Upon seeing the news from Israel earlier this week, I was met with the headline that Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz became the latest Likudnik to jump ship and join Kadima. The fact that he made this move didn't surprise me in the least, nor did it disappoint me in the slightest. I had been concerned all along that he was merely serving the role of an Ariel Sharon mole, whose sole purpose was to help Sharon win re-election.
There was one point in Mofaz's act that did make me take note, and that was his attempt to sneak in a cheap shot against Moshe Feiglin before making his dramatic departure. Mofaz is not the first of the Likud renegades to take a poke at Feiglin. In fact, Feiglin has become the favorite target of many former Likudniks who seem to have this irrational fear of Feiglinism taking over the Likud. That is a very interesting phenomenon given the poll numbers, which give Moshe Feiglin less than 15% of the vote. So, there obviously must be much more to it than just poll numbers.
I would be the first one to admit that I am not a great fan of the Likud party. In my humble opinion, the Likud is responsible for the vast majority of the heinous acts that have been perpetrated by Israeli governments over the years. I would like to touch on just one of them; one which resulted in a totally unnecessary human tragedy. Immediately after the first Gulf War, Secretary of State James Baker, known for his "great love of Israel," came to Israel and asked for several things, including the deportation of Robert Manning to the US to stand trial for allegedly killing Patricia Wilkerson while allegedly trying to kill the Arab-American activist Alex Odeh with a letter bomb. At that time, the Likud was the ruling party; the justice minister was a high ranking member of the Likud. Despite the flimsiest of evidence against Mr. Manning, which consisted basically of a palm print, Robert Manning and his wife Rochelle were imprisoned immediately, with an announcement following that they would be imprisoned until the end of the proceedings against them. Despite the fact that there were five sworn affidavits from prominent fingerprint experts in the US, including a member of the Kennedy Commission, which stated unequivocally that the palm print did not belong to Robert Manning, as well as a massive grassroots campaign on behalf of the Mannings, the Likud justice minister failed to budge.
The Likud government fell during the course of the legal proceedings to be replaced by a Labor government. Mr. Manning was extradited to the US, where he has been imprisoned ever since. Mrs. Manning was also to be extradited, but she dropped dead of a heart attack while waiting in prison, leaving two young, orphaned girls to fend for themselves. Had the Likud government been true to its ideals, it could have ended this travesty of justice when it first came up, instead of pampering Mr. Baker. As a result, a righteous woman died, a righteous man has been languishing in prison and two wonderful girls have been left without parents.
Whenever land has been ceded to the Palestinians, it has been the Likud party running the government, culminating in its greatest crime against our people, perpetrated only a few months ago. The current government, which is arguably the most corrupt, the most ruthless and the most dictatorial in the history of the state, is a Likud government. Under this government, terrorism has been rampant, with more Jews dying from terrorist attacks than under any other government in the history of the state. Most of this terrorism can be traced to repeated concessions by the Israeli government to the Palestinians, including releasing thousands of deadly murderers from prison, removing checkpoints, removing closures from around hotbeds of Arab terrorism, and making Gush Katif and four northern Samaria communities Judenrein.
Democracy has all but disappeared under this government. While Arab murderers are allowed to roam free, good Jewish boys and girls are harassed, placed under house arrest or administrative detention, or imprisoned without any sort of due process of law, for the heinous crime of daring to disagree with the government. Despite many opportunities to bring Jonathan Pollard and the MIAs home once and for all, this government has not taken even the most basic of steps to help bring this about; it has not shown even a speck of hakarat hatov for these men who did so much for Israel.
Poverty has become rampant under this government, with thousands of Israeli citizens unable to even provide for their families, not to mention the thousands of refugees currently living in tent cities as a result of inadequate planning by a totally uncompassionate government. Despite leaving no stone unturned in expelling the residents of Gush Katif and four northern Samaria communities, the government has done virtually nothing to help them.
Finally, our holy Torah has been trampled upon by this government more so than under any previous government in the history of the state. It has become a matter of routine for high-ranking government officials to get up in public and spew the same venom at religious Jews that anti-Semites have used over the ages. Funding of Torah institutions has been slashed to all-time lows, and large families have been penalized for the sin of fulfilling the first mitzvah of our holy Torah, the mitzvah of being fruitful and multiplying.
Now, however, there seems to be some hope that the Likud party will return to its ideological foundations, and for that, we can thank Ariel Sharon. Each day brings with it the defection of more and more Likudniks to Kadima, and I am happy to say that those who have left thus far are welcome departures. The first to depart have been those who totally ignored the will of the Israeli people who voted them in with the landslide of the most recent election.
It is interesting to note that none of the so-called "Likud rebels" have jumped ship. Uzi Landau and Sha'ul Mofaz found themselves in pretty much the same situation, with an extremely long-shot chance of winning the party leadership. Landau remained with the party, while Mofaz left, much as to be expected and much for the good of the Likud and ultimately, for the State of Israel.
Moshe Feiglin has also remained. He is a man of belief, a man of ideals, and a man who puts the welfare of our people above everything else. In Moshe Feiglin, we finally have the opportunity to elect a leader who will really be a leader, not a puppy dog kneeling to the US president. Moshe Feiglin did something very recently that is sadly virtually unheard of in Israeli politics. He polled the Likud electorate to find out what are the most important issues in their minds. The results of this polling revealed beyond a shadow of a doubt that the most important issues to the Likud voters are precisely those issues that Feiglin has been championing all along.
I make my living as a scientist conducting surveys and analyzing their data. In my profession, the most important thing is that the survey be done in a completely unbiased fashion, as otherwise, the data are useless. The survey conducted by Moshe Feiglin - unlike many of the recent surveys that have been done and publicized as absolute truth by the establishment - was conducted in a completely unbiased manner and are, therefore, 100% valid. Feiglin has taken the bold move of going to the electorate to find out what is important to them. He wasn't afraid to hear the truth. It is exceedingly rare to find a politician for whom that can be said.
Moshe Feiglin is a Jew who is devoted to HaShem and His Torah and His people. He finds it completely intolerable that the average Israeli knows absolutely nothing about Jewish heritage. As prime minister, he will mandate that every school child in Israel receive one hour a day of some sort of Jewish education. He will not do this in order to coerce people to suddenly become religious, but rather to try and instill in every Israeli schoolchild a pride in being Jewish through a very basic knowledge of Judaism. After all, isn't Israel supposed to be a Jewish state? Even the founding fathers, most of whom were in no way religious, still wanted this to be a Jewish state where people would be proud to be Jews.
Furthermore, Moshe Feiglin will treat the security of the Israeli people with the care that it deserves. He will not allow the lives of our people to play second fiddle to the whims of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the European Union. He will do everything humanly possible to safeguard the lives and well-being of every man, woman and child living in the State of Israel. It will be the security of our people that will determine policy, not the comforts of the Palestinians and the pressures of the outside world.
Our people have suffered greatly over the past twelve years in Israel. Ever since the onset of the Oslo Accords, Jewish blood has become very cheap in Israel. Not only that, but Jewish pride has also reached an all-time low, with Israelis leaving for the West in record-setting numbers. Finally, we have an opportunity to elect a man who will turn the tide on this negativity. Moshe Feiglin can put the State of Israel back on the right track and rectify many of the problems that are plaguing our people. Let's not waste this opportunity. Let's make Moshe Feiglin the next leader of the Likud and the next prime minister of the State of Israel.
There was one point in Mofaz's act that did make me take note, and that was his attempt to sneak in a cheap shot against Moshe Feiglin before making his dramatic departure. Mofaz is not the first of the Likud renegades to take a poke at Feiglin. In fact, Feiglin has become the favorite target of many former Likudniks who seem to have this irrational fear of Feiglinism taking over the Likud. That is a very interesting phenomenon given the poll numbers, which give Moshe Feiglin less than 15% of the vote. So, there obviously must be much more to it than just poll numbers.
I would be the first one to admit that I am not a great fan of the Likud party. In my humble opinion, the Likud is responsible for the vast majority of the heinous acts that have been perpetrated by Israeli governments over the years. I would like to touch on just one of them; one which resulted in a totally unnecessary human tragedy. Immediately after the first Gulf War, Secretary of State James Baker, known for his "great love of Israel," came to Israel and asked for several things, including the deportation of Robert Manning to the US to stand trial for allegedly killing Patricia Wilkerson while allegedly trying to kill the Arab-American activist Alex Odeh with a letter bomb. At that time, the Likud was the ruling party; the justice minister was a high ranking member of the Likud. Despite the flimsiest of evidence against Mr. Manning, which consisted basically of a palm print, Robert Manning and his wife Rochelle were imprisoned immediately, with an announcement following that they would be imprisoned until the end of the proceedings against them. Despite the fact that there were five sworn affidavits from prominent fingerprint experts in the US, including a member of the Kennedy Commission, which stated unequivocally that the palm print did not belong to Robert Manning, as well as a massive grassroots campaign on behalf of the Mannings, the Likud justice minister failed to budge.
The Likud government fell during the course of the legal proceedings to be replaced by a Labor government. Mr. Manning was extradited to the US, where he has been imprisoned ever since. Mrs. Manning was also to be extradited, but she dropped dead of a heart attack while waiting in prison, leaving two young, orphaned girls to fend for themselves. Had the Likud government been true to its ideals, it could have ended this travesty of justice when it first came up, instead of pampering Mr. Baker. As a result, a righteous woman died, a righteous man has been languishing in prison and two wonderful girls have been left without parents.
Whenever land has been ceded to the Palestinians, it has been the Likud party running the government, culminating in its greatest crime against our people, perpetrated only a few months ago. The current government, which is arguably the most corrupt, the most ruthless and the most dictatorial in the history of the state, is a Likud government. Under this government, terrorism has been rampant, with more Jews dying from terrorist attacks than under any other government in the history of the state. Most of this terrorism can be traced to repeated concessions by the Israeli government to the Palestinians, including releasing thousands of deadly murderers from prison, removing checkpoints, removing closures from around hotbeds of Arab terrorism, and making Gush Katif and four northern Samaria communities Judenrein.
Democracy has all but disappeared under this government. While Arab murderers are allowed to roam free, good Jewish boys and girls are harassed, placed under house arrest or administrative detention, or imprisoned without any sort of due process of law, for the heinous crime of daring to disagree with the government. Despite many opportunities to bring Jonathan Pollard and the MIAs home once and for all, this government has not taken even the most basic of steps to help bring this about; it has not shown even a speck of hakarat hatov for these men who did so much for Israel.
Poverty has become rampant under this government, with thousands of Israeli citizens unable to even provide for their families, not to mention the thousands of refugees currently living in tent cities as a result of inadequate planning by a totally uncompassionate government. Despite leaving no stone unturned in expelling the residents of Gush Katif and four northern Samaria communities, the government has done virtually nothing to help them.
Finally, our holy Torah has been trampled upon by this government more so than under any previous government in the history of the state. It has become a matter of routine for high-ranking government officials to get up in public and spew the same venom at religious Jews that anti-Semites have used over the ages. Funding of Torah institutions has been slashed to all-time lows, and large families have been penalized for the sin of fulfilling the first mitzvah of our holy Torah, the mitzvah of being fruitful and multiplying.
Now, however, there seems to be some hope that the Likud party will return to its ideological foundations, and for that, we can thank Ariel Sharon. Each day brings with it the defection of more and more Likudniks to Kadima, and I am happy to say that those who have left thus far are welcome departures. The first to depart have been those who totally ignored the will of the Israeli people who voted them in with the landslide of the most recent election.
It is interesting to note that none of the so-called "Likud rebels" have jumped ship. Uzi Landau and Sha'ul Mofaz found themselves in pretty much the same situation, with an extremely long-shot chance of winning the party leadership. Landau remained with the party, while Mofaz left, much as to be expected and much for the good of the Likud and ultimately, for the State of Israel.
Moshe Feiglin has also remained. He is a man of belief, a man of ideals, and a man who puts the welfare of our people above everything else. In Moshe Feiglin, we finally have the opportunity to elect a leader who will really be a leader, not a puppy dog kneeling to the US president. Moshe Feiglin did something very recently that is sadly virtually unheard of in Israeli politics. He polled the Likud electorate to find out what are the most important issues in their minds. The results of this polling revealed beyond a shadow of a doubt that the most important issues to the Likud voters are precisely those issues that Feiglin has been championing all along.
I make my living as a scientist conducting surveys and analyzing their data. In my profession, the most important thing is that the survey be done in a completely unbiased fashion, as otherwise, the data are useless. The survey conducted by Moshe Feiglin - unlike many of the recent surveys that have been done and publicized as absolute truth by the establishment - was conducted in a completely unbiased manner and are, therefore, 100% valid. Feiglin has taken the bold move of going to the electorate to find out what is important to them. He wasn't afraid to hear the truth. It is exceedingly rare to find a politician for whom that can be said.
Moshe Feiglin is a Jew who is devoted to HaShem and His Torah and His people. He finds it completely intolerable that the average Israeli knows absolutely nothing about Jewish heritage. As prime minister, he will mandate that every school child in Israel receive one hour a day of some sort of Jewish education. He will not do this in order to coerce people to suddenly become religious, but rather to try and instill in every Israeli schoolchild a pride in being Jewish through a very basic knowledge of Judaism. After all, isn't Israel supposed to be a Jewish state? Even the founding fathers, most of whom were in no way religious, still wanted this to be a Jewish state where people would be proud to be Jews.
Furthermore, Moshe Feiglin will treat the security of the Israeli people with the care that it deserves. He will not allow the lives of our people to play second fiddle to the whims of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the European Union. He will do everything humanly possible to safeguard the lives and well-being of every man, woman and child living in the State of Israel. It will be the security of our people that will determine policy, not the comforts of the Palestinians and the pressures of the outside world.
Our people have suffered greatly over the past twelve years in Israel. Ever since the onset of the Oslo Accords, Jewish blood has become very cheap in Israel. Not only that, but Jewish pride has also reached an all-time low, with Israelis leaving for the West in record-setting numbers. Finally, we have an opportunity to elect a man who will turn the tide on this negativity. Moshe Feiglin can put the State of Israel back on the right track and rectify many of the problems that are plaguing our people. Let's not waste this opportunity. Let's make Moshe Feiglin the next leader of the Likud and the next prime minister of the State of Israel.