The Likud Party Court heard a petition by Likud Director-General Arik Brami today, demanding that two members - Moshe Feiglin and Natan Englesman - be thrown out of the party. Brami says that their protest actions at the party convention four weeks ago were "humiliating" of the Prime Minister.
Feiglin and Englesman lead the party's Jewish Leadership faction, whose goal it is to replace the national leadership with a more "faith-based" one. They led many of the Central Committee members in booing and whistling during Sharon's arrival and speech at the recent convention. It was Sharon's first appearance before the party faithful following his Aqaba promise to destroy outposts and grant territorial contiguity to a PLO state.
Jewish Leadership member Michael Puah told Arutz-7 today that Brami is attempting to silence and intimidate his political opponents. "Let it be clear," Puah said. "Even if he succeeds today in banishing those two, Jewish Leadership will still continue to be active. There are hundreds more people who will continue the struggle."
Puah said that among their counter-claims at today's court session will be the fact that Ariel Sharon himself is known for perpetrating of the most "humiliating" episodes of a Prime Minister in Likud history. At a Likud convention following the Madrid Conference almost 20 years ago, Sharon grabbed the microphone from then-Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir (some reports are that he turned off Shamir's microphone) in mid-speech and did not allow him to continue. Sharon was protesting Shamir's consent to participate in the Madrid Conference. Ironically, Shamir is now judged to have been Israel's most right-wing Prime Minister.
Feiglin and Englesman lead the party's Jewish Leadership faction, whose goal it is to replace the national leadership with a more "faith-based" one. They led many of the Central Committee members in booing and whistling during Sharon's arrival and speech at the recent convention. It was Sharon's first appearance before the party faithful following his Aqaba promise to destroy outposts and grant territorial contiguity to a PLO state.
Jewish Leadership member Michael Puah told Arutz-7 today that Brami is attempting to silence and intimidate his political opponents. "Let it be clear," Puah said. "Even if he succeeds today in banishing those two, Jewish Leadership will still continue to be active. There are hundreds more people who will continue the struggle."
Puah said that among their counter-claims at today's court session will be the fact that Ariel Sharon himself is known for perpetrating of the most "humiliating" episodes of a Prime Minister in Likud history. At a Likud convention following the Madrid Conference almost 20 years ago, Sharon grabbed the microphone from then-Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir (some reports are that he turned off Shamir's microphone) in mid-speech and did not allow him to continue. Sharon was protesting Shamir's consent to participate in the Madrid Conference. Ironically, Shamir is now judged to have been Israel's most right-wing Prime Minister.