The Likud Referendum Before the Expulsion: By Moshe Feiglin

The results of the upcoming election for chairmanship of the Likud (to take place on 7 Shvat, 5772 / Jan. 31, '12) will be analyzed by the Likud ministers and MKs with a fine-toothed comb. The reason? These are the same voters who will vote in the Likud primaries before the general elections in Israel.

The intensity of the struggle for Israel's settlements will be determined in large part by the results of the upcoming elections. In other words, these elections are actually the new Likud referendum; just that this time the Land of Israel loyalists will have the opportunity to vote before the withdrawal program is put on the table, not after. A clear result in the upcoming elections will ensure that the entire Likud faction in the Knesset will stand firmly against attempts to destroy the settlements in the future.

This is not the reason why I am running for chairmanship of the Likud. I even ran when the Likud was in the Opposition and had negligible influence over the government. My decision to run is based on the same principles that have guided us since the very beginnings of the Manhigut Yehudit faction in the Likud. Nevertheless, the fact that we have established a faith-based alternative now directly dovetails with our tactical goal to defend the settlements in Judea and Samaria. We see the settlements as the platform for the ideology that must lead and save the entire State of Israel.

The revolution created by Manhigut Yehudit, leading the faith-based public to the national helm - is the beginning of the changing of the guard in the process of the Return to Zion. Many of the Land of Israel loyalists who have recently joined the Likud see their move as strictly tactical; a statement that is meant to increase the pressure on the people making the decisions. It is difficult for them to understand why I insist on running for chairmanship of the Likud.

This race is part of the rung-by-rung climb to the helm of the State of Israel. Each time I run, I win a significantly larger percentage of the votes. Nobody can promise that this will always be the case, but if I hadn't run in 5763 (2003) and won only 3.5% of the vote, I would not have progressed to 13% of the vote in 5766 (2006) and to 23.5% of the vote in 5757 (2007). Every race is another rung in the ladder that leads to leadership of the Likud and the entire State of Israel. With G-d's help, the upcoming race for chairmanship of the Likud will be the last rung on the ladder to leadership of the National Camp. From there, it is only a short way to leadership of the State of Israel.

But even if I will need to climb an additional rung before reaching the goal, every faith-based vote in these elections draws us nearer to leadership. This time it is completely clear that a vote for faith-based leadership strengthens the settlements in a new type of voter referendum – the voter referendum that precedes the catastrophe and with G-d's help, will head it off.

So instead of packing your sleeping bags to go to yet another anti-expulsion demonstration, come to our opening campaign rally on Tuesday, 8 Tevet, (Jan. 3). Bring your friends and family and do all that you can to elect genuine Jewish leadership for Israel.

Moshe Feiglin Looks Forward to Crucial Head-to-Head Election versus Benjamin Netanyahu on January 31st

December 28, 2011...

On January 31, 2012, the Likud Party will be holding its election for Party Chairman. The winner of this primary will be the candidate who will run for Prime Minister of Israel from the Likud at the next general election. If the challenger - Moshe Feiglin - defeats current Prime Minister Netanyahu, the government coalition will most likely fall and the general election will be held within a few months.

As all current polls show overwhelmingly that the Likud will win the next election, in essence, this vote is to determine who will be the next Prime Minister of the State of Israel.

There are only two candidates vying for this position - Moshe Feiglin and Benjamin Netanyahu, and they have wildly differing viewpoints.

Mr. Feiglin, President of Manhigut Yehudit - the largest faction of the Likud party - wishes to create a strong, proud Jewish State by ending the fraudulent Oslo Process, ending the taking of all foreign aid, and re-attaching Israelis to their Jewish roots. 

Feiglin, who won 24% of the vote at the last election, and about whom former Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg said last week is the 'most important man today in Israeli political discourse', wishes for Israel to be a Light Unto the Nations, as opposed to Mr. Netanyahu’s stated desire to find Israel's Place Among the Nations. Mr. Feiglin feels that when Israel’s decisions are made taking into account that Israel should be run according to Jewish values – as opposed to being run according to secular, socialist or globalist values – then Israel will make better decisions and will be on course toward a brighter future.

On the other hand, Mr. Netanyahu is actively trying to create a Jew-free state of ‘palestine’ inside the biblical heartland of Israel. He pursues this policy even though earlier in his career he stated that the ‘palestinians’ already had a state called Jordan and that they had no right to have another one at Israel’s expense. At that time, Mr. Netanyahu also agreed with Newt Gingrich’s recent comments about the ‘palestinians’ being a modern invention created solely to oppose the state of Israel.

The false peace of Oslo has brought nothing but death, destruction and the loss of belief in our own cause to Israel and to Jews worldwide. Israeli withdrawals and statements like the recent one from Mr. Netanyahu that he will "be creative when it comes to [dividing] Jerusalem" only serve to raise the confidence of anti-Semites and terrorists around the globe. It is time for Israel to reverse course before it fades away.

In little more than a month, on January 31, nothing less than the fate of the state of Israel may be decided.  

 

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Moshe Feiglin is the president of Manhigut Yehudit and a candidate for Chairman of the Likud party. He led the Zo Artzeinu  non-violent civil disobedience struggle against the Oslo Accords.  Moshe graduated from Or Etzion yeshiva, served as a captain in an IDF combat unit,  and is the author of the books Where There Are No Men and War of Dreams. Moshe and his family live in Karnei Shomron, Israel. 

Starting to Annex Judea & Samaria!

The Road to Annexing Judea & Samaria

 "National Union Knesset member Uri Ariel, sponsor of the bill, explained the measure is intended to be the springboard from which Israel will be able to eventually annex the two regions.
"It's an additional step," Ariel said, "an important one that is necessary to strengthen our hold on the Land of Israel and stop discrimination against those who live in Judea and Samaria."

Why I am Running for Head of Likud - Moshe Feiglin

Why I am Running for Head of Likud

By Moshe Feiglin

13 Kislev, 5772 (Dec. 9, '11)

There we sat, Manhigut Yehudit's Strategy Team, for our first strategy meeting ahead of the primaries. "According to Likud law, primaries for chairmanship of the Likud will be held in about a year," I said, "and we have to prepare now." We spent hours discussing different ideas and assigning tasks and projects. As people began heading for the door, somebody read aloud a headline that had just come through on the internet: Netanyahu Calls for Primaries on Jan. 31. "Very funny," someone laughed. But it wasn't a joke. Our entire meeting had just been rendered irrelevant. We have seven weeks until the primaries. My phone began to ring. Reporters asking my reaction to Bibi's bombshell. "I will run for the head of the Likud no matter when primaries will be held," I declared.

Why run? And why run on such short notice, when Netanyahu obviously has a clear advantage?

The greatest threat hanging over Israel's head – greater than a nuclear Iran – is the loss of our legitimacy to exist as a Jewish state. From our long and difficult history we know that the delegitimization of our right to exist ultimately leads to annihilation.

We have rightfully "earned" the existential question mark hovering over our heads, after years of evasion and blurring of Israel's Jewish identity. Faith-based Jewish leadership that will rally Israeli society around its Jewish identity is nothing less than an existential imperative.

"But you don't have a chance," people say to me. My answer to that is that no revolutionary vision has a chance at the start. But when pursued with determination, the vision always turns out to prove itself well-connected to reality. This means that as long as I do not give up, I am always winning. The Wright Brothers' first successful flight turned all the crashes that preceded it into part of the success story. The principle was right and with their perseverance, they ultimately succeeded. In the previous primaries, I received 25% of the votes. In the primaries before those, I gained more votes than all the other candidates – who were senior government ministers at the time. That would not have happened if I had not dared to run the first time – and receive only 3% of the vote.

Ultimately, the most realistic thing in the world is the fulfillment of G-d's will. The Creator has not guarded the Nation of Israel for the past 3000 years, restoring us to our Land after 2000 years of exile, just to establish another Western, democratic, liberal province on the very piece of land that the "oppressed" "Palestinians" claim as their own.

The Nation of Israel has a national destiny and a universal message to bring to the world from Zion. That is the reality. To continue to exist and flourish, the State of Israel needs Jewish leadership. It needs leadership that understands the Nation's destiny and strives to fulfill it. The question is not if we will win the primaries for leadership of the Likud. The question is when we will win and lead our Nation. We will win, because we are the only candidates on the national leadership arena that are connected to reality!

Why I am Running for Head of Likud: By Moshe Feiglin

There we sat, Manhigut Yehudit's Strategy Team, for our first strategy meeting ahead of the primaries. "According to Likud law, primaries for chairmanship of the Likud will be held in about a year," I said, "and we have to prepare now." We spent hours discussing different ideas and assigning tasks and projects. As people began heading for the door, somebody read aloud a headline that had just come through on the internet: Netanyahu Calls for Primaries on Jan. 31. "Very funny," someone laughed. But it wasn't a joke. Our entire meeting had just been rendered irrelevant. We have seven weeks until the primaries. My phone began to ring. Reporters asking my reaction to Bibi's bombshell. "I will run for the head of the Likud no matter when primaries will be held," I declared.

Why run? And why run on such short notice, when Netanyahu obviously has a clear advantage?

The greatest threat hanging over Israel's head – greater than a nuclear Iran – is the loss of our legitimacy to exist as a Jewish state. From our long and difficult history we know that the delegitimization of our right to exist ultimately leads to annihilation.

We have rightfully "earned" the existential question mark hovering over our heads, after years of evasion and blurring of Israel's Jewish identity. Faith-based Jewish leadership that will rally Israeli society around its Jewish identity is nothing less than an existential imperative.

"But you don't have a chance," people say to me. My answer to that is that no revolutionary vision has a chance at the start. But when pursued with determination, the vision always turns out to prove itself well-connected to reality. This means that as long as I do not give up, I am always winning. The Wright Brothers' first successful flight turned all the crashes that preceded it into part of the success story. The principle was right and with their perseverance, they ultimately succeeded. In the previous primaries, I received 25% of the votes. In the primaries before those, I gained more votes than all the other candidates – who were senior government ministers at the time. That would not have happened if I had not dared to run the first time – and receive only 3% of the vote.

Ultimately, the most realistic thing in the world is the fulfillment of G-d's will. The Creator has not guarded the Nation of Israel for the past 3000 years, restoring us to our Land after 2000 years of exile, just to establish another Western, democratic, liberal province on the very piece of land that the "oppressed" "Palestinians" claim as their own.

The Nation of Israel has a national destiny and a universal message to bring to the world from Zion. That is the reality. To continue to exist and flourish, the State of Israel needs Jewish leadership. It needs leadership that understands the Nation's destiny and strives to fulfill it. The question is not if we will win the primaries for leadership of the Likud. The question is when we will win and lead our Nation. We will win, because we are the only candidates on the national leadership arena that are connected to reality!

Israel is the Only Option

"And if the woman will not desire to follow you, and you will be absolved of my oath - just do not return my son to there." (From this week's Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, Genesis 24:8)

Abraham is already old and has lived out most of his days. Yitzchak is the only link in the chain that will forge ahead with his world-wide faith revolution. Under the circumstances, it would seem that for a good wife from a distinguished family - it would be worthwhile to leave Israel for a few years.

But Abraham says an emphatic "no". "Just do not return my son to there."

Abraham understands something that we have forgotten. A sizeable portion of Israel's citizens hold foreign citizenship in addition to their Israeli ID cards. Former Speaker of the Knesset and Chairman of the Jewish Agency Avrum Burg proudly waves his French citizenship for all to see, explaining why he publicly did what other Israeli leaders have done quietly: For them, the Land of Israel is an option - not a final destination. If things are not working out here as planned, thank you very much and goodbye. Look for us in Europe or the US.

But the Land of Israel is not merely a privilege. It is not optional. There is simply no other place for a Jew. The Exile is finished and we are rapidly progressing to a time when the majority of Jews will live in Israel.

Lamentably, many Jews still retain their exile mentality. The wandering Jew is alive and well in the worldview of Israel's leaders and the stratum of Israeli society that believes that it can arrange itself a more comfortable option, if need be.

If Israel's leaders would assert that for the Jews, Israel is the only option, nobody in the UN would dare question the necessity of a Jewish State in the world and the Iranian tyrant would not dare threaten our existence. He would understand that when a country with nuclear capabilities faces an existential threat and has its back to the wall, it will make use of its weapons. But "existential threat" is not in the lexicon of Israel's leadership and part of its citizenry. Worse comes to worse, they can always hop the first plane to Europe, Canada or the USA.

The world clearly senses that we have not internalized the fact that the Land of Israel is our final destination; the last, blessed stop on our 2000 year journey. But the moment when every Jew will have to make the fateful choice is rapidly approaching.

This is our Land!: By Moshe Feiglin

The destruction of Jewish homes in the Land of Israel continues, as if there is no way to prevent the State of Israel from self-destructing; no way to prevent it from sending the riot police to carry out the goals of Peace Now.

But to judge by the amount of people who showed up at last week's prayer gathering at Giv'at Asaf, another settlement slated for demolition, it looks like the faith- based public has despaired of its ability to stop the destruction. The common excuse is that people are tired of demonstrations or that they have lost faith in their effectiveness, but that is not correct. The public is willing to rally around ideals and vision. It is simply tired of a rearguard war.

The process of collapse and destruction that we have witnessed over the years is not the trademark of any particular government. Actually, every government that has been in power in Israel in the last generation, from both Right and Left, has been dragged in one way or another into the same modus operandi. The disintegration stems from the fact that Israelis today feel morally inferior to the Arabs.

The era in which the legitimacy for our presence in this Land could be drawn from an ideology that denies the existence of the Creator is finished. The elites that fashion the Israeli mindset no longer believe that this is our Land. They feel like uninvited guests here; they worship the "deep bond" between the Arab and the Land and are painfully careful not to "desecrate" it. Whether an Arab home is legal or illegal, its destruction is unthinkable. Even the Arab olive harvest has become a sanctified ritual and guarding it the supreme mission of the IDF. It makes no difference that the olive trees are in the settlement of Itamar, right under the home of the Fogel orphans. It also makes no difference that the harvesters are part of the murderers' family, whose smiles mock the Jewish residents of the town still reeling from the horrific massacre.

All of Israel's leaders of the past generation represent the mentality that prefers to buy temporary legitimacy in Tel Aviv by dividing the Land of Israel. That is why the terrorists are jailed in such comfortable conditions. After all, they are actually freedom fighters, recognized by the Israeli mindset as the just side in the struggle over the Land. That is why it is simply a matter of time until they are released.

So now what do we do?

Lately, a lot of people have been invoking the memory of 'Zo Artzeinu,' the successful protest movement from the Oslo era that eventually evolved into Manhigut Yehudit.

What was Zo Artzeinu's secret? How is it that under the direction of a small and largely unknown movement, tens of thousands of Israelis went out to protest in the streets and were willing to be arrested?

A lot of factors came together to bring the people out in the streets. There was leadership, independence of the 'establishment' and more. But the real, underlying reason that everybody remembers Zo Artzeinu is very simple: Its name means "This is our Land."

Sixteen years ago, the Israeli mindset was already sick with the moral inferiority flu. The audacity to declare that "This is our Land" was engraved on its intimidated consciousness and has remained there ever since.

The Land of Israel is ours. Not because a particular settlement was built on public land and not private land. Simply because G-d gave it to us. Whoever tries to live side-by-side with the Israeli mindset that sees this country as Arab land will always find himself on the wrong side of the law. But if our actions are guided by the conviction that this is our Land, we will always be right.

More Dangerous than a Nuclear Bomb: By Moshe Feiglin

Is Israel preparing to attack Iran? According to media reports, Netanyahu is trying to convince his ministers to go on the offensive. If that is true, Netanyahu will go down in history as the prime minister who saved the State of Israel from destruction – not necessarily nuclear.

There is no doubt that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities will bring swift retaliation on Israel, the results of which are unforeseeable. On the surface, as long as there is a chance to neutralize Iran's nuclear capabilities via other methods; diplomatic, electronic, economic and the like, it is not logical to prefer the military option. Presumably, the ministers who oppose the attack are considering the question through this very keyhole: Can we stop Iran in some other way or is the military option the only route available?

Clearly, the non-military options are like a finger in the dike. As long as the Moslem motivation continues to rise on the other side of the wall, it is just a matter of time until the dike breaks. Further, as time goes by, the mission becomes more difficult and complex. The reactor in Bushehr is already "hot." Until about two years ago, it could have been destroyed without much environmental damage. That is no longer the case.

The difference between now and two years ago is that Netanyahu's public approval rating is better now than it was then. And when it comes to a prime minister from the Right, a political window of opportunity is just as necessary as an operational window of opportunity. If the social protest movement had managed to curtail Netanyahu's popularity, there may not have been any government deliberations about attacking Iran. If we are in a political and operational window of opportunity right now, we must give the Prime Minister all the support that he needs on this existential issue.

Considering the attack strictly through the keyhole of cost and gain does not portray a true picture of the dismal reality. Nuclear weapons are not the greatest danger to the existence of the State of Israel. One third of our Nation was destroyed in Europe without them. The Germans' main weapon was the De-legitimization of our right to exist. Strategically, De-legitimization is much more dangerous than any nuclear weapon, for its practical application is only a matter of time – with or without nuclear capabilities.

When the Iranian leader declared his intent to destroy us, the world stood collectively held its breath in anticipation of Israel's retaliation. When that did not happen, the historical question mark that hangs over the right of the Jews to breathe the air on this planet reappeared.

Whether the Jews have a right to a state or whether they have a right to exist at all was not asked in important Western universities until the world realized that we are willing to live with Iran's intention to destroy us. The Iranian Amalek and the German Amalek work the same way as the Biblical Amalek. They declare an existential war against us, are willing to pay a price and negate our legitimacy in the eyes of the nations. The Holocaust did not begin with the outbreak of war but rather, in Hitler's hate-filled speeches and in the Der Sturmer propaganda.

The ministers who oppose an attack do not understand that the results of the attack are not what matters. Israel must attack Iran in order to restore the legitimacy for its very existence. Israel must restore the equation that says that whoever plans to destroy us automatically becomes a legitimate target for destruction- personally. Bushehr is not the only target, but every plane, car and building in which the heads of Iran's regime are to be found.