“If we don’t develop a strategy and plan for the day after, we will find our children and grandchildren playing the same games we are playing today,” Moshe Feiglin, founder of the Manhigut Yehudit (‘Jewish Leadership’) faction in the Likud party told a room full of English-speaking immigrants at the Orthodox Union headquarters in Jerusalem.
Feiglin’s strategy of signing up scores of new members to the Likud party in order to democratically affect the decisions of Israel’s ruling party is growing in popularity, particularly amongst immigrants from western countries.
Though Likud stalwarts from Limor Livnat to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon himself have warned against “foreign” elements influencing the Likud from within, Feiglin makes no secret of the aims of his steadily growing movement within the Likud. “A leadership with faith must arise the day after Sharon, or whoever comes after him, leaves power,” said Feiglin. “It is going to happen. Our mission is to make it happen sooner rather than later.”
Manhigut Yehudit produced a short movie that it distributed to members of the Likud Central Committee. The film, which shows a mock-broadcast of a future Israeli election night, is meant to convey the fact that “a genuine Jewish leadership for the State of Israel is within reach,” says Feiglin. “We are not prophets and we don’t know the way it will happen or the events that will lead to it, but our message is that God does not perform open miracles for us in our time, but acts within history and nature on the condition that we utilize the tools given to us.”
Feiglin says the key to Manhigut Yehudit’s successful strategy is that it is built on a faith in the Creator as well as a deep faith in the Jewish soul. “We learned through the Likud referendum that the average Likud member shares our dream, “ said Feiglin. “We were the only anti-disengagement group that supported the holding of a referendum. While Minister Uzi Landau (Likud) was filing suits with the High Court trying to prevent the referendum because of all the polls claiming we had no chance, we relished the opportunity to introduce the rank-and-file Likud members to the dichotomy the Prime Minister referred to as, ‘it’s either me or Feiglin.’ Though people are lamenting the fact that Prime Minister Sharon ignored the results of the referendum – the actual members of the ruling Likud party each received a knock on their door and opened their homes and hearts to their brothers and sisters from Gush Katif. We will continue to have great faith in the Jewish heart.”
Feiglin’s strategy of signing up scores of new members to the Likud party in order to democratically affect the decisions of Israel’s ruling party is growing in popularity, particularly amongst immigrants from western countries.
Though Likud stalwarts from Limor Livnat to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon himself have warned against “foreign” elements influencing the Likud from within, Feiglin makes no secret of the aims of his steadily growing movement within the Likud. “A leadership with faith must arise the day after Sharon, or whoever comes after him, leaves power,” said Feiglin. “It is going to happen. Our mission is to make it happen sooner rather than later.”
Manhigut Yehudit produced a short movie that it distributed to members of the Likud Central Committee. The film, which shows a mock-broadcast of a future Israeli election night, is meant to convey the fact that “a genuine Jewish leadership for the State of Israel is within reach,” says Feiglin. “We are not prophets and we don’t know the way it will happen or the events that will lead to it, but our message is that God does not perform open miracles for us in our time, but acts within history and nature on the condition that we utilize the tools given to us.”
Feiglin says the key to Manhigut Yehudit’s successful strategy is that it is built on a faith in the Creator as well as a deep faith in the Jewish soul. “We learned through the Likud referendum that the average Likud member shares our dream, “ said Feiglin. “We were the only anti-disengagement group that supported the holding of a referendum. While Minister Uzi Landau (Likud) was filing suits with the High Court trying to prevent the referendum because of all the polls claiming we had no chance, we relished the opportunity to introduce the rank-and-file Likud members to the dichotomy the Prime Minister referred to as, ‘it’s either me or Feiglin.’ Though people are lamenting the fact that Prime Minister Sharon ignored the results of the referendum – the actual members of the ruling Likud party each received a knock on their door and opened their homes and hearts to their brothers and sisters from Gush Katif. We will continue to have great faith in the Jewish heart.”