take Likud voters who "feel betrayed" and add that to the "obvious failure of National Union and the National Religious Party" and you can get (ready for this one?) "750,000 votes -- enough for 30 seats." (Note: I am not making this up. This is a quote from his article.) In other words, Professor Paul Eidelberg, who never passed the minimum number of votes needed, has never even won one Knesset seat and is virtually unknown amongst the Hebrew-speaking population in Israel, is now predicting thirty seats in the next election. This is a political expert?
Dearest readers, nobody ever said taking control of the Likud would be easy. Moshe Feiglin never promised instant gratification. Not one Manhigut Yehudit leader ever claimed to be an expert in anything. All we ask is that you consider the following:
In less than six months, primaries will be held within Likud to determine who will be the leader of the party and, in essence, the prime minister of the State of Israel. As of this writing, four men are running in that race - Ariel Sharon, Binyamin Netanyahu, Uzi Landau and Moshe Feiglin. Which of those four men would you like to see as prime minister? Most people I ask that question answer, "Moshe Feiglin." There's only one problem. If you are not a member of Likud, then you cannot vote for him. Imagine that: finally, you have an opportunity to throw Sharon out and make sure he is not replaced by one of his political clones and you can't do it, because Professor Eidelberg convinced you not to join Likud.
But there's more. Within two months after primaries for party leadership, the Likud will hold its internal elections to determine the order of its Knesset list. 3,000 people -- all members of the Likud "Central Committee" -- will vote for that Knesset list. Each one of those 3,000 people was elected by members of the Likud party in regional elections. This means that if you are a member of Likud, then you have a voice in determining who sits in the Knesset for that party. Will it continue to be Meir Sheetreit, Ehud Olmert and Tzippi Livni, or will it be Michael Fuah, Motti Carpel and Nitza Kahane?
If you feel that joining Likud is like eating treif, then you had better get your signs ready, because you will be protesting the government for the next 50 years. You will march with the Judea, Samaria and Gaza Council to places like Kfar Maimon, you will sleep on hilltops, you will get arrested, you will say Tehilim with 250,000 other people at the Kotel, and you will go on 13 hunger strikes, but when you are given an opportunity to finally change the direction of Israel's ruling party, you will be home sleeping, following the advice of political experts who told you to vote for small parties, then big ones, then medium ones, then back to small ones.
Professor Eidelberg, let's stop the attacks on the National Union, NRP and Manhigut Yehudit. It's counter-productive. Let's work together towards what we all want - an authentic Jewish State in the Land of Israel. Let's figure out how different personalities who share a common dream can work together - Effie Eitam, Benny Elon, Nadia Matar, David Ha'Ivri, Moshe Feiglin, Aryeh Eldad, Mike Guzofsky, Michael Kleiner, Yaakov "Ketzele" Katz, Baruch Marzel, Daniella Weiss, etc. These people all want the same thing, but have different ways of getting there. Let's pool our resources and work together, some from the inside and some from the outside. Let's become a team where not every body is the quarterback, but every one is aiming for the goal line. This will make our political power stronger, our message clearer and our followers excited. This will ensure that no votes are ever wasted. By working inside Likud, we pressure the leadership party to move in the direction we want. By simultaneously -- and in full coordination -- working outside Likud, we apply a "full court press" and grab away many Knesset seats from parties who do not share our common vision. By working on the grassroots level, we educate our youth and involve people on a regular basis.
Nothing will ever be gained by working alone and thinking of ourselves as "experts". HaShem gave His nation many talents and we must use all of them to achieve success. The path that Manhigut Yehudit has chosen is clear to everyone, but we will work with all other groups in a united front for the good of the Jewish People. In short, since we share the dream, let's become a team!